Southport was and still is a part of Fairfield, Connecticut, but it has long been very different from the geographic center of town. Largely due to distance, Fairfield Congregationalists in the Southport area of town sought to establish a new parish to worship closer to home. By the 1840s, their request was granted and a small wood-frame Greek Revival house of worship was built in 1843. By 1871, the increase in population and wealth in the village necessitated a new, larger church. The congregation hired the architectural team of Lambert and Bunnell who made a huge statement here! It is constructed of granite ashlar masonry with a steeply pitched roof and soaring spires.
The Southport Chronicle reported on March 1, 1871 that “W. W. Wakeman, is about to erect, on the Hill, a very handsome residence”. The house would be built on Harbor Road in Southport, and was for his sister-in-law, a widow, Sarah Ann Fowler Wakeman and her two daughters, Mary and Frances. The Bridgeport-based architectural firm of Lambert & Bunnell (made up of Henry A. Lambert and Rufus W. Bunnell) teamed up to furnish the plans for this stately Second Empire style mansion. Sarah died in 1872, and the house was occupied by her daughters until 1913.
The Trinity Episcopal Church in the Southport section of Fairfield, Connecticut was established in 1725. As the parish and town grew, a large and architecturally stunning church was erected in 1862, and housed services for some of the wealthiest and well-connected residents of Connecticut. During Rev. Edward Wells’ rectorship, it was decided that a parish school was needed, and as an ardent believer in religious training, he started planning for a new chapel for use as a school. The Trinity Parish Chapel was designed by Southport architects Disbrow & Taylor and erected 1871-72. This Gothic Revival building is an excellent example of the rural church architecture which enjoyed widespread popularity throughout the country during the mid 19th century. Designed on a simple rectangular and decorative wooden bell cote, the small chapel’s board-and-batten siding and modest though strong Gothic details create a composition which compliments the more grand church just steps away. The chapel was originally built as a free-standing building, but was connected by a large, brick addition in the 20th century.
This imposing Greek Revival house is located in Southport and is one of a handful of the stunning Classically designed mansions near the waterfront. The house was built in 1843 for Oliver Perry a Yale Law School graduate who did not work in law, but became a successful merchant and businessman instead. Oliver H. Perry established his fortune as a shipowner and a merchant and was Treasurer and Director of the Southport National Bank. He was active in civic affairs and served as speaker of the house of the Connecticut General Assembly and commissioner to survey and settle the border dispute between Connecticut and New York. His Southport house is a stunning example of the Greek Revival style in the temple form with a two-story projecting pedimented portico supported by four Doric columns.
One of the finest examples of Italianate residential architecture in the state of Connecticut can be found in Fairfield in the Sturges House. This property was built in 1855 for Henry Sturges Thorp a New York City merchant from a Fairfield family and his wife Julia Ann Thorp, likely as a summer home away from the city. Both Henry and Julia died in 1869 and the property was acquired by Frederick Sturges, the son of Jonathan Sturges a wealthy businessman and philanthropist who had a stunning early Gothic Revival mansion nearby. The Sturges House as it is now known, is a landmark example of the Italianate style with broad overhanging eaves, massive belvedere at the roof, round arched windows, and the tripartite blind windows capped by an elaborate cornice.
Not many buildings in Greenfield Hill, Fairfield, Connecticut showcase the neighborhood’s transition from farming community to affluent suburb quite as well as this stone barn turned house on Hillside Road. The stone barn was constructed around c.1895 for Frederic Bronson Jr. (1851-1900) a prominent New York attorney and treasurer of the New York Life and Trust Company which was founded by his grandfather, Isaac Bronson. In about 1892, Frederic demolished his ancestral home and hired architect Richard Morris Hunt to design a new country estate for his family. The house was called Verna and is also located in Fairfield. Today Verna is known best as the Fairfield County Day School. As with many wealthy men of the Gilded Age, Frederic wanted his rural retreat to also work as a gentleman’s farm, where he could have staff farm and tend to livestock on the expansive rolling hills bounded by historic stone walls. He appears to have had this barn built for his livestock shortly after the main house, Verna was completed nearby. Bronson died in 1900 and some of the property was later sold off. This property was acquired by a Charles Stillman in 1941 and it is likely him that converted the barn into a charming residence.
Some towns have the best (and high quantity of) examples of Colonial Revival houses in New England, and Fairfield, Connecticut is definitely one of those towns! This house on Barlow Road was erected in 1927 by Harold Camp Bullard (1879-1949), an engineer at the Bullard Machine Tool Company of Bridgeport, which was started by his father. The architect of the house is unknown, but the property stands out for its bold proportions, prominent Palladian window over the rounded entry portico, and rounded dormers at the gambrel roof.
While the Greenfield Hill section of Fairfield, Connecticut has some of the grandest houses (old and new) in the state, there are some more average size homes that just ooze charm and curb appeal. This example on Hillside Road, dates to the 1810s and was seemingly built by Alban Bradley (1767-1832) on land inherited by him from his late father, Seth Bradley. The family farmed on the land from this Federal period farmhouse until it sold out of the family by Alban’s only son, Burritt in 1825. Burritt sold the farm to Zalmon Wakeman who farmed on the many acres of valuable land there. Sometime before his death before the Civil War, the house was “modernized” with Italianate-style porch, which is supported by delicate cut trelliswork. This is a great illustration as to how modest renovations which apply up-to-date decorative details can be done to historic properties without compromising the original structure or its architectural integrity.
Richard Varick Dey (1801-1837) was a young divinity student from New York City, attending the Theological Seminary in New Brunswick, New Jersey, when he met Lavinia Agnes Scott (1805-1886). Dey was the son of prominent New York attorney Anthony Dey and Catharine Laidlie; Catherine’s father, the Rev. Archibald Laidlie, was the first minister called to preach in English in the Dutch Church in New York City. Richard and Lavinia fell in love and became engaged on December 27, 1820. However, Lavinia’s parents were opposed to Richard, and her father even asked Richard’s theology professors at Rutgers to try to discourage his pursuit of Lavinia. It did not work and they married in September 1822. After graduating from the Seminary in 1822, Richard was licensed by the Congregationalists and the young couple moved to Greenfield Hill, in Fairfield, Connecticut, where he preached from 1822-1829. Local history states that it was actually Lavinia who designed this house in 1823 for their family and oversaw the builders during its construction. The Federal style house stands out for its clear Dutch form with its roof projecting to create a recessed verandah, likely influenced by the couple’s New York/New Jersey upbringing.
Reverend Dey, Lavinia, and their children relocated to New York City, and Richard preached at a number of churches the before he died unexpectedly in 1837, leaving his 32-year-old widow with four young children. Lavinia remained in New York, where she served as the manager of The Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children for over 25 years. She never would remarry and died in 1886.
This stunning gambrel-roofed Georgian manse is located on Bronson Road in Fairfield’s Greenfield Hill neighborhood, a well-preserved in the northern part of town with large historic homes on large lots. The Pomeroy-Belden House was built in about 1760 for Seth Pomeroy (1733-1770), the son of Seth Pomeroy Sr. (1706-1777) a gunsmith and soldier from Northampton, Massachusetts, who served in King George’s War, the French and Indian War, and the Revolutionary War (at nearly seventy years old). Seth Jr. graduated from Yale in 1753, and would accept the call as the minister of the Greenfield Hill Congregational Church from 1757 until his death in 1770. He had this stately house built for his family during his time as minister. After his death, the house was purchased by Captain David Hubbell who used it as a store until it was purchased by Reverend William Belden, who served as pastor of the Greenfield Hill Congregational Church from 1812-1821. The Georgian mansion features a central double-door entry with traditional door surround, later shingle siding and a gambrel, wood shingle roof punctuated by three small dormers.
Buildings of New England 