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

Taylor Chapman House (1764)

Located on Palisado Avenue in Windsor, the Taylor Chapman House was constructed in 1764 in the Georgian style.

Built for Jonathan Cowles, a wealthy merchant, in 1799 on Main Street in Farmington. Like the John Watson House in South Windsor, the Jonathan Cowles House is a three-story Federal mansion. It was bought by Miss Porter’s School in 1908 and is now a dormitory known as Colony. This was the dorm lived in by Jacqueline Bouvier when she went to the school.

Asa Andrews House (1804)

Asa Andrews was a tinsmith in Farmington whose Federal-style house on Main Street was probably built sometime after he purchased the land in 1804. Nearby stands his c. 1803 tin shop (which perhaps originally dates to the 1690s). After Andrews‘ death in 1831, his widow, Nancy Bidwell Andrews, ran a school for young children in the house. In the mid-nineteenth century, the house was owned by Deacon Simeon Hart, a teacher and headmaster at the Farmington Academy, who later ran his own boarding school in his home. Deacon Hart was the Farmington Savings Bank‘s first secretary and treasurer and the bank was originally located in his house. After his death, in 1853, the bank moved down Main Street to the home of Samuel Smith Cowles, its second Treasurer.

Memorial Baptist Church (1931)

Hartford’s Memorial Baptist Church was organized in 1884, with its original building on the corner of Washington and Jefferson Streets. A new church, built in the Colonial Revival style, was begun in 1931, but was not completed until 1949, due to the impact of the Great Depression. The church, on Fairfield Avenue, features semi-circular windows, slender columns and other influences of the refined Federal style.

Capt. Allyn Stillman House (1766)

Capt. Allyn Stillman was a Revolutionary War blockade runner and soldier in the militia. His house, built in 1766 on Main Street in Wethersfield, features a typical Connecticut River Valley double door. Allyn’s brother, Nathaniel Stillman, Jr., was also a ship captain and had a house on Main Street.

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Capt. Timothy Stillman House (1750)

Timothy Stillman was a later resident of the house on Main Street in Wethersfield that bears his name. It was built around 1750, or perhaps even earlier. Captain and Deacon Timothy Stillman was a ship master who commanded the brig Ontario.

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Cheney Firehouse (1901)

The Cheney family of silk manufacturers had a firehouse constructed on Pine Street in Manchester in 1901 to house the South Manchester Fire District‘s Hose & Ladder Company No. 1, which served the Cheneys’ silk mills and the surrounding neighborhoods. At that time, the Cheney Fire Station relied on the latest horse-drawn equipment. The Cheneys later sold the building, which is now owned by the town of Manchester. Since 1979, it has been rented to the Connecticut Firemen’s Historical Society, who operate the Fire Museum in the building.