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

First Congregational Church of Southington (1830)

Southington‘s First Congregational Church‘s first meetinghouse was built in 1726 and stood where Oak Hill Cemetery is today. It was constructed after the farmers of Southington had successfully petitioned to have a seperate church, independent of the Farmington parish. The first meetinghouse was used until 1757, when it was replaced by a new building, located closer to what is today the center of town. The third and current church was built in 1830. Located on Southington Green, the church has a very similar design to the Congregational churches in Cheshire and Litchfield.

Seth Stanley House (1750)

The house originally occupied by Seth Stanley is in Berlin, at 155 Robbins Road, off Kensington Road. The house was built in 1750.

The Ira H. Palmer House (1847)

Built in 1847 (some sources indicate 1861), the Ira H. Palmer House, at the corner of High and Main Streets in Stonington Borough, is transitional in style between the Greek Revival and Italianate. It was built by John F. Trumbull, who owned a factory in town, for his daughter, Harriet, who married Ira Hart Palmer.

Rev. Samuel Street House (1673)

On South Main Street in Wallingford is the home of Reverend Samuel Street, built in 1673. Samuel Street was the town’s first minister and one of its first settlers, being one of the original 39 signers of the 1668 Wallingford Agreement, or original covenant of the first Wallingford planters. Rev. Street‘s daughter, Mary, married John Hall. Their son, Lyman Hall, Street‘s great-grandson, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Rev. Street, who died at age 82 in 1717, served as minister for 45 years.

Hartford State Armory (1909)

The Hartford State Armory and Arsenal is the headquarters of the Connecticut Military Department. The Classical Revival (or Beaux-Arts) building was designed by Benjamin W. Morris, who won the architectural competition. It was was constructed in 1909 and consists of a three-story U-shaped Headhouse (offices) and a five-story drill shed.

Meriden City Hall (1907)

Meriden’s City Hall, built in 1905-1907, is one of many buildings in Connecticut influenced by the Federal-style design of the Old State House in Hartford, which was serving as Hartford’s City Hall at the time the Meriden building was being constructed. Meriden’s previous Town Hall, built in the early 1860s, had burned in a fire in 1904. The Civil War monument that stands in front of City Hall is the Soldiers Monument, erected in 1873.

Rev. James Dana House (1760)

The Rev. James Dana House was built around 1760. Rev. Dana was Pastor of Wallingford’s First Congregational Church during the period of the Revolutionary War. When Rev. Dana arrived from Cambridge, MA to become the church’s minister in 1758, he was soon at the center of what would be called the “Wallingford Controversy.” Dana was supported by those called “Old Lights,” who opposed the “New Light” evangelical preachers of the Great Awakening. As explained by Charles Henry Stanley Davis, in his History of Wallingford (1870), “Dr. Dana was understood to be of the then liberal school of Boston and that region, and of that party which had opposed the revival of religion; his settlement in so large and important a church, would be a triumph of that party, which had already become a minority in the county and in the colony; and therefore the new light men were determined by all means to prevent the ordination, and when the thing was done to undo it if possible.”

According to Gideon Hiram Hollister’s History of Connecticut, Vol. 1 (1858), Dana was settled as minister in Wallingford, “in opposition to a large proportion of the members of the society. It was contended by his opponents that he was not orthodox in sentiment; that he had evaded the enquiries of the committee as to his views on important doctrinal points, and finally replied impertinently; and, after his alleged ordination, it was claimed that the ordination was not valid.”

The Congregational consociations of New Haven and southern Hartford counties joined to declare a sentence of non-Communion against Dana and the Wallingford church. As George Punchard wrote, in his History of Congregationalism, Vol. 5 (1881), the controversy, “resulted in a division of the church, and the formation of a new one by the disaffected brethren, some of whom were among the most influential men of the town. From Wallingford the controversy spread all over the colony, and continued for years, alienating brethren and dividing churches.” Some years later, in 1772, a kind of amnesty was eventually declared for Dana and his church and some of his old opponents were reconciled with him. An example of one of Rev. Dana’s sermons is one he gave on The African Slave Trade in 1791. Dana left Wallingford in 1789 and lived in New Haven until his death in 1812.