Counting down to the New Year makes one think of clocks and Bristol was the center of Connecticut Clock-making. One of the Bristol firms was the E.N. Welch Company, which by the later nineteenth century was in financial difficulty. In 1902, William E. Sessions, whose father owned a foundry business that had produced cases for E.N. Welch, was elected president of the company and his nephew, Albert L. Sessions, became its treasurer. By the following year, they had acquired enough stock to take over the company, renaming it the Sessions Clock Company. During this same period, A.L. Sessions, had become a partner with his father, John Henry Sessions, in the family’s trunk hardware-making business, J.H. Sessions & Son. After his father’s death in 1902, the business was then incorporated in 1905 under a special charter by the state of Connecticut, the sole owners being A.L. Sessions, his mother and his wife. William E. Sessions built the mansion, called Beleden, on Bellevue Avenue in Bristol and his nephew, A.L. Sessions, built his own mansion in 1903 on the same street. The Georgian Revival home, constructed of brick and red sandstone, is said to have been designed by a Waterbury architect who had been sent by Sessions to England to study Georgian architecture before beginning to plan the house. Known in Bristol as the “Wedding Cake” House, it later became the Town Club and is now the DuPont Funeral Home.
Love, Love, LOVE The Wedding Cake House!!!
The owner Bob is a great guy! Years ago he offered to lease an upstairs apartment in the wedding cake house to my husband (now X) and I for a very reasonable rate. I wish I could recall the specifics, but I only remember that he said there were fireplaces on the top level and More then ample square footage, where I believe it was larger then many standard homes. My ex-husband chickened out though because he didn’t want to live over a funeral home. lol
Also, because I loved this house so (said that lol), and the grand staircase which is immediately in front when you enter this house, I asked Bob if I could get married there. To my dismay, he agreed. Though, he told me shortly after that he didn’t think it would work out because he couldn’t schedule when his new clients would be rolling in. lol
I have photos of this amazing mansion as well, but I had wicked bad light conditions the day I shot this place. It added to the current aura of the house to have the rainbow light effects appearing to radiate to it or from it 🙂
This is my absolute favorite on Federal Hill, thanks so much again Daniel for sharing your work on this!
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Rrember as a student at South Side School my friend John Bush and I go to then the Town club where John,s uncle was the Chef and we would look for goodees.Of course this was after school. His uncle would set aside some goodees knowing we would be there after school.