connecticut blog

John T. Andrew Carriage House – Cornwall Historical Society Building // c.1865

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This ornate carriage house on Pine Street in Cornwall, Connecticut was built by John T. Andrew around 1865 adjacent to his late 18th century home in the village. Andrews was born in Bethany, Connecticut in 1811, graduated from Yale College in 1839, becoming a minister and later a teacher. For health reasons he left both professions and turned to farming and stonework. After Andrews’s death the property was purchased in 1890 by Charles Marsh, a local undertaker, and his wife Inez. In 1954 the barn was converted to a home by their daughter, the town librarian Emily Elizabeth Marsh, a charter member of the Cornwall Historical Society. In 1966, the Society raised funds to buy the building from her estate, but could do little to adapt it for their specific exhibit and storage needs. The Society restored the exterior to its original appearance, down to the brackets, round arched windows and cupola.

Barnes-Kellogg House // 1809

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The main village in Cornwall, Connecticut, looks like a postcard. Mature trees and beautiful, historic homes line the bucolic streets with sweeping views of the Litchfield Hills in the distance; it is what many envision when they think of “New England charm”. This stately Federal style mansion is sited deep on its lot beyond a field and dates to the first decades of the 19th century, it is the village’s grandest early home. The house was built for Amos Barnes, but supposedly remained unfinished when he died suddenly. Barnes’ widow sold the property to the local Foreign Mission School as a dormitory for students. The school’s (in my opinion, problematic) mission was to educate students of non-Christian cultures, including Native Americans, East Asian, and Hawaiian pupils, for them to become missionaries, preachers, translators, teachers, and health workers in their native communities in the Christian faith. These types of programs furthered the erasure of other cultures and promoted Christianity in all corners of the world, but I digress. In 1826, this home was acquired by Frederick Kellogg, the long-time town clerk and Judge of Probate, who owned the property
until his death in 1891.

John Northrop House // c.1814

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Cornwall’s Foreign Mission School, which began operations in 1817, was virtually unique in the United States, educating both Native Americans and young men from around the globe, including Hawaiian, Bengali, and Japanese. The school was created for the purpose of educating youths of “heathen” nations, to convert them to Christianity, educate them, and train them to become preachers, translators, and teachers back in their native lands. The problematic nature of the school’s seemingly forced assimilation, causing the erasure of cultures, paired with the disdain for foreign students in town lead to much animosity towards the school in Cornwall. The tension reached a head when in 1824, John Ridge, a student at the Foreign Mission School and the son of a Cherokee leader, began a courtship with Sarah Northrop, the white daughter of the school’s steward. A year later they married. Additionally, in 1826, another Foreign Mission School student, Elias Boudinot (John Ridge’s cousin), fell in love with a young Cornwall girl named Harriet Gold, they married in 1826. These marriages were generally opposed to and racism caused support for the school to dissolve, closing by 1827. This c.1814 house was the home of John Northrop, the father of Sarah Northrop, and steward to the Foreign Mission School. The family home, seen here, was also used to house some students while they attended the school. The Northrop House remains one of the few extant buildings with direct ties to this school. The house is one of 65 National Historic Landmarks in Connecticut.

Former Cornwall Public Library // 1908

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Constructed of random-coursed stone, this charming building in Cornwall, Connecticut, exhibits a prominent classical entry, Tuscan pilasters, and modillion eaves. This handsome structure was completed in late 1908 following a substantial donation to the town for it’s first purpose-built library by summer resident John E. Calhoun. Mr. Calhoun had cultivated an interest in architecture and is said to have designed the building, and later designed his own home in the village years later. The high-style architectural building documents the transformation of Cornwall from a sleepy agricultural town into a fashionable residential retreat in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The building operated as the town’s public library until 2002 when the contemporary library building was completed. This stone structure was converted to the town hall.

Cornwall Congregational Church // 1842

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The Cornwall Congregational Church in Cornwall, Connecticut, was erected at 8 Bolton Hill Road in 1842, replacing the colonial-era meetinghouse which had first stood on Old Meetinghouse Hill at Cornwall Center. When members of the church split into two separate congregations due to religious differences, the original congregation moved to South Cornwall in 1790. Another Congregational church was built in North Cornwall for the other group. This wonderful Greek Revival church reflects the enormous popularity the style in the first half of the 19th century. The structure rests on a stone block foundation and is sheathed with clapboard siding. The building incorporates a central entry of paired doors with a Greek Revival surround, flanked by 20/20 windows. The street elevation of the building is dominated by a monumental portico with pedimented gable, broad frieze and fluted Doric columns. The showstopper is the two-stage square belfry, each stage Doric columns and pilasters. The church is active today as the United Church of Christ and is often utilized for town events.

Dwight W. Pierce House // c.1850

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On land he acquired from family, Dwight Wellington Pierce (1816-1901) erected this large, temple-front Greek Revival estate just outside Cornwall Village in Litchfield County, Connecticut. Mr. Pierce farmed this land and built barns across the street from his residence on Popple Swamp Road, where he kept his livestock. The Pierce house is unique in Cornwall as a temple-front Greek Revival style house and features a two-story portico with four Doric columns, the center two are rounded and fluted with the ends square. The elongated house is seven bays wide and must have been quite the sight when it was built in the mid-19th century.

Pierce Homestead // c.1750

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Built before the American Revolution, this large Georgian residence is one of the oldest extant houses in the charming town of Cornwall, Connecticut. Located on Popple Swamp Road just outside the central village, the Pierce Homestead dates to circa 1750 (the sign dates the house to 1768, but information from the town history mentions a house there earlier) and is a stellar example of a simple, two-story Georgian house with five-bay facade and 12-over-12 sash windows. This property was purchased by Joshua Pierce in 1748 and included over 300-acres of farmland, the farmhouse was likely built within a matter of years. The house was likely expanded and modernized by his son, Seth Pierce, who inherited the property in the 1790s. The farm remained in the Pierce Family for generations and was lovingly restored in the 20th century. It is a great example of a well-preserved 18th century farmhouse in Litchfield County, Connecticut.

General John Sedgwick House // 1860

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The Major General John Sedgwick House is located in Cornwall Hollow, Connecticut, and stands out as one of the finest residences in this part of the state in a rural setting. The house was built by 1860 for General John Sedgwick (1813-1864), who was born in a house standing on this site, which had been built by his grandfather, a veteran of the Revolutionary War. In 1859, the Sedgwick family homestead burned to the ground. Sedgwick, then already well established in his military career, took leave to oversee construction of its replacement. This house was built, apparently on the foundation of the old house, in 1859–60. The work was done by Cyrus Marsh, a local builder, in the Italianate style with decorative brackets, window mouldings, hoods, and a large columned entry portico. Major General Sedgwick was active in many campaigns, and during the American Civil War, he was killed by a sharpshooter at the 1864 Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, he was the Union Army’s highest-ranking casualty of the war and never got to reside in his Cornwall home.

Adelphic Institute Building // 1847

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Located across from the North Cornwall Congregational Church in Cornwall, Connecticut, this vernacular, Greek Revival building was constructed by 1847 as the Adelphic Institute, a private school. The Adelphic Institute was founded by Ambrose Rogers, son of Deacon Noah Rogers of the Congregational Church in the village, on land and adjacent to the house he had inherited from his father. The school would eventually relocate to New Milford, Connecticut, in 1860 and this building was converted to a parsonage and meeting room for the church and village. It is now privately owned on the property of the old Rogers house.

North Cornwall Congregational Church // 1826

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During the nineteenth century several small rural settlements dotted the landscape in Cornwall, Connecticut. In 1782, a group of “strict Congregationalists” seceded from the established Congregational church in town and constructed a “second” church in Cornwall Center. Following this, the town was divided into north and south parishes, with First Church built on the town center and the Second Church, this building, constructed in North Cornwall village in 1826. The North Congregational church is among the town’s finest Federal style buildings in the region and features three entrances with fanlight transoms and the bays of the facade are broken up by two-story fluted pilasters.