The former Wallingford Armory, at 121 North Main Street in Wallingford, was built as a state armory in 1920. The castellated structure, designed by Walter P. Crabtree, now serves as part of the Wallingford Police Department headquarters.
The oldest house in Chester is the Thomas Dunk House, at 16 North Main Street, now home to the Thomas Dunk House Gallery. The exact date of the house’s construction is not known, but it was built sometime between 1672, when the land was deeded to Thomas Dunk, and 1711, when his son, Jonathan Dunk, was born in the house.
This past winter, Connecticut Explored magazine featured an article about the state’s rural synagogues. One of these is Agudas Achim (United Brethren) Synagogue, at 10 Church Street in Hebron, a brick Art Deco building. The congregation had been meeting in private homes for many years, but began planning to build a synagogue in the late 1930s. A leading member of Hebron’s Jewish community, Ira Charles Turshen, offered to design and build the new synagogue. In 1924, Turshen, who was born in the province of Minsk in Russia, had bought a grain business and store in Amston, a village in Hebron. When his grain mill burned down in 1927, he rebuilt it himself using brick. The new building featured his signature trademark, a circular window. In building Agudas Achim, Turshen wanted to construct a building which would last for generations. He was willing to make up the difference for cost overruns and used recycled bricks on the synagogue’s rear and side walls. Turshen made the Star of David stained glass window on the front facade himself. The synagogue was completed in 1940 and officially dedicated in the following year.
A history of the Torrington Library is provided in Vol. 1 of William J. Pape’s History of Waterbury and the Naugatuck Valley (1918):
(more…)The Torrington Library was founded on October 22, 1864, by a group of what were then Wolcottville residents, each supplying a quantity of books. It was known as the Wolcottville Library Association. Early in 1865 the library and reading room were opened to the public. During its first fifteen years it occupied rooms in the Granite Block. In 1880 it was removed to larger quarters, in the Wetmore Building, on the corner of Church and Prospect streets, subsequently called the Library Building. In 1881 it became known as the Torrington Library Association, and in 1899 it was officially incorporated as the “Torrington Library.”
The library owes its present equipment to two Torrington benefactors, Lauren Wetmore and Elisha Turner. The former, who died in 1890, gave to the public for “the establishment of a free public library and reading room,” the income from the Wetmore Building and personal property to the value of $20,000. Elisha Turner, in 1899, gave the site and present magnificent library structure to Torrington. Mr. Turner died in 1900 and willed a total, including his previous gift, of $100,000 to the association.
The dedication took place in 1901. The building is of white marble in a simple treatment of the Neo-Greek style of architecture.
Built in 1974-1975 and replacing a former succession of historic low-rise buildings which once stretched on the west side of Main Street in Hartford, between Pearl Street and Center Congregational Church, is the skyscraper at One Financial Plaza. Popularly known as the Gold Building, for its unusually tinted windows, it was designed by Neuhaus & Taylor of Houston, TX. The Gold Building was recently the victim of some car-on-building violence.
For over two-and-a-half centuries, the Terry Homestead has stood prominently at what is now 54 Middle Street in Bristol. Built for Thomas Barns in 1748 and home over the years to various families, including the Terrys, in 1973 the house became the home of the Bristol Historical Society (now located in the old Bristol High School). Today, new developments are underway and the house’s site at the northwest corner of Middle Street and Mountain Road is being developed with construction of a new bank and drug store. As part of the plan, the old homestead is being relocated further uphill to Mountain Road. As the above picture shows, the house has already been moved uphill by truck!
Addendum: On April 13, 2012, I added the following update: The Historic Fletcher-Terry House is in danger of being demolished! I featured the house on this blog a year ago, but now its days are numbered.
WFSB story here:
http://www.wfsb.com/story/17384774/bristol-grapples-with-fate-of-historic-home
From the Bristol Free Press:
Time running out on Fletcher-Terry house
Fletcher-Terry home in Bristol still standing – for now
Addendum: This house has been demolished.
German immigrants founded the German Lutheran Church in Bristol in 1892 (or 1894). A church was built on School Street, on the south bank of the Pequabuck River, in 1896. A split in the church soon emerged: one group, which would affiliate with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, constructed Immanuel Lutheran Church in 1907 at 154 Meadow Street. The other group built Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church on Judd Street (the original church building has since been replaced) in 1906. School buildings were constructed adjacent to Immanuel Lutheran Church in 1925 and 1963.
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