Prospect Public Library – Meeting Place (1905)

I have just completed a building index (by address) for the buildings on this site that are in the Town of Prospect. The most recent entry for Prospect is today’s building, the former Prospect Public Library, which is constructed of fieldstone and was erected in 1905. Earlier private circulating libraries (the Cheshire Mountain Library and the Oxford Circulating Library) had existed in the community even before the incorporation of Prospect as a town in 1827. The Library Association was organized in 1886 and its books were first located at the home of its first librarian, Sarah Tallmadge, and then in the vestry of the Congregational Church. Efforts for the construction of a free public library led to the erection of the 1905 building, designed by F. E. Walters of Waterbury. The principle donors for the library were the Tuttle family of Naugatuck, descendants of Eben Clark Tuttle (1806-1873) who had begun manufacturing hoes in Prospect before moving to Naugatuck in 1851. The family also funded landscaping of the grounds around the building on Prospect Green. A new library building was erected in 1991 on the former site of the Petrauskas farm at 17 Center Street. The former library, located at 30 Center Street, was renamed the Meeting Place and is used for community purposes.

John P. Chamberlin Apartments (1889)

Yesterday I posted a workers’ tenement building erected by Nathaniel Hayden, a Civil War veteran, in Unionville in 1875. It was one of several tenements constructed in that community in Farmington during a period of industrialization in the nineteenth century. A growing industrial labor force was being drawn to Unionville’s paper mills. Another tenement, located next door to Hayden’s, was erected by John P. Chamberlin (1823-1893), a mechanic, sometime between 1878 and 1889. Chamberlin had purchased the property from Franklin Chamberlin in 1867. The relationship between the two Chamberlins is unknown; Franklin, who had links with local paper mill owners, was a lawyer in Hartford and a neighbor of Mark Twain. The property that John P. Chamberlin acquired included a house on Main Street and land to the rear, where both he and Hayden would build tenement buildings along a passway that would become Maple Avenue. In the 1870s, Chamberlin also erected the rental house at 66 Maple Avenue. Chamberlin’s 6-tenement building, 60-64 Maple Avenue, passed out of his family in 1919.

Nathaniel Hayden Apartments (1875)

In 1870, Nathaniel Hayden (1835-1916), a Civil War veteran, moved to a house (now the Ahern Funeral Home) on Main Street in Unionville in Farmington. He had served as a captain in the 16th Connecticut and was wounded at the Battle of Antietam. He would later be the primary donor for Unionville’s Civil War monument, dying just weeks after it was dedicated on July 15, 1916. Hayden’s original next-door neighbor was a tableware manufacturer named Russell Humphrey. In June of 1875, Humphrey’s widow Aurelia sold Hayden a tract of land at the rear of her property, along what is now Maple Avenue. Hayden then constructed a tenement building on the property, which would have housed workers at the nearby paper mills. Title to the building passed to Ernest M. and Ida A. Hart in 1916. The apartment building still exists at 52-56 Maple Avenue and represents a period of industrialization in Unionville.

Building Indexes

Waterford

For everyone who likes looking up buildings on this site, you can always scroll through the categories on the right sidebar and on the Categories page, or use the Search page. I am also working on completing building indices (indexes) for each town. You can find them on the Index by Town page. These are restricted to buildings featured on this site so far. For each town, the buildings are listed by address. Most towns I’ve featured on this site have building indexes already, but I am continuing to make new ones: recently I’ve added Newington, Norfolk, Waterford and Washington. Check them out and thanks for following this site!

William Phelps House (1840)

The house at 30 Main Street at the corner of Parker Lane in Essex was erected in 1840 for Judge William Phelps. It was later owned by Dr. Charles H. Hubbard (1836-1908), who practiced in Essex for nearly forty-eight years. He also held various town offices and was the executor for the estate of Capt. Isaiah Pratt (1814-1879), who had left money for a new high school. Dr. Hubbard successfully challenged a stipulation in the will that would have limited enrollment to the children of parents who were members of the First Congregational Church. He continued as a trustee and leader of the new school for many years and Hubbard Field in Essex is named for him.

Abington Social Library (1886)

In 1793, the Congregational parish of Abington in Pomfret formed a social library for their community. Rev. Walter Lyon, minister of the Abington Congregational Church, was the first librarian. The books were kept in his home and later in a house at Abington four corners. The books were mainly theological and philosophical volumes and many subscribers lamented the lack of more popular works of literature. In response, a young men’s organization, the Junior Library of Abington, was founded in 1804. It merged with the social library in 1815 to form the United Library of Abington. Women of the community founded their own organization, the Ladies Library of Abington, in 1813. It was the first women’s library in the United States. The United and Ladies libraries merged in 1879 to form the present Abington Social Library, which is the oldest continuously operating social library in the country. The library is located at 536 Hampton Road, in a building erected in 1886.