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

Academy Hall (1803)

Rocky Hill’s Academy Hall was built in 1803 as a navigation school for sailors at time when the town was still an active port and students might hope to become sea captains in the future. Construction was funded by public and private contributions, but the builder, Abraham Jaggers, still ended up bankrupt! It later served as a primary school until 1940. Damaged by fire in 1839, the interior was rebuilt. The building has also been altered in other ways, including the removal of the two original end chimneys. Currently owned by the town, the Academy Hall is currently leased to the Rocky Hill Historical Society and serves as a museum and historical library.

Old Rockville High School (1892)

Rockville High School, in Vernon, was founded in 1870. The Old High School building of 1892 was built in Rockville, adjacent to the East School building of 1870. The current High School building, on Loveland Hill Road, was built in 1959. The old High School is now the Vernon Board of Education building.

Elishama Brandegee House (1845)

Around 1845, Elishama Brandegee, Jr., a Berlin merchant with a strong interest in education, built a Greek Revival-style house on Worthington Ridge to serve as housing for the teacher at the Worthington Academy next door. It was later the home of his son, Dr. Elishama Brandegee. The Brandegees contributed to industry, founding East Berlin’s first silk and cotton thread company. Elishama Brandegee’s mother was also fascinated by the silk industry: she planted mulberry trees and raised silkworms.

Josiah Wright House (1799)

Around 1799, Simeon Wright made significant changes to a house originally built in the 1760s on Main Street in Wethersfield by his father, Josiah Wright. The alterations, perhaps influenced by the construction of the nearby Robbins and Bunce Houses, updated the home in the Federal style by the addition of semicircular windows. He also added a new gable roof, which allowed a larger attic. The Joseph Wright House, now a business, forms part of a row of three Wright family houses, which includs the David Wright and Ashbel Wright Houses.

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Clock Tower Mill (1886)

The Clock Tower Mill, originally called the Spinning Mill, was constructed in 1886, on the corner of Forest and Elm Streets in Manchester, as part of the Cheney family‘s mill village complex. The earliest mills of the Cheney Brothers Silk Manufacturing Company were built in the 1830s along Hop Brook. As steam power superseded water power by the 1880s, the Cheney Brothers began to build in the area north of Hartford Road, starting with the Spinning Mills. The functional mill buildings feature some architectural decorations, including the Spinning Mill’s five-story Italianate clock tower. During World War II, the mill housed the Cheney Brothers’ Pioneer Parachute Co. (founded in 1938). There is an interesting story of a WWII private from Manchester who, about to jump over Normandy, was making a final inspection of his parachute and discovered it had been inspected by his own mother, who worked at the factory! Today the Clock Tower Mill is part of the Cheney Brothers National Historic Landmark District. In an example of adaptive reuse, the structure has been converted to apartments available for rent.

SS Cyril and Methodius Church (1917)

Once, together with the nearby Polish National Home, at the heart of a vibrant Polish community in Hartford, SS Cyril and Methodius Church still serves Polish-Americans. Built in 1917, on Charter Oak Avenue, the church features elements of the Gothic Revival, Romanesque Revival and High Victorian Gothic styles.

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The A. Everett Austin, Jr. House (1930)

On this Veteran’s Day, I went to see the play at the Hartford Stage, Chick, The Great Osram, about the life of A. Everett Austin, Jr. Known as “Chick,” Austin was the director of the Wadsworth Atheneum from 1927 to 1944 and during his tenure made Hartford a center of the art world. He built up the Atheneum’s collections of both Old Master Paintings and modern art, brining to the first major exhibition of Picasso to the united States. He was also involved with the performing arts, staging the premiere of Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson‘s Four Saints in Three Acts, with an all black cast, and bringing George Blanchine to America. It was the biographical play’s last day, but an exhibition called Magic Facade: The Austin House, about the home Chick Austin built on Scarborough Street in Hartford, continues through April 20.

The house, constructed in 1930, was designed by Leigh H. French, Jr., under Austin’s direction. A Palladian Villa, it was modeled on the 1596 Villa Feretti-Angeli in Dolo, Venezia, Italy. The house gives the feeling of a stage set, as it is only one room deep. When I was in high school, I heard one variation of an urban legend about the house, according to which it was a mere facade for a power station! The house was bequeathed by Chick’s widow, Helen Goodwin Austin, to the Atheneum in 1985 and has recently been restored. It is available for tours on request with a donation to the Sarah Goodwin Austin Memorial Fund.