Trinity Episcopal Church, Milton (1802)

Episcopal services were first held in the Milton section of Litchfield in 1792. At first, services were held five Sundays a year with the meetings taking place in private homes. In 1798, Episcopalians living in Milton were given permission by the First Episcopal Society to build their own chapel and Trinity Parish was established. Work on the church edifice began in 1802 and was not completed until 1826, with the church finally being consecrated (after all debts had been paid) in 1837. The church was designed by Oliver Dickinson, who modeled it on the second Trinity Church at Wall Street in New York. The church’s steeple was replaced, later in the nineteenth century, with four Gothic-style square-cornered turrets. The belfry and steeple were later both replaced after being struck by lightning in 1897. When the church was being repaired and wired for electricity in 1938, pinnacles with crosses were discovered that had once stood at the base of the initial steeple. This made it possible to determine the proportions of the old steeple and restore the church to its original appearance.

34 First Avenue, Waterbury (1875)

The house at 34 First Avenue in Waterbury is a Queen Anne-style house with an octagonal turret, built around 1875. The family of Richard Tennant, an immigrant from Scotland, occupied the house from the end of the nineteenth century until 1950. According to the Commemorative Biographical Record of New Haven County, Connecticut (1902):

Richard Tennant spent his boyhood and youth on the Scottish homestead, and availed himself of the opportunities of education presented by the local schools. After attaining his majority he went to Glasgow and served three years as an apprentice to the machinist’s trade, at the Neilson Locomotive Works. Howden & Co., marine engineers, had the young man in their employ for two years, and he was then with the London-Glasgow Engineering Co. one year. By this time Mr. Tennant had become an experienced and thoroughly efficient machinist, and his services were in demand. King & Co., a celebrated engineering house, counted him among their ablest employes. Only the desire to come to this country, where many of his compatriots had already reaped a rich reward for their courage and enterprise, induced him to break away from this firm. In 1871 Mr. Tennant came to the United States, and located in Paterson, N. J., where he was in the employ of the Rogers Locomotive Works until the close of the year 1873, and in the following spring he came to Connecticut, working for three months in Ansonia, and then for a year in Seymour, with the Swan Bit Co. Mr. Tennant then returned to Ansonia and engaged with Wallace & Sons until January, 1888, in which month he came to Waterbury to take a position with the Scovill Manufacturnig Co., where he is still at work. For a year Mr. Tennant was master mechanic for the Aluminum Brass & Bronze Co., at Bridgeport, and with that exception has been with the Scovill Co. since coming to Waterbury.

Hillbrow House (1718)

Hillbrow is a colonial house, built around 1718, at 74 Main Street in Newtown. Built, according to the original deed, at the “Head of Main Street,” the house gained its name from its position on the brow of the hill above the street. A granite marker in the front steps is engraved with the name “Hillbrow.” The land where the house stands was acquired by John Blackman in 1715. Later in the eighteenth century, it was owned by Ziba Blakeslee, a clockmaker, silversmith and bellfounder. As described in Newtown’s History and Historian: Ezra Levan Johnson (1917):

Ziba Blakeslee is said to have been a most skilled workman and manufactured all kinds of jewelry. His advertisement in the Farmers Journal, Dec. 22, 1792, shows that he carried on at the head of the Street in Newtown, the goldsmith’s business in all its branches; cast bells for Churches, made and repaired surveyor’s instruments, church clocks and clocks of all kinds.

Also, check out my most recent Massachusetts entry on the Library in Granville, designed by George Keller.

New London City National Bank (1905)

The New London Bank was founded in 1807 and in 1865 was reorganized as the New London City National Bank. It was New London’s second bank, following the establishment of the Union Bank in 1792, and its founding made New London the state’s first city to have two banks. According to A Modern History of New London County, Vol. 2 (1922):

The old stone building on Bank street, which was built for this institution in 1820 and was occupied by it for eighty-five years, was in most respects sufficient for the need of former days, but in 1905 it seemed evident that the time had come for increased facilities, and the present structure was erected, covering the old site and also the land extending to the corner of Golden street. This is a modern building, with a well protected vault and such other equipment as the business of the bank has thus far required.

In 1953 the bank became part of the Shawmut National Corporation. Today the building is a branch of Liberty Bank.

Litchfield County Courthouse (1889)

Four successive Litchfield County Courthouses have stood in the center of Litchfield. The first, built in 1752, was a plain building resembling a meeting house. The second, designed by William Sprats and built in 1797, was destroyed by fire in 1886. It was quickly replaced by a new courthouse, which also burned, just after its completion in 1888. Another new courthouse, designed by Waterbury architect Robert Wakeman Hill and constructed of Roxbury granite, was completed in 1889 in the Romanesque Revival style. As Litchfield embraced the Colonial Revival movement in the early twentieth century, a remodeling of the courthouse was undertaken in 1913-1914 to add space and also to better reflect the colonial character of the town. Georgian-style corner quoins were added to the structure and the original turreted tower was replaced with a new cupola. The building now serves as the Litchfield Judicial District Courthouse.

Putnam Building, Hartford (1860)

The Putnam Building is on Central Row in Hartford, sandwiched between two early skyscrapers, the Hartford-Connecticut Trust Company building of 1920, on the right, and the Travelers Insurance Company building of 1928, on the left. Built around 1860, the Putnam Building is typical of the many brownstone commercial buildings, influenced by the style of the Italian Renaissance, that were constructed in downtown Hartford at the time. A historic photo in the collection of the Connecticut Historical Society shows the building in 1904, with the two skyscrapers’ predecessors on either side of it: the old Hartford Trust Company building on the right and the Marble Block on the left. Another historic photograph, found in the 1895 book, Hartford and its Points of Interest, shows the building when the Hartford Coffee House Co. was one of its tenants.

The presence of the Putnam Building was acknowledged when the Hartford Trust Company skyscraper was built (to the right) in 1920, as the limestone base section of that later building matches the height of its nineteenth-century neighbor. In turn, the ground floor of the Putnam building was remodeled in granite in the 1920s, reflecting the style of the then recently built adjacent structure.