Architectural History

Trinity Church, Southport // 1862

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The Trinity Episcopal Church in the Southport section of Fairfield, Connecticut was established in 1725. Twenty families met for worship at its first meeting house in the center of town on Thanksgiving Day, 1725. Since then, the church has constructed five different places of worship in locations around town. Architect Albert C. Nash designed the church which was constructed during the years 1854-56. Sadly, the building’s near total destruction by wind during a tornado on January 1, 1862, required the church to be completely rebuilt as originally planned, with a few structural alterations. Trinity Church is an excellent work of early Gothic Revival church architecture in wood, one of the best I have seen in my trips around the region.

Simon Sherwood House // 1884

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The Simon C. Sherwood house, built in 1884, is a fine late nineteenth-century eclectic Victorian home, somewhat unique to the Southport area of Fairfield, CT, which is dominated by early-mid 19th century styles. Simon Couch Sherwood was the son of Edwin Sherwood, a wealthy shipping merchant who made a fortune from trade between New York and Savannah. The Queen Anne-Eastlake style home was added onto with a larger porch, obscuring an original oriel window on the side elevation. Sadly, the home has a safe, yet inappropriate pale yellow body color with white trim, which does not showcase the intricacies of the Victorian era home.

David Ogden House // c.1750

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This saltbox house was built by 1750 for David Ogden at the time of his marriage to Jane Sturges. For the next 125 years it was home for the Ogden family in the farming and coastal shipping town of Fairfield. The home was sold out of the family in 1839 to Henry W. Banks, who continued to farm on the nearly 75 acres of farmland. By the 1920s, the home was suffering from deferred maintenance and was at risk of demolition. Luckily, Annie Burr Jennings (1855-1939), a philanthropist who was born into a wealthy family, sought to give back to her town. Jennings was instrumental in establishing and supporting a number of important community institutions, including the Fairfield Historical Society (now the Fairfield Museum) and the Fairfield Public Library. In 1931, she purchased the old Ogden Farmhouse from absentee owners and helped fund its restoration. The early saltbox vernacular Georgian home today is maintained by the Fairfield Museum and the Greenfield Hill Village Improvement Society.

Bronson Windmill // 1894

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Located in a more rural part of Fairfield, Connecticut, I drove past this massive tower just off the road. Intrigued, I doubled back to find out what it was, and learned it was once a windmill! The over eighty-foot tall shingled tower was constructed in 1894 as part of a large country estate. Frederic Bronson (1851-1900) was a prominent, gilded age lawyer in New York City. He accumulated massive wealth representing many elite families, eventually becoming a member of the “Four Hundred”, a list of the 400 most powerful (rich and connected) people of New York society. In the early 1890s, Bronson constructed a summer estate in Fairfield, CT, known as Verna Farm. A part of this estate the windmill which pumped water from a well 75 feet below ground into a 7,500-gallon wooden storage tank inside the tower. The estate eventually became the Fairfield Country Day School, and the windmill (no longer in use) was gifted to the town. Eventually, it was leased by Sprint, and the telecommunications firm restored the windmill and installed a cellphone tower in its interior.

Farist House // 1894

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Joel Farist (1832-1904) emigrated to America with his family by the way of Sheffield, England, working originally as a laborer as a child. By his thirties, he formed the Farist Steel Company in Springfield, MA, later relocating to Bridgeport, CT in 1872. Due to his prestigious role and success, he became well-connected in Bridgeport, later becoming the first President of the Bridgeport Electric Light Company and Vice President of Bridgeport Hospital. He built this massive home in nearby Fairfield, CT, likely to get away from the polluted Bridgeport air, for a more bucolic area. The massive Queen Anne home he had built (likely as a second home) features prominent towers, a full-length porch, and a porte-cochere off the side. The home has been restored a few times recently, and a new (hopefully not final) paint scheme in yellow was recently painted on the front facade.

Chaffee House // 1931

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Herbert Almon Chaffee and Irma Chaffee had this Tudor home built by 1931 for their family in Fairfield, Connecticut. Mr. Chaffee was the Vice President and Assistant Treasurer of the City Savings Bank of nearby Bridgeport. Chaffee also at that time worked as Vice President of the A.W. Burritt Company, a lumber mill that produced building supplies and also operated as a real estate company that bought land and constructed on it. The home he had built clearly showcased the company’s work and features hallmarks of the English Tudor Revival style, with half-timbering, slate roof, and jettying (upper floor slightly overhanging the first).

Howard Lee House // c.1928

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Fairfield in the early 20th century began to shift as a suburban town with neighborhoods of large homes in planned districts. The proliferation of the personal automobile led to the “suburbanization” past streetcar suburbs closer to downtowns. Howard Greeley Lee (1893-1965) worked as Vice President of the Lee Brothers Furniture Co. based out of nearby Bridgeport. The company clearly did well as Howard had this large home built in the fairly uncommon (in New England) Spanish Revival style. It features a red tile roof, stuccoed siding, metal casement windows, and arched windows and front door, all commonly found in the style.

First Church Congregational of Fairfield // 1892

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The First Church Congregational in Fairfield, Connecticut is the sixth church to occupy this site! The first structure was built in 1640, and the current building was constructed in 1892. The third version of the church was burned by the British in 1779, while the fourth “meeting house” took nearly 42 years to finish and was partially funded by the sales of properties which formerly belonged to Tory sympathizers. The Romanesque Revival church was designed by architect J. Cleaveland Cady, who is best known for his design of the south entrance of the American Museum of Natural History on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Oliver Ames High School // 1896

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I’m starting to see a trend in Easton, almost everything is named after the Ames Family! In 1893, Oliver Ames (1831-1895), a grandson of shovel company founder Oliver Ames and son of Oakes Ames, offered to fund the construction of a new high school building if the town would pay the cost of building its foundation and grading the site. While governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (1887-90), Ames had hired Boston architect Carl Fehmer as consulting architect to the State for the extension to the Massachusetts State House, and it was Fehmer who secured the design contract for the new school in Easton. The refined Colonial Revival school building features a central pavilion with an entrance set within an ornate stone architrave with a Classical entablature with central pediment. The school was outgrown in 1957 and became the town’s middle school, outgrown again in the 1990s. The town sold the school to a developer with preservation restrictions and it is now used as apartments!

North Easton Railroad Station // 1884

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Frederick Lothrop Ames (1835-1893) was born in Easton, MA, the son of Oliver Ames Jr. who ran the Ames Shovel Works in town. On the death of his father in 1877, Frederick became head of the Ames & Sons Corporation also inheriting upwards of six million dollars, which he invested in railroads. From this, he eventually became Vice President of the Old Colony Railroad and director of the Union Pacific railroad. At the time of his death, Ames was reported to be the wealthiest person in Massachusetts! Due to his role for the Old Colony Railroad, Ames had a rail station built in his hometown, adjacent to his family’s factory. Henry Hobson Richardson, who designed many other buildings in town for the Ames Family, designed this station in his signature Richardsonian Romanesque style with its large arches, varied rustication of stone, and brownstone trimming. The building was completed two years before Richardson’s death. Rail service here was cut in the 1950s, allowing the Ames family in 1969 to buy the station back from the consolidated New York Central Railroad, gifting it to the Easton Historical Society.

Abbott Memorial Library // 1905

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Gifted to the town of Pomfret by Ira Abbott, the Abbott Memorial Library is one of the most stunning little libraries in the State of Vermont. Given to his hometown as a memorial to his parents by Ira Abbott, who was at that time a State Supreme Court justice in the territory of New Mexico. Its architect, Henry M. Francis, used diverse materials — brick, granite, fieldstone, red birch, and pre-stressed concrete, to design the eclectic building. Capped with a red slate roof with terra cotta ridge tiles, the building stands out as one of the most unique buildings in the state and has been extremely well-maintained through its public-privately funded Commission.

Pomfret Records Building // 1904

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This little brick building may appear like a schoolhouse, but it was actually built to house the 1761 Town Charter for Pomfret, Vermont. The building is believed to have been built in honor of Hosea Doten (1809-1886), who was an engineer, school teacher, and land surveyor in Windsor County Vermont, with his former students constructing the building. It was built nearby the Town Hall and Clerk’s Office and features a fire-proof walk-in vault inside.

Strong’s Block // 1896

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William C. Strong, a prominent local citizen who resided nearby, had this stylish commercial block built to serve the expanding population of the village which eventually became known as Waban. After the completion of the Waban Train Station, the demand for neighborhood retail became apparent and William Strong was an early developer to realize this. He hired Lewis Bacon, an architect who resided nearby, to design the commercial block. The result is a stunning Dutch Revival building with gables showcasing stepped parapets. The upper stories were apparently used as apartments when completed. Notwithstanding Strong’s efforts, the Waban commercial district developed rather slowly. It was not until 1924 that the row of one-story shops was added to its right. The addition was designed by Edward B. Stratton, who followed suit with Tudor and Jacobean motifs, to compliment the Dutch Revival block.

Lewis H. Bacon House // 1892

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Another architect-designed home for their own use in Waban Village in Newton, is this house on Chestnut Street. Built in 1892, the Colonial Revival home is set far off the street with a commanding presence and symmetrical facade. The home was designed and occupied by Lewis Howard Bacon (1857-1941), a former chairman of the Newton board of appeals and a member of the school committee and the board of aldermen in Newton, also a practicing architect. He studied architecture in the office of Samuel Lane, architect of Cleveland, 1877-80, when he moved to Boston as a draughtsman and supervisor of construction for the firm of Sturgis & Brigham, 1880-1886. For four years he was a member of the firm of Morrison & Bacon (1888-1892), before embarking on his own practice in an office in Downtown Boston. He resided in this home until his health failed and he moved to a nursing home where he died.

Capt. Charles Leonard House // 1805

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This stunning home on Main Street in Agawam, MA, was built in 1805 as a high-style Federal home. The property was developed for Captain Charles Leonard (1764-1814) who purchased twenty-five acres of land on the eastern side of Main Street at the center of town. Leonard was a graduate of Harvard University who later turned to farming. He attained the rank of Captain while serving in the local militia, and was known by that title thereafter. It was in 1805 that Leonard constructed Agawam’s fourth tavern on the western end of his property to serve travelers as the first stop on the Hartford to Boston stage run. He likely hired a local builder who took inspiration from Asher Benjamin’s early plan books. The home was later converted to apartment units until it was purchased and restored by Minerva Davis, a wealthy citizen from town, who then created a board of trustees to operate the building as Agawam’s Community House.