Millstreams (1917)

Millstreams is a mansion in Farmington, built in 1917 for the playwright Winchell Smith. Born in West Hartford and a graduate of Hartford Public High School, Smith was also an actor and director. He got his start in the theater company of his uncle, William Gillette, but became most known for his plays, many of which were written in collaboration with others, including Lightnin’ (1918), written with Frank Bacon, which ran for 1,291 performances. He also persuaded D.W. Griffith to film scenes from the film Way Down East, written and produced by Smith and starring Lilian Gish, in Farmington. Smith’s property in Farmington once included the old grist mill, which appears in the film, and the Gridley and Case Cottages, now owned by the Farmington Historical Society. Smith was fascinated by the Tunxis Indians and in his younger days had enjoyed camping near the Farmington River. His house was later built on Indian Neck, along a bend of the Farmington River, where it joins the Pequabuck River. Initial designs for the house were prepared by Edward T. Hapgood and completed by Cortland F. Luce after the architect’s death. At first, Smith called his estate “Lambs Gate,” because he had purchased and erected at his home the gates which had stood for many years at the entrance of the Lambs Club in New York City. Because another home in Farmington had recently been named “Old Gate,” Smith changed the name of his home to “Millstream Manor.” Smith, who died in 1933, is buried, near his home, in Riverside Cemetery. The house, surrounded by almost five acres of grounds and gardens, has recently been for sale.

The Williams-Pendleton House (1848)

The Greek revival house at 33 Main Street in Stonington Borough was built in 1846-1848 by Charles Phelps Williams, a prominent shipowner and businessman. The house replaced an earlier one, built shortly after 1768 by Ebenezer Cobb. Williams sold the house, in the year after it was completed, to Gurdon Pendleton, who then sold it to his brother Harris Pendleton, Jr. It was owned by printer Nathan G. Smith and his descendants from 1861 to 1924.

Ensworth Carriage House (1888)

Lester L. Ensworth owned a business that produced iron and steel hardware and carriage parts. He was a partner with George H. Clark in Clark and Company, located at the corner of Front and Ferry Streets in Hartford. Ensworth became sole owner in 1892 and the company was renamed L. L. Ensworth & Son in 1901. In 1888, Ensworth moved his family into a large house on the corner of Farmington and Girard Avenues, in Hartford’s West End. The house is no longer standing, but the carriage house survives. Built in grand Queen Anne style to match the no longer extant house, the Ensworth Carriage House has a variety of Victorian features, unified by its exterior covering of shingle siding. Today, the building is home to a ballet company.

John Raymond House (1775)

The John Raymond House is located just south-east of the Congregational Church in Montville Center. It is listed as having been owned by John Raymond in 1775 and stood on part of the land which had been granted to Samuel Rogers by Uncas in the seventeenth century. In 1713, the land became part of the Raymond Farm (the house is located on Raymond Hill Road). John Raymond is described by Henry Augustus Baker, in his History of Montville (1896), as follows:

b. 7 Jan., 1748, son of John Raymond and Elizabeth Griswold; married 26 May, 1774, his first cousin, Mercy Raymond, daughter of Joshua Raymond and Lucy Jewett. He was a farmer, and settled at Montville. His farm was located next east from tho Congrogational church, and was afterwards owned by John G. Hillhouse. He was chosen first town clerk of Montville [in 1786], and held the office sixteen years. He died at Montville 30 March, 1828. She died 30 June, 1833.

First Congregational Church, Andover (1833)

The Andover Ecclesiastical Society was officially formed in 1748, when it also settled its first pastor, Rev. Samuel Lockwood, who served until his death in 1791. Once the Society was established, construction began on a meeting house on what is now Hebron Road, which took twenty years to complete (although it began to be in use before it was finished). A new church was built in 1832-1833, which was later renovated in 1869. The First Congregational Church was much expanded with a new addition in 1958.

Taft Hotel (1911)

Built in 1911, the Taft Hotel, on College Street in New Haven, opened its doors to the public on New Year’s Day, 1912. The elegant hotel was right near the Shubert Theater and many Broadway celebrities stayed there over the years, including Rogers and Hammerstein, who wrote the tune Oklahoma in their rooms at the Taft. Former President William Howard Taft, for whom the Hotel was named, lived there for eight years while he was teaching at Yale Law School. Before the Taft Hotel was built, other hotels and taverns had stood on the site, including one in which George Washington stayed in 1775. The Taft’s immediate predecessor was the New Haven House, designed by Henry Austin, which was built in 1858 and was razed in 1910. The Hotel closed in 1973 and was boarded while it was converted into apartments. Now known as the Taft Apartments, the building still has its historic tap room on the ground floor, restored and reopened as Richter’s Cafe in 1983. The Hotel’s grand ballroom is now a restaurant called Downtown at the Taft.