Grace & St. Peters Episcopal Church, Hamden (1821)

The oldest church building in Hamden is Grace Episcopal Church, built in 1821 and attributed to the architect builder David Hoadley. The church’s first meeting house was built in 1790, in Mount Carmel, on what is today Whitney Avenue. The current church once had a large steeple, built in 1847 and designed by Henry Austin, which blew down in 1915. The present steeple was built in 1921. The church was moved in 1966 from one side of Dixwell Avenue to the opposite side. In the 1990s, Grace Church merged with St. Peter’s on the Hill, founded in 1958. The united church is now known as Grace & St. Peters Episcopal Church.

New Britain Public Library (1901)

William F. Brooks designed the building of the New Britain Institute library, now the New Britain Public Library, built in 1900-1901 on the corner of High and West Main streets. The New Britain Institute was founded in 1853 to promote a series of lectures and establish a library and reading room. The library occupied various rented quarters, including the Russwin Hotel (now New Britain’s City Hall), until bequests from Dr. Lucius B. Woodruff and Cornelius B. Erwin allowed the current building to be built. The Library building is constructed of yellow brick and has elaborate terra-cotta reliefs. This structure once also housed the New Britain Institute’s art collection, which was moved in 1937 to a house on Lexington Street and is now the New Britain Museum of American Art.

Origen S. Seymour’s Offices (1846)

At 21 South Street in Litchfield is a brick building built in 1846 as offices for Origen S. Seymour (1804-1881), a lawyer who served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1851-1855) and as a judge of the superior court of Connecticut (1855-1863). More about the life of Origen S. Seymour can be read in the book, Memorial of Origen Storrs Seymour, of Litchfield, Connecticut, published in 1882. The Greek Revival building continues to be used as offices.

The John E. Cook House (1818)

When Nathaniel Cook purchased land at the intersection of Walkley Hill and Hayden Hill Roads in Haddam in 1818, a Federal-style house already existed on the property. In this home, Nathaniel’s son John Edwin Cook was born in 1830. An ardent abolitionist, John E. Cook participated in John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859. Cook arrived in Harpers Ferry in 1858, with the mission of scouting the area for John Brown. While there, he worked as a schoolteacher, book agent, and lock tender for the C&O Canal. He also married Mary Virginia Kennedy, a local woman. When the Raid ended with the capture of Brown and most of his followers, Cook was one of the party who escaped. He was later captured in Pennsylvania and tried in Virginia. Cook was hanged on December 16, 1859.

Louis’ Lunch (1895)

Louis’ Lunch, established in 1895 by Louis Lassen, is a landmark New Haven restaurant where tradition holds that the first hamburger was served in 1900. Initially housed in a wagon, the restaurant was later added to a tannery building, where it remained into the 1970s. Threatened with demolition when the Temple Medical Center was being planned, Louis’ building was saved and moved to its current home on Crown Street in 1975. Friends and supporters sent bricks from all over the world to aid in the building’s reconstruction. Louis’ Lunch still uses broilers that date back to 1898 and the burgers are still served on bread (not buns) and ketchup and mustard are forbidden.

The Rev. Elizur Goodrich House (1763)

The Reverend Elizur Goodrich was the second minister of Durham’s Congregational Church, from 1756 until his death in 1797. He was born in Rocky Hill in 1734 and was prepared for Yale by Rev. James Lockwood of Wethersfield. Rev. Goodrich would later prepare students for Yale himself, including Eli Whitney. Rev. Goodrich was a contemporary and supporter of Ezra Stiles, minister, theologian and educator, who was president of Yale from 1778 to 1795. Both men were among Connecticut’s intellectual leaders of the time. Elizur Goodrich the minister was the father of Elizur Goodrich the lawyer and politician. The minister’s house, on Main Street in Durham, was built in 1763. Around 1840, Goodrich’s heirs sold the house to Zebulon Hale and Enos Rogers, who ran a nearby store. Zebulon’s daughter, Olive, married Watson Davis, who replaced Rogers as his father-in-law’s partner in the store. The house remained in the Davis family well into the twentieth century.