St. Paul’s Hall (1903)

The first St. Paul’s Church in Glastonbury was erected in 1903 at 40 Naubuc Avenue. Bishop Michael A. Tierney blessed the cornerstone on May 31, 1903 and the dedication ceremony took place on October 18. The previous year, the church had been made a mission of St. Augustine Parish, South Glastonbury. St. Paul’s was made a parish on September 23, 1954 and a new church, at 2577 Main Street, was dedicated on January 25, 1958. The former church on Naubuc Avenue became the Parish Hall. Today St Paul’s and St. Augustine’s parishes are joined in the Roman Catholic Community of Saints Isidore and Maria

Samuel Hitchcock House (1850)

The house at 402 West Main Street in Cheshire was built around 1850. It has been much altered over the years, with the finely detailed Victorian bay windows on the second floor being added later in the nineteenth century. The house’s first resident was Samuel Hitchcock, a factory owner who started manufacturing suspenders and other forms of webbing in 1853. As described in the History of New Haven County, Connecticut, Vol. I (1892), edited by J. L. Rockey:

Samuel Hitchcock, born in Cheshire in 1813, is a son of Joseph Hitchcock, also born in Cheshire. Samuel was brought up on a farm and when 19 years old engaged in the mercantile trade, following that business until about 1860. He later engaged in manufacturing suspenders, built the large factory at West Cheshire, and operated it as the Hitchcock Manufacturing Company. The factory was sold to the American Braid Company, and they afterward added the manufacture of vegetable ivory buttons. Mr. Hitchcock had the entire charge of these industries. He retired from active business in 1882. He was married in 1835, to Lucy S. Bradley, of Cheshire. They lost their last child in October, 1889.. They celebrated their golden wedding in 1885.

Old Woodbury Town Hall (1846)

The old Town Hall of Woodbury, located at 5 Mountain Road, was erected in 1845-1846. Before its construction, another building had been used as Town Hall for over twenty years, as described by William Cothren in Vol. I of the History of Ancient Woodbury (1854):

Previous to 1823, there had been an effort to locate and build a new town hall for the use of the town, but as is usual in such cases, a great deal of bickering and bad feeling had arisen on the occasion, and no conclusion was arrived at. Finally, to end the difficulty, Mr. Daniel Bacon built a new two story building, near his dwelling-house, now owned by his son, Rev. William T. Bacon, and offered the use of the second story, rent free, to the town for its meetings.
[. . . .]

This continued to be used as the place for all meetings of the town till 1845, when the present commodious town-hall was built.

At that date, it was thought that the old town-hall did not answer the necessities of the town, and that a new and more commodious building should be erected. In the conclusion that a new building should be erected, all agreed; but the location was quite another matter. In this the “ends” of the town were widely at variance.
[. . . .]

A meeting was called in the “dead of winter,” to determine the question of location, and after a spirited debate, a respectable majority voted to locate the building in the spot it now occupies. But there being a suspicion of unfairness in the vote, application was made to the selectmen to appoint another meeting to try the question anew. The meeting was called, and though Providence, the evening before the appointed day, shed down some two feet of snow, enough one would think, to cool the feelings of the belligerent parties, yet the high piled drifts were penetrated in every direction, and almost every legal voter appeared at the meeting for the decision of the momentous question of a difference in distance of one or two hundred rods! The vote was taken by ballot, and the former location ratified by an increased majority.

In 1895, the Library Association moved into a room on the second floor, which it occupied until relocating to the former Parker Academy in 1902. A stage was added to the Town Hall in 1923 and the center section of the second floor was removed to create balconies on either side. Many events in town have been held in the building over the years, including performances by the Community Theatre at Woodbury. The structure was renovated in 2009.

American Paper Goods Company (1893)

In 1893, the Ajax Envelope Company of New York City and the Howard Manufacturing Company of Jersey City formed the American Paper Goods Company and moved their operations to Kensington in Berlin, where they secured water rights on the Mattabessett River. The company erected a dam, which survives today, and created Paper Goods Pond, now a town park. The surviving factory and office building was erected in 1893. Its west end (pictured above) has a curving rounded shape. Extending to the east along Main Street are factory additions built in 1900, 1903 and 1914. The company produced waxed paper bags for tobacco and seeds and envelopes for medicine and photographs, later also making paper cups. Continental Can Company bought the factory in 1954 and closed it five years later.

In 1959, Sherwood Industries, known as the Sherri Cup Company, purchased the property. Sherri continued to manufacture paper cups and also made machine tools for the paper industry. Millions of the iconic Anthora paper cups, created in 1963 and displaying the words “We Are Happy to Serve You” were produced in the building. The company was absorbed by the Solo Cup Company and the factory closed in 2004. The former factory building has since been converted into condominiums and is called the Lofts at Sherwood Falls.

George & Florence Woods House (1820)

The current home of the Trumbull Historical Society is the a house located at 1856 Huntington Turnpike, in the Nichols section of Trumbull. The house was built in 1820 on the property of the Nichols family, land that went back to Abraham Nichols, one of the original founders of the town of Stratford. The last of the family to live in the house was Florence Nichols Woods (died 1973), whose husband, George Woods (died 1972), was president of Bridgeport’s People’s Bank. Their estate was noted for its gardens. The couple left their property to the Nichols Methodist Church. The church did not require the property, so the house and land, known as the Woods Estate, were purchased by the town in 1974. Since 1978 the house has been rented by the Historical Society, while the grounds are now Abraham Nichols Park.

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Lewis-Griswold-Case House (1835)

The older north section of the house at 80 Cherry Brook Road in Canton was built in 1835 by Daniel Lewis. Its next owner was Chauncey Griswold, a schoolteacher who became a maker of medicine. Starting in the 1840s, he produced a popular salve to treat burns and skin ailments. Griswold later lived with his daughter and her husband in the Gardner Mills House in Canton. His heirs continued to make the salve after Griswold’s death and later sold the formula to the Sisson Drug Company Hartford, which produced it until 1955 when it was discontinued due to its high lead content. The house was enlarged in 1893 by William Case, who brought down the ell from another property.

William Smith House (1730)

The William Smith House at 166 Silver Lane in East Hartford is thought to date to as early as 1730, a year before the dirt path in front became town property. Smith had to arrange with his neighbors and the town to get road access to his home. Smith also owned the house next door, at 158 Silver Lane, which he ran as a tavern. Both buildings have been much altered over the years. In the 1920s, the house was the first in East Hartford to be decorated with electric Christmas lights. By the 1930s and 1940s owner Raymond C. Dunn’s elaborate holiday displays attracted people from far and wide, causing traffic jams. A police officer was needed to direct traffic. A contest for the best Christmas display each year was discontinued because he won every year.