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

Center Congregational Church, Meriden (1830)

The first Congregational church to be built in Meriden was erected in 1727 in the south-eastern section of town. This was succeeded by a new building in 1755, in the center of town. This was then replaced by a new church, erected in 1830 nearby, at the corner of Broad and East Main Streets. This is the oldest surviving church building in Meriden. It was originally the home of the First Congregational Church, but the church split in 1848. With the center of population in the town moving westward, three-quarters of the congregation left to form a new First Congregational Church, while the remainder continued at the old location, which was renamed Center Congregational Church. (more…)

Old Meriden High School (1885)

The former High School in Meriden, which now serves as the Board of Education building, was built in 1885. The building is on Liberty Street, near the Town Hall, and is a good example of the Romanesque style, with a prominent Roman-style rounded arch entrance. The school had actually begun classes in 1881, as the New Central School, which rented the second floor of the German-American School on Liberty Street before the 1885 school building was completed.

Captain Joseph Riggs House (1760)

Captain Joseph Riggs was an active citizen of Derby in the eighteenth century. He managed the area’s first lottery, which raised money for two bridges to cross the Naugatuck River and a highway from Derby to Woodbury. Riggs was also a patriot during the Revolutionary War. The Riggs House, on Elm Street in what is now Ansonia, was built in 1760.

Abijah Rowe House (1732)

The town of Granby began as a settlement called Salmon Brook, which eventually separated from Simsbury. The Abijah Rowe House, built around 1732, is the oldest surviving building from the original settlement. It was built by Nehemiah Lee, who sold it to his son-in-law, Peter Rowe, in 1750. Three years later it was acquired by Peter’s brother, Abijah Rowe. Both brothers were blacksmiths and may have produced some of the house’s hardware. Rowe died in 1812 and the following year his heirs sold the house to Elijah and Joseph Smith. In 1903, it was sold by the Smith family to Fred M. Colton, a tobacco grower, whose daughters, Mildred Colton Allison and Carolyn Colton Avery, gave the house to the Salmon Brook Historical Society in 1966. It is now part of a campus of four historic structures open to the public.

Simsbury 1820 House (1820)

The Simsbury 1820 House is an inn which is housed in an elaborate gambrel roofed Federal mansion. The house was built by Elijah Phelps, the son of Maj. Gen. Noah Phelps, who was a hero of the Revolutionary War. Elijah Phelps’s son-in-law, Amos R. Eno, became wealthy by investing the profits of his dry goods business in real estate in New York. He used the 1820 House as a summer residence. His grandson, Gifford Pinchot, a conservationist and governor of Pennsylvania, was born in the house in 1865. In 1884, Amos Eno retreated to the Simsbury House after his son, John C. Eno, embezzled millions from his father’s bank and fled to Canada. In 1890, Amos Eno added a large rear extension to the house, which was later inherited by his daughter, Anoinette Eno Wood, who called the home “Eaglewood,” in reference to her family’s patriotism and her last name. She had the house renovated in the Colonial Revival style. The house remained in the family until 1948, afterwards becoming a restaurant called the Simsbury House. When a developer bought the house and started to auction off its fixtures in the 1960s, the Town of Simsbury decided to purchase it. Little was done to renovate it, however, until in 1985 it was bought and restored by Simsbury House Associates to become an elegant inn.

Eleazer Wheelock House (1735)

Eleazar Wheelock, who later founded Dartmouth College, was the Congregational minister in Columbia from 1735 to 1770. His house, built in 1735, is located on the Green, next to the Congregational Church. Wheelock, a prominent figure during the Great Awakening, also trained young men for college and in 1743 he began privately teaching a young Mohegan named Samson Occom, who became a missionary to other Indians. He soon started teaching and converting other Native Americans in his home, then founding a school, called Moor’s Charity School in 1754, named for Joshua Moor, who donated land for the school. Wheelock used a school building, which is now located behind the Congregational Church in Columbia. Later, he moved to New Hampshire to establish Dartmouth College.

The Gay Mansion (1795)

Ebenezer King built an elaborate Federal-style mansion, with two porticoed doorways, on North Main Street in Suffield in 1795. In 1811, he sold the house to William Gay, the son of Ebenezer Gay and a prominent lawyer and postmaster of Suffield, who ran the post office from his house. The house came to be known as the Gay Mansion and remained the possession of descendants of the Gay family until 1916. The house is now the official residence of the headmaster of Suffield Academy. (more…)