Henry Barnard House (1807)

The Henry Barnard House was built on Main Street in Hartford in 1807. Henry Barnard, who became the first United States Commissioner of Education in 1867, was born in the house in 1811 and died in 1900. He added the Greek Revival-style portico in 1843. The house also once had four brick chimneys, which were later removed. Overlooking Barnard Park, in the South Green neighborhood of Hartford, the house now serves as transitional housing.

Barney Library (1919)

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The Barney Library in Farmington, adjacent to First Church, was built in 1919. Originally called the Village Library, it was donated to the town by D. Newton Barney, in honor of his mother, Sarah Brandegee Barney. A children’s wing was added in 1959. The Village Library was the town’s main library until 1983, when it became a branch library. It was renamed the Barney Library in 1999.

Hartford County Building (1929)

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Begun in 1926, the Hartford County Courthouse Building, on Washington Street in Hartford, opened in 1929. The architects were Paul P. Cret, of Philadelphia, working with the Hartford architectural firm of Smith & Bassette (Roy Bassette had been Cret’s student at the University of Pennsylvania). Designed in Cret‘s severe variation of the Beaux-Arts style, featuring striped-down classical details, it replaced an earlier 1885 structure, located at the corner of Trumbull and Allyn Streets, that was later torn down. The Hartford County Building now serves as the Hartford Judicial District Courthouse.

Deacon John Grave House (1685)

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Built in 1685 by John Grave, Sr. for his son, John Grave, Jr. on the Boston Post Road in Madison, down the road from the Allis-Bushnell House, which was built 100 years later. The Deacon John Grave House originally consisted of just two rooms, until around 1710, when it was expanded into a center-chimney house to accommodate Grave’s growing family. Sometime during the Revolutionary War, the house was expanded again with the addition of a shed in the rear, making it into a saltbox. Seven generations of the same family lived in the house in the following centuries. In 1983, when it was in danger of destruction, the Deacon John Grave Foundation was created to save and restore the home, and it is currently maintained by the Foundation as a house museum.

Allis-Bushnell House (1785)

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Built around 1785 on the Boston Post Road in Madison, the Allis-Bushnell House was at one time the home of Cornelius Scranton Bushnell, a railroad executive and shipbuilder, who played an important role in the building of the Civil War ironclad, the U.S.S. Monitor. Later he was a founder of the Union Pacific Railway. In the early twentieth century, the house was the home and office of Dr. Milo Rindye. It is currently the home of the Madison Historical Society.