Benjamin Stiles House (1787)

At 1030 Main Street North, across from the “King’s Land” in Southbury, is the stately Georgian-style Benjamin Stiles House, built around 1787. Stiles was the son of Benjamin Stiles, Sr. who, according to the 1892 History of New Haven County, Vol. II,

was probably the first attorney in the town, where he was born in 1720. He graduated from Yale in 1740, studied law and was successful in his profession. His son, Benjamin Stiles, Jr., born in Southbury in 1756, also graduated from Yale at the age of 20 and became a lawyer. He had a large practice until his death in 1817.

The hip-roofed Benjamin Stiles House, occupied by the family until 1920, is said to have been designed by a French engineer in Rochambeau’s army, utilizing the metric system. The building is therefore often referred to as the Benjamin Stiles Metric House. In the early twentieth century, Southbury resident, photographer and antiquarian Wallace Nutting used the house in a number of his photographs.

South Congregational Church, Middletown (1867)

During the Great Awakening of the eighteenth century, Ebenezer Frothingham was a separatist minister. In 1753, he brought his congregation from Wethersfield, where he had been in and out of jail, to Middletown in pursuit of religious tolerance. After worshiping in his home on Mill Street, a meeting house was erected nearby. Known as the Strict Congregational Church and later as South Church, the congregation moved to a new building at the corner of Main and Pleasant Streets in 1830. A Discourse Preached in the South Congregational Church, Middletown, Ct., on the Sabbath Morning after the Assassination of President Lincoln was published in 1865. The current church was constructed on the same site, replacing the earlier structure, in 1867. The church was renovated in 1985 and 2008.

Augusta Curtis Cultural Center (1903)

As described in A Century of Meriden (1906), in the nineteenth century there had been “various spasmodic attempts to raise sufficient money to start a free public library” in Meriden, a goal finally achieved with the opening of a library in 1899, located in two rented rooms in a house on East Main Street. Funding for the library came from “the ladies of the Thursday Morning Club,” whose winter lecture series of 1897-1898 had “proved so successful that at the close of the season the treasury of the club was found to have quite a sum of money on hand.” The library quickly outgrew its small rooms and

On December 7, 1900, Mrs. George R. Curtis announced that she would contribute sufficient money to buy a site, erect a suitable building for a library and thoroughly equip it, providing the town would vote to annually appropriate $3,000 for running expenses. At a special town meeting held on the evening of March 12, 1901, it was unanimously voted to accept the offer made by Mrs. Curtis. Plans presented by W. H. Allen, of New Haven, were accepted, but as Mr. Allen at this time removed to California, Richard Williams, his successor, and who had drawn the plans, became the supervising architect. The Lawrence property on the east corner of East Main and Pleasant streets was bought and work on the site was soon begun.

The cornerstone of the Curtis Memorial Library was laid on September 28, 1901. The completed building, constructed of Vermont White marble by the H. Wales Lines Company, Meriden’s premier construction firm, was formally opened on April 20, 1903. The building served as the library for seventy years, until a new building was erected on Miller Street. Today, the former library is home to the Augusta Curtis Cultural Center, a non-profit organization founded in 2000, which hosts lectures, exhibits and interactive programs focused on the arts and sciences.

Isaac Buck House (1755)

Isaac Buck built the house at 14 Maple Street in Chester by 1755 on land he had acquired in 1750. He divided the house and barn with his son Justus. Justus’ son, William Buck, sold the house in 1798. Later, in the nineteenth century, the house was owned by Joshua L’Hommedieu. He settled in Chester in 1812 and, with his brother Ezra, became an early manufacturer in town. He also represented Chester in the state General Assembly. At some point the colonial-era Isaac Buck House acquired Federal and Greek Revival-style exterior ornamentation.

New Canaan Playhouse (1923)

The Playhouse in New Canaan is a 1923 movie theater at 89 Elm Street. Originally having a single screen, it was later converted to two screens and continues today as a first run movie theater, owned by the town but managed by Bow Tie Cinemas. This past year the Playhouse was renovated, with new seats and bathroom and a display case in the left front window, which had earlier been boarded up and painted white (as seen in the image above).

The Marjorie Hayden House (1908)

Architect Wilfred Griggs designed the house at 70 Pine Street in Waterbury, which was built in 1908 for Margery (or Marjorie) Hayden. Her father was the inventor Hiram Hayden. When his house next door burned down, Margery and her sister Rose donated the land to the City of Waterbury to become Hayden Homestead Park. Margery Hayden bequeathed her own home to Waterbury Child Guidance Clinic in 1974.

Another house on the same street designed by Griggs is at at 175 Pine Street. It was built around 1901 for his brother, David C. Griggs. According to the History of Waterbury and the Naugatuck Valley, Vol. III (1918):

In the acquirement of his education David C. Griggs attended Miss Pritchard’s private school, the public schools of Waterbury and the Sheffield Scientific School, from which he was graduated with the class of 1892. His early business experience came to him through eight months’ service with the Berlin Iron & Bridge Company and in February, 1893, he became identified with the Waterbury Farrel Foundry & Machine Company, in which he worked his way upward through the various positions of the engineering department. In 1899 he was made a director of the company and was chosen to his present position as secretary in 1902.

David C. Griggs and his wife, Helen Trowbridge Williams, moved into the house in 1904. They lived there until their deaths (David in 1958 and Helen in 1966). The house’s current occupant is architect John J. D’Amico.