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

Norwich City Hall (1873)

In 1869, the General Assembly of Connecticut granted the Town of Norwich and the County of New London the right to jointly erect a multipurpose building for town, city and county purposes, which originally included a county Superior Court and a jail in the basement. The Second Empire-style City Hall of Norwich, at the intersection of Union Street and Broadway, was built between 1870 and 1873. The clock tower was added in 1909 and a European plaza in 1999. There is also HABS documentation for this building from 1984.

Israel Allen House (1785)

The house of Colonel Israel Allen, a farmer, was built around 1785, on Ellsworth Road in East Windsor. It was built by John Meacham, who also built the Martha Parsons House in Enfield. The classical front portico was probably added in the nineteenth century and the side porch around 1900.

Commodore Charles Green House (1851)

The Commodore Charles Green House, designed by the important architect A.J. Davis is an excellent example of the Gothic Revival style. Built in 1851 on Main Street in South Windsor, it was the home of Commodore Green, a naval officer who captured a Confederate blockade runner during the Civil War. (more…)

First Congregational Church, East Hartford (1835)

In 1701, the people of Hartford living east of the Connecticut river were granted the right to their own minister. In 1783, when East Hartford became a separate town, the church became the First Congregational Church in East Hartford. The first meeting house was begun in 1699 and took several years to complete. It was later replaced by the second meeting house in 1740, which was torn down in 1835 when the current structure was built on Main Street. The completed church was dedicated in January 1836. The interior was extensively altered after a fire in 1876.

Governor Jonathan Trumbull House (1735)

Jonathan Trumbull, Connecticut’s last colonial governor and first state governor (1769-1784), was born in Lebanon in 1710. Educated at Harvard, Trumbull began working with his father, Joseph Trumbull, as a merchant in 1731. He became a delegate to Connecticut’s General Assembly in the 1730s and his later support of the Patriot cause led to his election as deputy governor in 1766, with the support of the Sons of Liberty. He became governor in 1769, after the death of governor William Pitkin. Trumbull was the only colonial governor to support the American Revolution, organizing Connecticut’s resources to serve the war effort and earning the praise of George Washington. Among the children of Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., who died in 1785, were Jonathan Trumbull, Jr. (a later governor of Connecticut) and the artist, John Trumbull.

The Governor Jonathan Trumbull House was built by his father, Joseph, between 1735 and 1740, and was inherited by Jonathan Trumbull in 1755, who enlarged and remodeled it in the fashionable Georgian style. The building is architecturally notable as the state’s only central chimney house with a center hall. It was also moved slightly north of its first location in 1824. The house has been owned and operated as a house museum since 1935 by the Connecticut Daughters of the American Revolution.

Adeline Chadwick House (1877)

The Adeline Chadwick House, on Sherman Street in Hartford, was constructed in 1877 by the builders John R. Hills, a mason, and William Blevins, a stone dealer. The Second Empire-style house and its adjacent twin to the north, the Nathan Bosworth House (1878), were among the first to be built in Hartford’s West End.

Hezekiah Perkins House (1789)

The Federal-style house built for the sea captain Hezekiah Perkins is located on Broadway in Norwich. It is across from Little Plain Green, a triangular-shaped park which was donated to the town by Perkins and his neighbor, Deacon Jabez Huntington. Perkins was cashier at the Norwich Bank and, with his nephews, was also involved in the founding of the Chelsea Grammar School in 1806, which operated for about forty years.