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.
Located next to his son’s house, the Edwin Sherwood House in Southport, Connecticut is an excellent example of Greek Revival residential architecture in New England. The home was built in 1837 for Edwin Sherwood, a sea captain who traded between New York and Savannah with his two ships “America” and “Georgia”. From this wealth, he became President of the Southport Savings Bank and Director of the Danbury-Norwalk Railroad. The home was renovated in 2017 with a modern interior by Ken Gemes, an interior designer.
Walking around Southport Village in the town of Fairfield, Connecticut, transports you to an early-mid 19th century town with large Federal and Greek Revival homes overlooking Southport Harbor and the Long Island Sound. This home on Westway Road was built around 1830 for Augustus Jennings (1814-1886), the son of Captain Abraham Gould Jennings. Augustus became a carriage maker in Southport before founding Jennings Brothers, a paper manufacturing company; which in 1867, began to produce Japanese paper products. The Jennings House was originally located near the Pequot Library, but was relocated in 1899, which was likely when the central shingled gable at the roof with Palladian window was added.
This homestead in Fairfield, Connecticut is situated on the edge of what was formerly called Pequot Swamp, and was originally built by Stephen Osborn in 1772. It is said to be the third Colonial dwelling erected in this part of the town and was left undisturbed by the British when they burned Fairfield in 1779 and raided various sections of the country along the shore. The home was originally located a few blocks away, but was moved in the 1950s when the highway (I-95) was routed through this part of Fairfield. The saltbox Georgian home was documented prior to the move by the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS).
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.
In Fairfield, Connecticut, land owned by Timothy Dwight, a minister and eighth President of Yale, a large farm once stood. The year after he was appointed to his position at Yale, he sold his farm Verna Farm, in 1796 to Isaac Bronson. The farm was eventually inherited by his grandson, Frederic Bronson. Dwight’s eighteenth-century house was eventually torn down in 1891 by Frederic’s son, Frederic Bronson, a wealthy New York City lawyer and socialite, who was included in Ward McAllister‘s “Four Hundred“, purported to be an index of New York’s best families, published in The New York Times. In 1892, Bronson hired starchitect Richard Morris Hunt, one of the greatest American architects of all time, to design a new country estate here. In 1933, the Bronson estate was acquired by W. A. Morschhauser, who had the house remodeled and made smaller in 1900; removing the third story and reducing the number of rooms from 42 to 13! Since 1949, the property has been occupied by the Fairfield Country Day School. The windmill as part of the estate was eventually gifted to the Town of Fairfield.
On July 7-8, 1779, the Red Coats marched through Fairfield torching houses to punish the locals for seeking independence. They killed locals, destroying anything they could find on their way out, setting fires to homes and civic buildings around the Green. This home was built by Isaac Tucker, later sold to Jonathan Maltbie, sea captain involved with East Indies trade. He later would fight against the British during the Revolution, and after the war, was hired as captain on one of the first cutter ships built, the Argus. During the British invasion of Fairfield, they attempted to set fire to this home three times, but it seemed to never go up in flames when they returned. The tradition holds that an elderly servant, hiding upstairs, put out the flames and saved the house from destruction, after the British Troops torched it. Burn marks apparently remain inside to this day. Since the home was built, the front door facing the street was relocated to the side, and a large multi-pane bay window was installed in its place.
Located at the Fairfield Town Green, the Georgian-style Fairfield County Courthouse stands as a reminder on the town of Fairfield’s Colonial-era history. The first courthouse at the site was built in 1720. After a fire destroyed the first (which housed the jail as well), a second structure was built in 1767. That second courthouse was the center of a thriving, wealthy village with a port just blocks away. In July 1779, the British landed in Fairfield and destroyed much of the town, harming its prosperity for decades to come (though it has clearly recovered since). In 1794, a new courthouse was built, also housing town offices. In 1870, it became solely a town hall (the County Court moved to Bridgeport years before) modified and altered in the Second Empire style to ‘modernize’ the building. As Colonial Revival resurged in popularity in the late 19th and early 20th- centuries, the town sought to bring back the Georgian style Town Hall building, in 1936 hiring architect Cameron Clark, to restore the building.
Set back from tree-lined Main Street in Suffield, the Phelps-Hatheway House is but one of many handsome eighteenth and nineteenth century homes in the town. The house began construction sometime between 1732-1762 as a modest gable-roof Georgian home built by Abraham Burbank. In 1788, the home was purchased by Oliver Phelps. at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, Phelps joined the Continental Army and fought in the Battle of Lexington. He left service in 1777 and, relying on his experience as a merchant, became Massachusetts Superintendent of Purchases of Army Supplies, a Deputy Commissary of the Continental Army. He was introduced to Robert Morris, the great financier of Revolutionary times. He supplied troops and received commendation from George Washington for his efforts. After the war ended, he became a prominent businessman and was elected to the Massachusetts Senate in 1785 and served on the Governor’s council in 1786 (Suffield was still a part of Massachusetts at this point).
Upon returning, Phelps hired architect Asher Benjamin (when he was in his early 20s!) to redesign the home into a gambrel roof mansion and construct numerous additions to make the house a suitable home for a wealthy, sophisticated man such as himself. Phelps was a principal in the Phelps and Gorham Purchase of six million acres of land in upstate New York, making him one of the nation’s largest landowners. Phelps lived here until 1802, when he moved to Canandaigua, New York, to more closely oversee the development and sale of his holdings. Phelps or his heirs sold the house, which was purchased by Asahel Hatheway and it remained in the Hatheway family for a century. It is now owned by Connecticut Landmarks and operates as a house museum.
In 1795, Ebenezer King bought 26 acres of land on Main Street in Suffield, Connecticut for the development of his own house. He at the time was in the height of his prosperity and was estimated of having a net worth of $100,000. He eventually sold his property in 1811 to William Gay, who was a leading lawyer in Hartford County, and the postmaster of Suffield, actually running the town’s post office out of this home for over 30 years. The home is currently owned by Suffield Academy as the headmaster’s home. It is an excellent example of Federal style architecture and features two Palladian windows!
Buildings of New England 
