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

Old Danbury Library (1878)

The former home of the Danbury Library, located at 256 Main Street, was built in 1876-1878 and served as the city’s library until the current building was erected at 170 Main Street in 1970. Beginning in 1771, there had been several successive library organizations in Danbury, the last of which disbanded in the 1850s. As related in James Montgomery Bailey’s History of Danbury, Conn. (1896), the creation of a permanent library was

substantially the gift of one family, that of the late E. Moss White, [a successful farmer and merchant] of Danbury. The late William Augustus White, of Brooklyn, son of E. Moss White, by his last will and testament bequeathed the sum of $10,000, to be paid five years after his decease, for the establishment of a public library in his native borough of Danbury. The Legislature of Connecticut, at its session in 1869, passed an act incorporating the Danbury Library, which act was approved by the Governor, June 5th, 1869. On June 1st, 1870, Alexander M. White, of Brooklyn, brother of William Augustus White, and sole executor of his will, placed at the disposal of the trustees of the library the house on Main Street, in which he was born and in which his parents died, to be used for library purposes until a suitable building could be erected upon the premises.

The E. Moss White White Homestead, erected in 1790, housed the library until 1876. At that point, Alexander M. White (who was a partner in Danbury’s leading hatters’ fur processing firm) donated the house and land to the library. With his brother, George Granville White, he provided the funds necessary to move the house to a rear lot and erect a brand new library building in its place. Designed by architect Lorenzo Wheeler, the Danbury Library opened in 1878. It became a free library in 1893. Initially, the downstairs rooms were rented for offices with the library on the second story. Later, the lower level was converted into the Children’s Room. In the 1930s, artist Charles Federer of Bethel, painted murals depicting fairy tales in the Children’s Room as a W.P.A. project. Today the former library building is the Danbury Music Center. In 1994, the Marian Anderson Recital Hall was dedicated on the second floor. (more…)

John Havens Sawyer House (1835)

John Havens Sawyer was a Mystic ship captain engaged in fishing and coastal trading. In 1835 he built the Greek Revival-style house at 5 Stanton Place in Mystic. Sawyer and his wife, Elsey, only lived in the house a short time. In 1838 he sold it to Charles Mallory and moved to Key West, Florida.

Masonic Temple, Cheshire (1900)

The Masonic Lodge in Cheshire, Temple Lodge #16, was established in 1790. The Lodge has had various meeting places over the years. The current Masonic Temple in Cheshire is located at 9 Country Club Road. According to the Town of Cheshire’s Property Record Card for the building, it was built in 1900.

Josephine Norton House (1920)

Pictured above is a colonial revival style house in Guilford built c. 1920. Located at 2733 Long Hill Road, the house’s historic owner was Josephine Norton.

Denison-Smith House (1840)

The house at 21 Gravel Street in Mystic was built in 1840 by Capt. Elisha W. Denison. In 1854, It was acquired by Capt. Martin Smith, a sea captain who commanded the ships Niagara, Simoon and Selma. The house’s grand front porch was added around 1900.

Second Meeting House, Bethel (1842)

At 40 Main Street in Bethel is a building known as the Second Meeting House. It was built in 1842 and was indeed the second meeting house to be erected by the First Congregational Church of Bethel. The first meeting house, built in 1760, had burned down. In 1865, a strong wind blew down the second meeting house’s steeple, which fell through the roof of the building. As related in James Montgomery Bailey’s History of Danbury (1896): “In the spring of 1865, during a gale, the house was injured by the falling of the spire, and having been repaired, was sold to the town and moved ten rods west of its former site.” In 1866, the church erected its third and current meeting house, located at 46 Main Street, where the first meeting house had once stood. After being sold to the town, the Second Meeting House served as Town Hall until 1939. Today, the building is the headquarters of the Bethel Historical Society, which rents out the hall. It is also the meeting place of Bethel VFW Post 935.

Heman Brainard House (1794)

According to Portrait of a River Town: The History and Architecture of Haddam, Connecticut (1984), by Janice P. Cunningham and Elizabeth Ann Warner, the house at 366 Saybrook Road in the Higganum section of Haddam was erected by Heman Brainerd (1754-1803) on land deeded to him in 1784 by his father, Phineas Brainerd (1720-1803), one of the original settlers of Higganum. It was described as a “new Dwelling House” in a 1794 deed, although town acessor’s records date the house to 1729. After the death of Heman’s widow, the house was purchased by James Gladwin and remained in his family for the rest of the nineteenth century. Dr. William H. Tremaine (1815-1883), a noted physician, lived in the house from 1850 to 1857, before he moved to Hartford. The house’s original stairway and chimney, destroyed by fire in the nineteenth century, were rebuilt by its later twentieth century owners.