Architecture Blog

Langley-Dudley Cottage // c.1870

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This charming mansard-roofed cottage can be found at 54 Prospect Hill Street in Newport, Rhode Island. While presently a residence, the cottage was originally built around 1870 as a stable or carriage house for the former Bowen-Newton-Tobin House at 204 Spring Street. After the Bowen heirs sold the property, this structure was owned by Mr. John S. Langley, an furniture dealer (who also made coffins and caskets) with the firm Langley & Bennett. The building may have been used for the storage of horses or as a workshop until it was purchased by Mary B. and Dudley Newton, a prominent local architect. They appear to have converted the former stable into a cottage, and rented the property out for additional income. In the renovation, Dudley Newton preserved much of the original detailing above the cornice, and altered openings to provide windows and doors convert the formerly utilitarian structure into a cottage.

Shaw-Thurston Double House // c.1760

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This pre-Revolutionary double-house is located at 128-130 Prospect Hill Street in the architectural historian paradise that is Newport, Rhode Island. This property was originally platted and purchased in 1752 by Anthony Shaw. By 1760, local papers advertised the property for sale, giving a built-by date. In 1777, the house was owned by Anthony Shaw Jr. and John Thurston. The property was purchased before the Civil War and went into single-ownership, which has remained to this day. The house, while seemingly a single-family, is preserved lovingly by the owners, who even retained the second front door!

Birdsey Hall // c.1804

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Built circa 1804 in the form of an English country estate house, Birdsey Hall stands as the finest property in the town of Goshen, Connecticut. The residence was built for Birdsey Norton (1763-1812), a wealthy cheese merchant who was said to have been inspired to build a country estate after travelling the American south on business. The high-style Federal/Adamesque mansion features expansive grounds bounded by brick walls and Victorian gardens. The property was later owned by Fred Favorite and Robert Devoe, friends of Liberace, who operated an antique store. Birdsey Hall remains one of the finest Federal estates in Connecticut.

Wright Homestead // 1767

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This large, brick gambrel-roofed Colonial home in West Goshen, Connecticut, was built over decades beginning before the American Revolution and has remained in the same family ever-since! In 1767, Captain Jabez Wright (1737-1813) married Martha Baldwin of Goshen, and began constructing this farmhouse of brick. When the war broke out, he fought in New York, he also served as captain of a company of Connecticut militia, turning out to repel the British forces at New Haven. He would largely complete the home by 1787, and ultimately died in 1813. After successive ownership of generations of the Wright family, the property was owned by Henry G. Wright (1831-1917), a farmer who represented Goshen in the state legislature and held many town positions. The first Methodist sermons in town were also held in the home. Henry Wright died at 86 years old on this property, after being attacked by a bull. When entertaining guests, he showed others a prized bull, and possibly fell into the pen, and was trampled and attacked. The Wright Homestead is unique for its brickwork with bonds and burned headers, resembling many Colonial-era homes in Virginia, but this house can be found on the back roads of Goshen, Connecticut!

Myron Norton House // 1840

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The Myron Norton House, built in 1840, is located in the central village in Goshen, Connecticut. Built of stone, the house is unique as the only example of a stone house in the village, and the only Greek Revival house that departs from the usual gable-roofed form, having a square plan and hipped roof with monitor. The home was built for Myron Norton (1788-1853) and his wife, Caroline (Marsh) Norton, who outlived her husband by 23 years, living here until her death in 1876. Myron Norton made his fortune patenting and selling pineapple cheese molds, where he pressed the curds from local cows in wooden pineapple-shaped molds to give them the desired shape. It is the house that cheese built!

Old Goshen Academy Building // 1824

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The former Goshen Academy building is located in the central village of the rural town of Goshen, Connecticut, and it is an important vestige of early education in the small town. The Goshen Academy building was built in 1824 from funds by shareholders of the institution. The academy featured a lecture room on the second floor with smaller classrooms downstairs. The academy would eventually close, and it has been occupied by the Goshen Historical Society.

Thompson-Sperry House // 1803

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In 1803, General David Thompson (1766-1827) and his wife, Sybil (Norton) Thompson, moved into this recently completed Federal style residence on North Street, the main road through Goshen Village, Connecticut. David Thompson was a merchant and partner in the firm Wadhams & Thompson, occupying a store nearby the Congregational Church. Business partners David Thompson and David Wadhams built near-identical houses across the street from each other, though the Wadhams house has since been gut renovated and lost much of its original fabric. The Thompson House stands out for its Palladian second-story window, glazed with interlacing arcs. The property was owned at the end of the 19th century by Albert Sperry, a Civil War veteran.

Old Goshen Town Hall – Goshen Players // 1895

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The first purpose-built official town building of Goshen, Connecticut, was this wood-frame structure at the main junction in the central village as the town’s first town hall. Built in 1895, the structure originally housed offices for the selectmen and town clerk, a fireproof vault for records, and a large audience-room with stage for town meetings and ceremonies. The building employs a more traditional form similar to the old Greek Revival meetinghouses built in New England in the first half of the 19th century, but with a shingled, Victorian entry tower with bell roof. When the Town of Goshen moved into its present town hall building, this structure became the home to the Goshen Players, a community theatre established in 1949, and is the second oldest continuously performing theatre group in the state.

Lavalette Perrin House // c.1844

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The perfect whimsical blending of the Classical Greek Revival and the intricate details of the Carpenter Gothic styles can be found under one roof in Goshen, Connecticut; this is the Lavalette Perrin House. Built c.1844 for Lavalette Perrin (1816-1889), who graduated from Yale in 1840, and became licensed to preach in 1843. Reverend Perrin was in his late 20s when he accepted the call to become the pastor of Goshen’s Congregational Church in 1843. Upon arriving to town, he had this residence built soon after, blending two differing styles in a blissful composition. Perrin remained in Goshen until he was called to New Britain in 1858, where he remained until his death. Unique architectural features of the home include the flushboard siding, pilaster-and-lintel framed doors and windows (very rare in this form), and wave-like bargeboards. What a special home!

Goshen Congregational Church // 1832

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The town of Goshen, located in Litchfield County, is located in the northwestern part of Connecticut was first settled by European colonizers in 1738, with the town incorporating a year later. The community was named after the Land of Goshen, a part of ancient Egypt in the Bible. Goshen primarily grew as rural and agricultural in character, with limited industry and commercialization compared to other nearby towns. The town center village was home to the Congregational Church as far back as 1750. In 1832, the present Congregational Church was built from plans by Benjamin E. Palmer, a carpenter-builder who also built the Windham County Courthouse in Brooklyn, Connecticut. The church blends both Federal and Greek Revival styles, and Palmer likely took inspiration from Asher Benjamin’s design guidebooks. The church retains much of its original character even with the altered steeple, porte-cochere, and conversion of three-door facade to a single-entrance in 1894.