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

Caroline Nicoll House (1828)

Abraham Bishop was a New Haven property owner and Jeffersonian political radical who owned the block on Elm Street where the John Cook and Timothy Bishop houses were built in the early nineteenth century. Somewhere between 1828 and 1838, he had a house built for his daughter, Caroline Nicoll, on Elm Street, next to the Cook house and across from the Bishop House.

Today’s post concludes New Haven Month, but also marks an important anniversary: Historic Buildings of Connecticut began one year ago today with the Joseph Webb House in Wethersfield! A post has since appeared for each day, a feat I had not entirely planned on when I began this project! That makes 365 buildings preceding today’s (taking into account an extra one for a leap year, but subtracting the humorous April 1 post). Recently, the blog has moved to a new domain and won an award from the Hartford Preservation Alliance! Let’s see what interesting buildings appear here in the site’s second year!

John Cook House (1805)

New Haven’s earliest stucco building is the John Cook House on Elm Street. Built around 1805-1807, the house is also notable for its third-floor arch-ceilinged ballroom, possibly constructed by David Hoadley in 1814, when Capt. James Goodrich purchased the house.

New Haven City Hall (1861)

Located on Church Street, across from the Green, New Haven’s City Hall was one of America’s earliest High Victorian Gothic buildings. It was designed by Henry Austin and was completed in 1861, with the addition of a similar brownstone county court house building on the north side in 1871, designed by David R. Brown. The City Hall‘s clock tower was later removed, creating a truncated appearance, but the building was restored in 1976 with a rebuilt clock tower. More recently, after many years of considering alternatives for a new government center, the rear and north portions of the original building were demolished and replaced with new additions, while the front portion was maintained.

Yale Repertory Theatre (orig. Calvary Baptist Church) (1871)

The home of the Yale Repertory Theatre is located on Chapel Street in New Haven. Originally built as Calvary Baptist Church in 1871, the building’s steeple was removed in 1966 when it was deconsecrated and sold to become a theater. The church was designed by Rufus G. Russell, who had trained with Henry Austin.

Luzon B. Morris House (1873)

Luzon B. Morris was a governor of Connecticut for two years, 1893-1895. He died the year he left office. His house in New Haven was built in 1873 on Prospect Street. It is an Italianate-style house featuring elements of the Stick style. It was purchased by Yale in 1957 and restored in 1990. The building is home to the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition.

William Trowbridge House (1871)

The William Trowbridge House is an 1871 Italianate-style home, located on Prospect Street in New Haven. Trowbridge was a Yale professor of dynamic engineering in the 1870s. His family continued to live in the house after his death. It was acquired by Yale in 1984.

The Henchman S. Soule House (1844)

The Henchman S. Soule House, on Chapel Street in New Haven, is late Greek Revival-style house near Wooster Square. Soule was a sea captain. In 1862, he sold the house to Henry S. Parmalee, a piano maker, founder of the New Haven Trolley line and inventor of the first practical automatic sprinkler system, which he had installed in both his factory and his home. The house was restored in 1999 and is now a bed-and-breakfast known as the Historic Mansion Inn.