Historic Buildings of Connecticut - Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

The Loren Humiston House (1854)

The Loren Humiston House, on Main Street in Cheshire, is a Greek Revival style home, with an elaborate doorway, built in 1854 for a prosperous farmer. Today, the house is used as offices by an insurance company.

Tongue Point Lighthouse (1895)

Tongue Point Light Lighthouse, built in 1895, is on the west side of the entrance to Bridgeport Harbor, on the east end of Tongue, or Wells, Point. Originally known as Bridgeport Breakwater Light, it stood at the end of a protective breakwater, built in 1891. There was no dwelling for the lighthouse keeper until Keeper C. Adolphus McNeil built a shack on the landing dock. After his death, in 1904, his wife Flora McNeil became the lightkeeper, while also running a manicure business in downtown Bridgeport. In 1919, when the breakwater was shortened, the cast-iron lighthouse was dismantled and moved 275 feet inland. The Tongue Point Light, also known as “The Bug,” was automated in 1954. The Coast Guard was going to remove the lighthouse in 1967, but local boaters protested.

The Prince Aspinwall House (1761)

The Prince Aspinwall House is on Centre Street in Mansfield Center. It was either built or enlarged by Aspinwall when he acquired the property in 1761. Aspinwall father, Peter Aspinwall, was from Woodstock and his mother, Rebecca Storrs, was the daughter of one of Mansfield’s original proprietors. From 1794 to 1799, the house was the residence of the Rev. Elijah Gridley, third pastor of Mansfield’s First Congregational Church. In the nineteenth century, a Gothic gabled front entrance was added, but this was later removed and two large dormer windows took its place.

Obadiah Spencer House (1826)

Obadiah Spencer, an Essex merchant, built a house on Pratt Street in 1826. Later in financial trouble, he sold the house in 1831 to ship carpenter Richard Hill. Owned in the 1840s by a group of Baptists who were considering making it a church rectory, the house was later a rental property. Much expanded over the years, it has more recently been made into condominiums. Note: This post was written on 09/02/2011 and backdated so that there would be a regular post for 04/01/2009 as well as an April Fool’s Post.

Bill Memorial Library (1890)

The Bill Memorial Library in Groton, adjacent to Fort Griswold Battlefield State Park, was founded by Frederic Bill, a publisher and linen goods manufacturer, who was born in the part of Groton which is now the town of Ledyard and who retired to a farm in Groton on the Thames River. The library, dedicated to the memory of Bill’s sisters, Eliza and Harriet, began in 1888, as a room in Groton’s First District Schoolhouse. The Bill Library building, designed by the Worcester architect, Stephen C. Earle, was dedicated in 1890. Bill expanded the library in 1907, enlarging the main reading room and providing space for a natural history museum. The library was again expanded in 1994. After the death of his first wife, in 1894, Bill married Julia 0. Avery, the libary’s first librarian.

Heublein Tower (1914)

The 165-foot Heublein Tower, in Talcott Mountain State Park in Simsbury, is a very notable Connecticut landmark which provides spectacular views of Hartford and the Farmington River Valley. It was built as a residence for Gilbert Heublein, a food and drink magnate and manufacturer of A1 Steak Sauce, and was modeled on castles in his native Bavaria. In 1875, a young Heublein was hiking on the mountain with his fiancee and said, ”Someday Louise, I’m going to build you a castle on this mountain.” The Tower, constructed to withstand 100 MPH winds, was designed by Smith and Bassette and built by T. R. Fox and Son in 1914. The rest of the residence was added around 1925. The tower later opened to the public as part of the state park and many visitors hike up to visit it each year. There have been a number of restorations of the building, most recently through the efforts of the Friends of Heublein Tower.

New London Courthouse (1784)

New London County Courthouse was built in 1784 on Huntington Street at the head of State Street in New London. It was designed by the Lebanon builder, Isaac Fitch, and at first the building served as both town hall and courthouse. Originally built closer to State Street, the courthouse was moved back when Huntington Street was widened in 1839. Dudley St. Clair Donnelly designed a rear addition, built in 1909, and a modern addition by Hirsch and Persch was constructed in 1982. The New London Courthouse is one of America’s oldest courthouses still in use.