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

The Exchange Building (1832)

The Exchange Building, on Church Street across from New Haven Green, was built in 1832 to serve as a commercial structure with a simple repeated Greek Revival window pattern. The builder, Atwater Treat, may have followed a design of Ithiel Town. The Exchange, New Haven’s first building constructed specifically as a commercial one, featured an open ground floor for shops. The building had a number of later changes, including the removal of the original cupola, which was eventually replaced by a billboard. In 1990, the building was restored, with a rebuilt cupola and and stone columned facade on the ground floor.

Herbert J. Mills House (1899)

The house built in 1899, on Summer Street in Bristol for Herbert J. Mills, is an example of how a historic home can suffer from later unsympathetic alterations. Mills, who was the president of the H.J. Mills Box Shop company, lived in a Queen Anne-style house that still stands. With the exception of the decoration of the front entry porch, the rest of the exterior has lost most of its original stick style decoration and roof brackets. The integrity of the house’s tower has also been compromised by an addition on the north side of the building.

84 Walnut Street, Willimantic (1887)

The building at 84 Walnut Street in Willimantic is small Queen Anne house, built in 1887, which displays decoration in the stick style. It one of the many Victorian era homes in Willimantic.

The Thomas Coit House (1782)

The house of merchant Thomas Coit, on Broadway in Norwich, was built in 1782 in a grand Georgian style, although some of the building’s elaborate decoration was added later under the influence of the Colonial Revival movement. Coit was a partner in a privateering firm during the Revolutionary War and in 1784 was Collector of Revenue in Norwich, serving under Christopher Leffingwell, from whom he had purchased the land to build his house. In 1798, he moved to Canterbury and the house was sold to Deacon Jabez Huntington. Records show that both of these first two residents of the house were slave owners.

The Timothy Hale, Jr. House (1740)

Built around 1740, the Timothy Hale, Jr. House is located on Main Street in Glastonbury. It was built by Timothy, Jr. on part of a parcel of land bought by his father. Hale was in the Connecticut militia during the Revolutionary War, serving as a Captain in 6th Regiment.

The Coite-Hubbard House (1856)

The building which now serves as Wesleyan’s President’s House was originally built in 1856 for Gabriel Coite, who became a state senator in 1860 and moved to Hartford in 1862, when he became the State Treasurer. In 1863, his Italianate house on High Street in Middletown was sold to Mrs. Jane Miles Hubbard, the widow of Samuel Hubbard, who had been a US Postmaster General. Wesleyan University acquired the Coite-Hubbard House from her heirs in 1904 to become the new President’s House, replacing the first building used for that purpose.

South Center District School #2 (1867)

Built in 1867, the South Center District School #2, on Main Street in Woodbury, was used for classes until 1900. In 1977, the building was acquired by the neighboring King Solomon’s Lodge and presented to the Old Woodbury Historical Society. By 1984, the building was restored and is now a museum, where every year second graders from the Regional School District #14 can experience classes conducted in a nineteenth-century one-room schoolhouse.