First Congregational Church, Portland (1850)

First Congregational Church, 554 Main Street, Portland, CT

The origins of the First Congregational Church of Portland go back to 1714 when it known as the Third Society of Middletown, later called Chatham. The areas that are now the town of Portland and East Hampton were incorporated in 1767 as the Town of Chatham. Portland separated from Chatham to become the Town of Portland in 1841. The Society had two earlier church buildings before the current one. As related in the 1884 History of Middlesex County:

At the annual meeting in 1845, difference of opinion prevailed as to the location of the prospective new church, and accordingly a committee, consisting of Deacon Job H. Payne, Philip H. Sellew, and Ebenezer B. White, were appointed to select two or more judicious and disinterested persons as an advisory committee, to consult together and report. The next year, by a vote of nine to fifteen, it was determined to place the new edifice on the old site, but it was decided by the moderator (one of the deacons of the church) to be no vote. At a meeting soon after it was voted thirteen to seven to build on “Meeting House Hill.” This was likewise decided by the same moderator to be no vote. It is presumable that the foregoing decisions were reached by the moderator, in view of the smallness of the number present, the general want of enthusiasm, and possible lack of requisite pledges. Three years elapsed, when, November 6th 1849, it was voted twenty-six to nine, three not voting, that the meeting house should be erected on the lot owned by John I. Worthington, situated between the dwelling houses of Harlord H. Caswell, and George H. Pettis, and William H. Bartlett, Ebenezer B. White, Henry E. Sage, Philip H. Sellew, and Reuben Paynewere appointed a building committee. The present church edifice was built in 1850, and on the 18th of December of the same year was dedicated. It is of Gothic structure, 70 by 39 feet. The building cost $6,200; the site, bell, furniture, and other accommodations, $1,450; total, $7,650.

Northford Congregational Church (1849)

Northford Congregational Church

The Congregational church in Northford in North Branford was established in 1750. The original meeting house stood just south of the present church building, which was built in 1846. Designed by Henry Austin of New Haven, the Portland brownstone church originally had a taller wood steeple that was destroyed in a disastrous fire in 1906. The fire also gutted the interior of the church, which had to be reworked. Other changes over the years included the rebuilding of the external walls on at least two occasions (1863 and 1873). Most recently, the church’s newer wooden tower, built after the fire in 1906, was removed in 2010. The wood had rotted to such an extent that the large bronze bell in the tower was unstable (engineers believed that the bell’s weight was the only thing keeping the wood tower from blowing off in a high wind!). The church plans to restore the wood tower and a fundraising campaign is underway to “Save The Bell Tower.”

William J. Clark House (1878)

William J. Clark House

At 34 Prospect Hill Road in the Stony Creek section of Branford is the William J. Clark House, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as “Stick Style House at Stony Creek.” Designed by Henry Austin, the house was built in 1878-1880 as the summer home of William Judson Clark of Southington. In 1854, with his two brothers, Clark had founded the Clark Brothers Company, which manufactured nuts, bolts, washers, screws and rivets. Clark lived in an 1860 house in Southington.

Truman A. Warren House (1851)

Truman A. Warren House (1851)

The ashlar granite Italianate house at 5 The Green in Watertown was erected in 1851 by Truman A. Warren. He was the son of Alanson Warren, of the manufacturing firm of Warren, Wheeler & Woodruff. Alanson Warren was also the first president of a company that grew out of that firm: Wheeler & Wilson, manufacturers of sewing machines. Truman A. Warren was a Republican politician. The house has been attributed to New Haven architect Henry Austin or it may have been designed by an architect copying Austin’s style of Italianate villa.

Elisha Chapman Bishop House (1874)

Elisha Chapman Bishop House

The house at 122 Broad Street in Guilford was built in 1874 for Elisha Chapman Bishop (1824-1903). A native of Guilford, Bishop had become wealthy in the 1860s oil boom in Titusville, Pennsylvania. According to Vol. II of A Modern History of New Haven and Eastern New Haven County (1918), Bishop

was born April 10, 1824, in Guilford, remaining upon the home farm until he reached the age of twenty years. He then began learning the machinist’s trade, which he afterward followed in Guilford on his own account. In 1861 he began operations in the oil fields at Titusville, Pennsylvania, where he remained for ten years, meeting with substantial success. He returned to Guilford in 1870 and then took up the occupation of general farming. In 1874 he built one of the finest homes in Guilford and equipped it in a most modern manner. In politics he was originally a republican but afterward became a prohibitionist. He was an ardent supporter of the abolition party from the time that he reached his majority in 1845. In 1882 he represented his town in the state legislature and he held various local offices. His religious faith was that of the Congregational church. On the 5th of July, 1846, he married Charlotte G. Fowler and they became the parents of twelve children, six of whom are living: Robert Allen; Edward Fowler; Mary Cornelia, the wife of N. G. White, of Hartford, Connecticut; Eva B., the wife of Edward M. Leete, of Guilford; Ida, the wife of William J. Canfield, of New Haven; and Marilla Canfield, the wife of F. C. Spencer, of Guilford.

Bishop’s house in Guilford, built in the French Second Empire style on the northeast corner of Guilford Green, was designed by the noted architect Henry Austin of New Haven. The house was later inherited by Bishop’s granddaughter, Marilla, who was married to Frederick C. Spencer, president of the Spencer Foundry. After her death in 1962, the First Congregational Church purchased the house for use as a rectory.

Erastus Brainerd, Jr. House (1852)

This is my 2,000 building post on Historic Buildings of Connecticut! Part of the purpose of this blog is to celebrate historic structures so that people won’t be inclined to tear them down. Sometimes, however, great buildings are not maintained and some are in danger of being destroyed. A case in point is the Erastus Brainerd, Jr. House, part of the campus of the former Elmcrest Hospital in Portland, which is slated for demolition. Erastus Brainerd Jr.‘s father established the Brainerd Quarry Company in Portland and owned the Hart/Jarvis House next door (also facing demolition) [see this pdf and this pdf]. The Brainerd House, built around 1852, is particularly notable because it was designed by the great New Haven architect Henry Austin. Pictured in the image above is the house’s grand front entry porch, which has fluted columns on floral urns with ogee arched decorative brackets supporting a balustraded roof. These houses should be saved! (Note this pdf and this pdf)