The north section of the Wyllys-Orton House, which was most likely separated from the rest of the 1659 home in the 1790s, is adjacent to the south section, on Main Street in Farmington. It was later enlarged. Another Connecticut house that was divided into two (south and north sections) is the John Chester Tavern in Wethersfield.
The Wyllys-Orton House, on Main Street in Farmington, was divided in half, probably in the 1790s. It was originally built around 1659 by Thomas Orton, on land that had once been owned by Samuel Wyllys, son of the early Connecticut Governor George Wyllys. The house had various later owners who made numerous changes, the most significant being the removal of the original house’s north section to an adjacent lot on Main Street. This northern section was later enlarged. There are a number of stories as to why the house was divided. According to one, a mother and her daughter-in-law both lived in the home but each wanted to rule in her own kitchen, so the house was split in two.
The old Birmingham National Bank building is on Main Street in the City of Derby, which was once known as Birmingham. The bank was originally chartered in 1848 as the Manufacturers Bank of Birmingham, with Edward N. Shelton as its first president, and in 1865 became a national bank. Constructed in 1892-1893, the building features an elaborately detailed facade with terra cotta molding in the Sullivanesque, Neo-Grec and Richardsonian Romanesque Revival styles. The building is now the Twisted Vine Restaurant.
Designed by Ehrick K. Rossiter, the 1904 Seymour Cunningham House, on South Street in Litchfield, is an example of the types of high style Colonial Revival houses that were built as summer homes for the wealthy in the early twentieth century. Seymour Cunningham was the son of William Orr Cunningham, a wealthy papermill owner from New York State. Seymour married in 1892 and it is possible that he built the house the following year, 1893. That is the date given in a biographical sketch of Cunningham in the Genealogical and Family History of the State of Connecticut, Vol. II (1911):
Seymour, son of William Orr Cunningham, was born in Troy, New York, September 13, 1863. He attended the Troy Academy. Later he entered the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and graduated with the degree of civil engineer in 1884. He became interested in the oil business in Pennsylvania and Ohio. In 1887 the old home at Troy, New York, was sold and he brought his mother to Washington, D. C., and built a residence at No. 1719 K street, where he still maintains his winter residence. His Litchfield home, “Forked Chimney,” was built in 1893, on South street, near the site of the old Parmelee house. In politics he is a Republican. In religion he is an Episcopalian. He married, June 6, 1892, Stephanie Whitney, of Oakland, California, born October 22, 1869, daughter of Hon. George E. Whitney, lawyer and state senator of California, and Mary (Van Swaringen) Whitney, of Louisville, Kentucky. Mrs. Cunningham was named Stephanie in honor of her uncle, Justice Stephen J. Field, of the United States supreme court. Children of Mr. and Mrs. Cunningham: Cecil, born March 8, 1893; Macklin, February 21, 1894; Jane Chester, February 27, 1896; Pamela, May 5, 1906. The three oldest were born in Washington, D. C., the youngest in Litchfield, Connecticut.
Wesleyan University‘s Fayerweather Gymnasium was built in 1894. Funds for its construction were provided through a bequest from Daniel B. Fayerweather, who was not otherwise connected to Wesleyan, but who was inspired to donate to Methodist institutions. Designed by J. Cleaveland Cady, the Romanesque Revival style building had later additions, including a 1913 east wing, built to accommodate a swimming pool, and a rear addition in 1979. No longer used as a gymnasium, Fayerweather Hall has recently been restored to its 1894 dimensions to complement the adjacent construction of the new Usdan University Center.
The Oliver Smith House, on Main Street in Stonington Borough, perhaps the oldest surviving house in town, was built in the early 1760s (after 1761). Smith, a merchant and one of the defenders of Stonington during the American Revolution, was the last owner of Venture Smith. Born under the name Broteer Furro, Venture was an African prince enslaved at the age of six and brought to America. Eventually buying his freedom when in his 30s from Oliver Smith, Venture went on to purchase land and became prosperous by farming, fishing and shipping goods. In the 1790s, Venture Smith dictated his life story to a schoolteacher named Elisha Niles. This autobiography was then published as A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa but Resident above Sixty Years in the United States of America, Related by Himself (1798).
On the other side of Derby Green from the Sterling Opera House is Immanuel St. James Episcopal Church, on Minerva Street. Built in 1843, the building had two predecessors: the church on Elm Street in what is now Ansonia, at the Old Episcopal Graveyard (which was later moved across the street and attached to the Humphreys House), and its successor on Derby Avenue, which was called St. James Church. When the third building was constructed in 1843, some families continued to worship at the old church and organized Christ Church parish in Ansonia. In 1970, St. James Church in Derby began a Joint Ministry with Immanuel Church in Ansonia, and the two merged in 1991. The stone church was was built by the stonemason Harvey Johnson and the carpenter Nelson Hinman. The land for the church was donated by Sheldon Smith and Anson G. Phelps. A rectory was constructed next door in 1853.