Historic Buildings of Connecticut - Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

The Laurens P. Hickok House (1831)

Laurens Perseus Hickok served as minister at Litchfield’s First Congregational Church from 1829 to 1836. His early published addresses include The Sources of Military Delusion and the Practicability of their Removal (1833) and A Sermon Preached at Litchfield, Conn., at the Funeral of Col. Benjamin Tallmadge, March 12, 1835. Hickok was later a professor and wrote such works as Rational Psychology (1849), A System of Moral Science (1853), Empirical Psychology (1854), Rational Cosmology (1858), Creator and Creation (1872), Humanity Immortal (1872), and The Logic of Reason (1875). Built in 1831, his Greek Revival house is located at 134 North Street in Litchfield.

64 West Main Street, Chester (1830)

The Greek Revival house at 64 West Main Street in Chester was built around 1830. Associated with Julius Smith, a dealer in dry goods and groceries, by 1859 the house was home to L. Norton. Stuart Joslyn bought and restored the house in the 1930s, one of several old houses he and his first wife restored on West Main Street.

East Village Meeting House, Monroe (1811)

At the corner of East Village and Barn Hill Roads in Monroe is Connecticut’s oldest Methodist church. Built around 1811, the East Village Meeting House is now owned by the Monroe Historical Society. The restored Meeting House is now used for various community events.

Avery Memorial Building, Wadsworth Atheneum (1934)

The Wadsworth Atheneum art museum in Hartford consists of four connected structures. Three of them can be seen, lined up adjacent to each other, on Main Street: the original Atheneum building (1844), the Colt Memorial Building (1906) and the Morgan Memorial Building (1910). The fourth section, the Avery Memorial Building, is on Atheneum Square and Prospect Street, behind the 1844 building. Samuel P. Avery left his art collection and funds to construct a building to house it. The Avery Memorial, built in 1934, was designed by the firm of Morris & O’Connor to have a minimum of decorative ornament. The interior has the earliest International Style interior of any museum in America.

Milford City Hall (1916)

The current City Hall of Milford is the fifth in succession to occupy the same site. It was built in 1916 and was designed to resemble Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. It is located right along the Wepawaug River in downtown Milford.

Colton-Hayes Tobacco Barn (1914)

The Colton-Hayes Tobacco Barn in Granby was built in 1914 by Fred M. Colton and was given to the Salmon Brook Historical Society by his daughters in 1976. It is now a museum, located with the Society’s other buildings on Salmon Brook Street. The barn contains a diverse collection representing many aspects of Granby’s past. Adjacent to the barn is the Bushy Hill Mail Hut, which once stood where Barndoor Hills Road meets Bushy Hill Road in the Granby community of Bushy Hill.

St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, South Glastonbury (1838)

In 1806, Episcopalians in Nayaug (South Glastonbury) established an Episcopal Society and built a church in 1812-13. The church was officially consecrated as St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in 1821 and served as a church until a new church was consecrated in 1838. The old church was sold and became a school. It was moved further down Main Street in 1860 and was torn down in 1933. The 1838 church is still in use, with few modern modifications to the original structure.