Located behind the Amos Baldwin House (now occupied by the Johnson family) in Cheshire is an old barn which has been converted into a garage. The Gothic Revival (or Carpenter Gothic) style barn has a cupola and a gable over the hay loft with stick bracing and board and batten siding. The barn, or carriage house, was possibly built when the Baldwin-Johnson House was remodeled in 1872.
The Amos Baldwin House, at 84 Main Street (corner of Highland Avenue) in Cheshire, was originally built in 1800 and was remodeled in the Second Empire style in 1872. The house is also known as the Baldwin-Johnson House, named for its original occupant, Amos Baldwin, and for the Johnson family, which has owned the house for four generations.
Capt. Ira Shailer constructed his house on Bridge Road in Haddam around 1815, two years after acquiring the property. He had married Jerusha Arnold in 1808 and the couple would have a family of ten surviving children. Their son, Alexander Shailer, who was born in the house in 1827, served as a general in the Civil War. The Shailer family eventually moved to New York in 1835 and the house was purchased by Benoni Southworth, a ship captain who had married Ira Shailer’s cousin, Mary Ann Shailer.
The home of Dr. Sheldon C. Johnson of Seymour is located at the intersection of West and Church Streets. This intersection could be called “Doctors Corner,” because doctors lived in each home at the four corners. Dr. Johnson settled in Seymour (then called Humphreysville) in 1825. He married Hannah Stoddard, the daughter of Dr. Abiram Stoddard, and the couple at first lived in an eighteenth century house, located behind the home Dr. Johnson later built in 1842. Dr. Johnson continued practicing medicine in the area into his 80s. The couple’s son, Charles Napoleon Johnson, became a lawyer.
Thomas Danforth II, who was based in Middletown, together with his sons, including Thomas Danforth III of Rocky Hill, were very successful Connecticut metalworkers. Five generations of the Danforth family, between 1730s and 1840s, were involved in metalworking and became famous for producing objects made of pewter and Britannia metal. The Danforth family business employed many peddlers, who sold their wares widely, with a focus on the southern states. Thomas Danforth III has been credited with establishing America’s first chain-store system, with branches in Philadelphia, Atlanta and Savannah. Having spent a number of years traveling between Connecticut and Philadelphia, where his son, Thomas Danforth IV would serve his apprenticeship, Thomas III returned to reside in his home in Rocky Hill. His house, built in 1783, is located at the corner of Glastonbury Avenue and Old Main Street.
According to tradition, the house at 500 Main Street in Old Saybrook was built by Dr. Samuel Eliot around 1737. Records indicate, though, that the house was built by Eliot’s brother, Dr. Augustus Eliot, who was also a physician. The house was likely not completed at the time of Augustus Eliot’s death in 1747. It was sold by his estate to Capt. Samuel Lord in 1749, who then sold it to his son-in-law, Capt. Jabez Stow, Sr. It was Capt. Stow who most likely finished the house. He later served as a lieutenant in the defense of Fort Griswold and was taken prisoner by the British. He died in 1785 and his son, Jabez Stow, Jr., was lost at sea in 1788. The house was then occupied by his daughter, Mary Stow, who had married Capt. David Newell in 1784. According to The History of Middlesex County (1884), “Capt. Newell was engaged in the slave trade, and was killed during a rising of the slaves on board his vessel” at the Island of Boa Vista, in the Cape Verde Islands in 1819. Sea captains’ families continued to live in the house until 1890. It remains a private residence today. (more…)
The congregation of Three Saints Russian Orthodox Church in Ansonia was officially formed in 1895. Their first church building was constructed at Howard Avenue and Crescent Street in 1899-1900. After the interior of the church was gutted by a fire in 1954, a new church was constructed on Howard Avenue. Completed in 1955, the church was dedicated in 1956. The bells from the earlier church, a gift from Tsar Nicholas II, were installed in the new church.
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