The Chapman-Sullivan House (1850)

Chapman-Sullivan House

The home of Norwich’s twelfth mayor, Gurdon Chapman, was built on Broadway in 1850. When he died, he left the house to his niece and it remained in the family until 1946, when it was sold to the Sullivan family. According to The History of New London County, Connecticut (1882), compiled by Duane Hamilton Hurd:

Gurdon Chapman was born in North Stonington in 1792. He went to Norwich in early life and engaged in trade, which subsequently developed into a large grain business, which he prosecuted during the remainder of his life with great financial success. He died in 1862, aged seventy-two years. During his life he was a marked character in the public affairs of the city. Overcoming the obstacles presented by a lack of early education, so common among the country boys of his day, by dint of study and close observation, aided by strong, native, common sense and a remarkably retentive memory, he qualified himself for a leader among his fellow-men and for the high positions of trust which they conferred upon him. For many years he was a member in turn of both branches of the city government, and from 1843 to 1845 was mayor of the city. He was also frequently called to responsible positions in the affairs of the town. He was a clear thinker, a forcible and fluent public speaker, and in all his public and private relations was highly respected and esteemed for his integrity, the kindness of his heart, and the soundness of his judgment as an advisor.

Whitehall Mansion (1771)

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The earliest structure built on the original site of Whitehall Mansion, located in the section of Mystic which is in the town of Stonington, was constructed around 1680 by Lt. William Gallup. A tavern and stagecoach stop stood on the site in the 1750s. Whitehall Mansion, named after an ancestor’s home, Whight House, in Essex, England, was built in 1771-1775 by Dr. Dudley Woodbridge (who, in his youth, had made an interesting sketch of buildings in Deerfield, Massachusetts). A secret room in the attic may have housed runaway slaves. Dr, Woodbridge died in 1790 and the house was later owned by the Rodman and Wheeler families. The Mansion‘s last resident, Florence Grace Keach, donated the house to the Stonington Historical Society in 1962 in order to save it from demolition when Interstate-95 was being constructed. The house was moved approximately one hundred yards north and restored. For a time, it was open for tours, but was purchased by the Waterford Hotel Group in 1996 and is now the Whitehall Mansion Inn.

Stratford Shoal Lighthouse (1877)

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Stratford Shoal Light marks a dangerous reef located in the middle of Long Island Sound. It was first marked for navigation by a pair of spar buoys in 1820. A lightship was placed there in 1838, but it frequently drifted off its station. Stratford Shoal Lighthouse, constructed on a small, unincorporated, man-made island, was completed in 1877 to replace the lightship. Automated in 1970, it is still an active aid to navigation. Also known as Middle Light, the lighthouse is halfway between Port Jefferson, New York and Bridgeport, Connecticut. Although the State of New York ceded the territory on which the lighthouse was built, it is classified as a Connecticut lighthouse on official maps. The lighthouse can be seen distantly from the Bridgeport-Port Jefferson Ferry. (more…)

St Josaphat’s Ukrainian Catholic Church (1975)

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In 1951, a time of Soviet persecution of Ukrainian Catholics in their homeland, Ukrainian exiles settling in the New Britain area founded Saint Josephat’s Ukrainian Catholic Parish. The growth of the parish led to the purchase, in 1955, of a former Assyrian Church on Beatty Street, soon enlarged with materials from a dismantled six-family building from East Hartford, that had been purchased by the parish. In 1966, a house was purchased on Eddy Glover Boulevard to become a rectory and, in 1974, there was a ground breaking on the same Boulevard for the building of a new church. The church was designed by the James P. Cassidy architectural firm of West Hartford and parishioners of St. Josephat’s provided most of the labor for its construction. Completed in 1975, the church has three gold and blue domes, copied from those in St. Sophia Church of Holy Wisdom in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. In 1985, St. Josaphat’s Ukrainian Catholic parish and St. Mary’s Ukrainian Orthodox parish worked together in having a new section of Route 9 through New Britain named the Taras Shevchenko Expressway, in honor of the great Ukrainian poet. In 1991, the parish celebrated the independence of Ukraine from the old Soviet Union.

The Nehemiah Hubbard House (1744)

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Across from the Harriet Cooper Lane House in Middletown is the Nehemiah Hubbard House, a center-chimney Colonial saltbox, built in 1744. Nehemiah Hubbard, Jr., who was born in 1752 and was a later owner of the house, was a fourth-generation descendant of early settlers of Middletown. A prominent merchant, he served as Deputy Quartermaster for Middletown during the Revolutionary War and was the first president of the Middletown Bank. He was also the original land-owner in what would become Hubbard, Ohio. Hubbard used his Middletown house and extensive property, which was away from the center of town, for his farming operations and it remained in his family into the twentieth century. For a time, Thomas McDonough Russell, Sr. lived in the house and in 1916, it was acquired by Colonel Clarence Wadsworth. Restored in 1929, the house remained in the Wadsworth family until 1952. Still a private home, the property has a garden established in 1956.

Patricelli ’92 Theater (1868)

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Wesleyan University‘s Patricelli ’92 Theater was originally called Rich Hall and was built in 1868 as the college library. It was designed by Henry Austin and David Russell Brown. In 1928, Olin Library opened and Rich Hall was converted to become a theater, funded by a donation from the class of 1892. The theater was renovated in 2003 with a gift from Robert Patricelli (’61) in honor of Leonard J. Patricelli (’29). Wesleyan’s student-run theater, Second Stage, is based in the theater.