Ponemah Mills Commercial Block (1871)

The community of Taftville in Norwich grew in the nineteenth century as a mill village next to Ponemah Mills, which was once the largest textile mill in the world under one roof. At the corner of North Second Avenue and Providence Street in Taftville is a commercial building erected by the company. It was probably built about the same time as Ponemah Mill #1 (1871), as it shares that structure’s French Second Empire style architecture. It features a Mansard roof with dormer windows. The building once housed the Ponemah Mills offices, which later moved to another building, erected in 1929. The building also had a post office, a fire station and a general store, operated by the company. On the second floor was a community hall.

Otis Smith House (1873)

From the mid-nineteenth century, pistols were being manufactured in the Rockfall section of Middlefield in a factory begun by Henry Aston, Ira N. Johnson, Sylvester Bailey, John North and others. The pistol factory burned down in 1879. As related in the History of Middlefield and Long Hill (1883), by Thomas Atkins,

By the burning of the pistol factory Mr. Otis Smith, who was at that time doing quite an extensive business there, lost machinery, tools, stock, and goods. Nothing was saved. In Nov., 1880, Mr. Smith again began manufacturing in P. W. Bennett’s factory, where he remained until July, 1882. In Dec, 1881, he purchased of Ira N. Johnson, the pistol factory property, and erected thereon a three-story brick building, 100 feet long by 30 feet wide, and is now manufacturing a pistol of his own invention known as the “Smith’s revolver;” also several patented articles in the hardware line.

Eight years before he constructed his new factory, which in recent years was restored and converted into a residence by owner Dick Boynton, Otis Smith erected his family residence at 135 Main Street. The French Second Empire-style house and adjacent carriage house were built in 1873. The long Colonial Revival front was probably added in the in the first twenty years of the twentieth century. Smith died in 1924 and the following year his heirs sold the house to Franc and Lillie Rodowic. (more…)

Balcony House (1820)

Known locally as the “Balcony House,” the residence at 34 Main Street in Newtown is located just south of Trinity Episcopal Church. The nomination for the Newtown Borough Historic District gives the mansard-roofed house a date of c. 1870, but the real estate websites (linked above) give a date of c. 1820. Perhaps it was built around 1820 and updated in the Second Empire style around 1870? Until his death in 1950, it was the home of Arthur Treat Nettleton, who became treasurer of the Newtown Savings Bank in 1898 and its president in 1938. The picture above was taken back in 2010, when it was painted in darker colors than at present.

Allen Avery House (1874)

The house at 17 Pearl Street, on the Groton side of Mystic, is currently the home of Dinoto Funeral Home. A sign on the house indicates it was built circa 1874 and was the home of Allen Avery, undertaker. As related in the Genealogical and Biographical Record of New London County (1905), Allen Avery was born in 1838 and married Alice Babcock Hinckley in 1862. As the book continues:

Mr. Avery spent his boyhood days in Old Mystic, securing an excellent education in the public schools and at the academy at Mystic. Leaving school he worked as a ship joiner with his father in the Greenman yards, but in 1864, he embarked in an undertaking business at Mystic, in a store built by his father. Later, he purchased the store, and carried on an undertaking business for a number of years, but about 1884, he retired from that line, continuing, however, to operate his furniture store, which he had in the meanwhile established, until 1895. He is now engaged in the real estate business.

Apparently he lived in the house at 17 Pearl Street for no longer than twelve years, as the biography notes:

For the past seventeen years he has lived on the Stonington side of Mystic, in a house he built in 1886, so that he takes a deep interest in the affairs of the town of Stonington. For thirteen years he was a menber of the executive committee of the fire district. and was one of the organizers of the Hook and Ladder Company, which he served faithfully and ably as treasurer for twenty-one years. He is now vice-president of the Avery Memorial Association. which he served as president for two years. In fact there are few measures of a public character, designed to advance the interests of Mystic, in which he has not been concerned.

Jennie and Edward Gilbert House (1871)

The house at 429 Saybrook Road in Higganum was built by Cornelius Brainerd (1811-1884) as a wedding present for his daughter, Jennie (Jane Jerusha), who married Edward Dwight Gilbert, a merchant, on June 1, 1871. When the Higganum Savings Bank was chartered in 1874, E. D. Gilbert was secretary and his father-in-law was treasurer, a position Gilbert would later hold. Gilbert also served as postmaster. The later couple moved to Cornelius’ house and sold the 1871 house, which has since lost its original elaborately carved porch.

Canfield Corner Pharmacy (1876)

The Canfield Corner Pharmacy is a classic American drug store, complete with soda counter (although the latter is no longer functional). The pharmacy is located in a Mansard-roofed building at 2 North Main Street in Woodbury. The building was erected in 1876 as Stong’s Block by Nathaniel M. Strong, who had begun his drug business across the street in 1867. In addition to the drug store, the building contained a number of other businesses over the years and had a hall on the third floor used for meetings by various community groups. Henry H. Canfield (died 1949), who had been Stong’s head clerk, took over the business in 1900. Pharmacist Curtis Martiny and his wife Vera took over the pharmacy in 1950. After her husband’s death in 1954, Vera Taylor Martiny became a licensed pharmacist and continued the business, serving customers, including Roxbury resident Marilyn Monroe. Vera’s daughter Mary purchased the pharmacy in 1987. The building was restored after a fire in 1998. (more…)