Milo Burr House (1827)

The house at 41 Burr Mountain Road in Torrington has a sign indicating it was built by Milo Burr in 1827. Milo Burr (1797-1872), is described in the The Torrington Register Souvenir Edition: An Illustrated and Descriptive Exposition of Torrington, Connecticut (1897):

Milo Burr, a native of Torrington and an energetic, hardworking and enterprising man, did a great deal at the time of the building of the Naugatuck Railroad. He also purchased timber lands where Burrville now stands, engaged in the lumber business, cutting pine timber in the vicinity and reducing it to lumber, used two or three sawmills in this business and owned several hundred acres of land. He erected many buildings and built a dam, making a reservoir on the mountain west of Burrville at an elevation of 250 to 300 feet above the residence, and also had large farming interests.

John M. Burr resides in the house his father erected in 1827, and maintains the old family homestead. He has erected and operates a grist mill, and has continued to make improvements in harmony with his father’s spirit and work.

The house, grounds, stables and everything about the place indicate thrift and good keeping, and the recent donation by Mr. Burr of a site for the power and car house of the electric railway, practically making the place a center, shows the public spirit of the man and must lead to an appreciation of property in the vicinity as well as add new life to the place.

Starr Cottage (1885)

The house at 144 South Street in Litchfield was built in 1885 by Almon B. Fuller, a furniture dealer and real estate speculator, who immediately sold the house to F. Ratchford Starr, who also owned the William F. Baldwin House immediately to the south. The two houses were known as the Starr Cottages. An insurance salesman and seasonal resident from Philadelphia, Starr had begun a highly successful dairy farm in Litchfield called Echo Farm in the 1870s. Starr also wrote several books, including Farm Echoes (1886) and The Lamb of God (1888). He sold the business in 1887 and died in 1889, his daughter inheriting the two houses. She willed the houses to Florence Frost, who resided in the Baldwin House until her death in 1923. In 1914, Frost sold the house at 144 South Street to Kate J. Thomas of New York City, who lived in it until her death in 1928. The house was acquired by Melvin Diems in 1949.

John Dodd Hat Shop (1790)

The museum building known as the John Dodd Hat Shop is located on the grounds of the Danbury Historical Society. It was not actually a hat shop, but was built in 1790 by lawyer John Dodd as his law office. The Historical Society acquired the building in 1957 and moved it from its original location on lower Main Street to its current address to house its hat shop exhibit. A variety of hats are on display, as well as hatting machines and other historical artifacts relating to the hatting industry in Danbury, which was known as the “Hat City of the World.”

Elisha Strong House (1780)

The house at 10 (listed as 20 on the town Assessors page) North Meadow Road in Windsor was built c. 1780 on land once occupied by Elder John Strong, one of the early settlers of the town. The house was erected by Elisha Strong (1748-1826). According to Vol. I of The History of the Descendants of Elder John Strong, of Northampton, Mass. (1871), by Benjamin W. Dwight,

In the Revolutionary war he was appointed agent for his native town to clothe the Connecticut troops in the Continental army, and authorized to borrow on the credit of the town three thousand pounds lawful money. On June 13, 1823, the first board of trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Windsor was organized at his house, and he was chosen one of its trustees. He d[ied] at Windsor, Feb. 28,1826, aged 78

Deacon Jasper Morgan, Sr. purchased the house in 1829 and altered it to its current Greek Revival appearance. The above picture was taken about a decade ago.

Wilcox Tavern (1815)

The house at 206 Main Street in New Hartford was erected in 1815 a tavern by the Wilcox family. This section of town would become a center of industrial activity between 1847 and 1863, when an iron foundry was in operation. The area was known as the Furnace District or Puddletown, named for the method of iron production called puddling, in which bar iron was produced from pig iron. The Puddletown iron foundry burned down in 1863 and was not rebuilt because it employed an expensive, labor intensive process that was being superseded by more modern methods of iron refining. The tavern is now a private home.

Immaculate Conception Church, New Hartford (1870)

The first Catholic Mass in New Hartford was celebrated in 1849 in a private home. Masses continued to be offered in various residences and rented halls, as well as the Brick Machine Shop, for the next two decades. During that time, the Catholic population of New Hartford grew as Irish and French–Canadians immigrants came to work in local cotton mills. Immaculate Conception Church, designed by noted architect Patrick C. Keely of New York, was dedicated on March 27, 1870. Immaculate Conception became a parish in 1881. Recently, Immaculate Conception Church, at 3 Church Street in New Hartford, was merged with Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, at 78 Litchfield Road in Harwinton, to form Our Lady of Hope Parish.