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

Hodge Memorial Library & Museum (1937)

The first public library in the town of Roxbury was established in October 1896. It was housed in the back rooms of the old Town Hall until Charles Watson Hodge, upon his death in 1936, bequeathed $15,000 to erect a building for a library and museum. Completed in 1937 by Clayton B. Squire, the stone building was named after Charles Hodge’s father, Albert Lafayette Hodge. A north wing addition was completed in 1967 through a donation by Everett Hurlburt. A new building, the Minor Memorial Library, was erected in the early 1990s to become the town’s public library, with the Hodge Memorial, at 4 North Street, continuing as a museum open to the public by appointment only.

Phineas Griswold House (1789)

The house at 1312 Poquonock Avenue in Windsor was built in 1789 by Phineas Griswold. The date seems late for this to be the Phineas Griswold who was born in Windsor in 1725 and married Hepzibah Griswold. Perhaps it’s a descendant or relative.

Dudley House (1896)

The Dudley House, located at 56 State Street in North Haven, was built in 1896. With its Eastlake-style porch and decorated bargeboards, it is an example of the work of local builder Solomon Linsley.

St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, Manchester (1956)

The first St. Mary’s Church in Manchester was organized in 1844, but the parish encountered financial difficulties and was dissolved in 1847. The members reestablished their church as an Episcopal parish in 1851, but the church again closed in 1869. Regular services were eventually reestablished in 1874 and on June 26, 1882, the cornerstone was laid for a new church on Church Street on land donated by the Cheney Brothers of the famous South Manchester silk mills. The church was consecrated on June 7, 1884. A new and larger church was planned in the 1920s, but the Great Depression slowed financing of the project. In 1953, ground was eventually broken for a new church, which was dedicated on September 5, 1956. The church faces Park Street and is connected to the old 1884 church, now called Resurrection Chapel, which was renovated in 2009 and has five Tiffany stained glass windows.

Orrin Preston Store (1840)

The building at 171 East Plymouth Road in East Plymouth was built c. 1840-1860 as a house and store by merchant Orrin Preston. The store, which also used space in the back of the old Scoville House next door at 175 East Plymouth Road, was in operation through the end of the nineteenth century.

Josiah Wolcott House (1754)

Suggested dates for the construction of the house at 329 Wolcott Hill Road in Wethersfield have included 1734, 1754, 1764 and 1775. It is said that the nails used in building the house were made by prisoners at Old Newgate Prison. The house, which is named after Josiah Wolcott, has overhangs with dentil molding above both floors. Horace Wells, who pioneered the use of anesthesia (using nitrous oxide) in dentistry, lived in the house for a time in the 1840s [or is this a confusion with another Horace Wells (1789-1853), son of Thomas Wells?]. The Hart Seed Company began in this house in 1892 when Charles C. Hart started packaging seeds in the kitchen. In 1957 the house was purchased by Glenn Weaver, a professor of history at Trinity College who wrote a history of Hartford. His wife Emojean was a teacher at Wethersfield High School.

Harry L. Beach House (1885)

Greatly altered since its construction c. 1885, the house at 106 Prospect Place in Bristol is the work of builder-architect Joel T. Case. Now a multi-family home, it is listed in the nomination for the Federal Hill Historic District as the Harry L. Beach House. This is likely Henry L. Beach (1839-1922), who worked for his brother-in-law Edward Ingraham as superintendent at the E. Ingraham Clock Company.