The Captain John Clark Housein Canterbury, Connecticut, is one of the finest examples of the Federal style of architecture in New England, and has remained in a fine state of preservation since its construction in the early 19th century. The house was built by 1802 for John Clark (1731-1834), who purchased an earlier home on the site from and had it either taken down or enlarged to its present appearance. The mansion is symmetrical with five bays, central entry and twin chimneys projecting through the hipped roof. The central bay is a showstopper with its triangular pediment at the roofline containing a fanlight, Palladian window at the second floor, and main entrance with its own pediment, sidelights, fanlight transom, all framed by two-story columns. The house’s south facade is equally beautiful with its own Palladian window and entrance.
Built c.1805 for Elisha Payne, this architecturally distinguished Federal style mansion in Canturbury, Connecticut is one of the most significant buildings in the state, not only for its architecture but historical significance. In 1831, a young white woman, Prudence Crandall, was asked to open a boarding school for girls in Canterbury. She purchased this mansion and began operations for the school, which was attended by many wealthy girls in town. In 1832, Ms. Crandall was approached by a young Black girl who worked as a servant in town, named Sarah Harris, asking to attend the school. Encouraged by conversations with both Harris and Maria Davis, a Black woman who worked for Crandall and shared copies of the abolitionist newspaperThe Liberatorwith her, Crandall agreed to admit Harris. Almost immediately, residents protested the school’s admission of a Black girl and parents threatened to withdraw their students, Crandall undeterred, closed her school and reopened in 1833, solely for Black and Brown students. Young girls traveled from several states to attend the school. The legislature of Connecticut responded by passing the “Black Law,” which prevented out-of-state Black and Brown people from attending school in Connecticut towns without local town approval. Crandall was arrested, spent one night in jail, and faced three court trials before the case was dismissed. In September 1834, a nighttime mob of men attacked the house, smashing the windows, leading Crandall to close the school out of fear for her students as no protections were afforded to them. These events made national and international news in the 1830s and galvanized the burgeoning abolitionist movement. Crandall would later marry and left Connecticut, never to return. For her vision and brave actions at this school, Prudence Crandall is Connecticut’s official state heroine and the house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1991.
Built in 1895 for Samuel Conant, president of a Pawtucket printing firm, this stately residence is one of the finest Colonial Revival houses in Central Falls, Rhode Island. Designed by the Providence architectural firm of Stone, Carpenter & Willson, the house is brick on the first floor with clapboard siding above. The Contant house has a gambrel roof punctuated by several gable dormers. The main facade has two symmetrical round bays, which rise to the roof and are topped by low balustrades. A single-story porch extends between the center points of these bays, and is also topped by a low balustrade. Recognized for its architectural grandeur (inside and out), the house was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Conant House is now used as a nursing home and while the transition to this new use has required a number of interior alterations, these changes have been made with sympathy for the character of the house and many of them are reversible.
The Valley Falls Mill sits along the Blackstone River in Central Falls, Rhode Island, and is one of the many significant industrial complexes which facilitated the development and growth of the city. The main building in the complex is the four-story rectangular building, constructed in 1849. To meet the requirements of fire resistance, the mill was constructed with load-bearing brick walls and heavy timber columns. Samuel B. and Harvey Chace, sons of Fall River mill owner Oliver Chace, built the mill on this site, influenced not only by the availability of water power, but also by the completion the same year of the Providence & Worcester Railroad, which passes by the mill on its east side. The mill was designed for the manufacture of a variety of cotton products. The Valley Falls Company merged with another industrial concern in 1929, and this mill was subsequently closed the following year. After decades of little-to-no use, the significant Valley Falls Mill was converted into senior housing in 1979 following its listing on the National Register of Historic Places. It ranks as one of the earliest mill conversion projects in New England and while some details were lost, it preserves a significant piece of local history and meets a much-needed demand of housing.
This brick, Federal style house, is located adjacent to the First Universalist Church of Salem amongst a sea of urban renewal-period housing, and is a reminder for Planners to think about the long-term implications in their work. This house was built in 1811 for Thomas Perkins, a local merchant whose brother was its first occupant. After successive ownership throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, in 1950, Bessie E. Monroe purchased the premises and moved into the home. When the city began urban renewal planning for the area in the 1960s, the building was occupied by Bessie Monroe, who at the time was an elderly woman. The Salem Redevelopment Authority acquired the house through eminent domain and the house was targeted for demolition. The Redevelopment Authority, concerned with how relocation would affect Bessie Monroe’s health, decided to take the property but allow Mrs. Monroe to live there until her death. This decision delayed the planned demolition of the building, even though all other targeted properties were demolished. Luckily, the renewal plan changed its focus from new construction to restoration of existing buildings between the time of the taking and Bessie Monroe’s death. The building was then sold to an owner interested in restoring the structure, now the building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a testament to the benefits of preservation over short-sighted planning policy.
Overlooking the Salem Common, this 1818 Federal style dwelling has served as everything from a single-family home to a boarding house and ultimately an assisted living facility, showcasing that old buildings can always be repurposed into new uses. The home was built for Captain John Forrester, son of Simon Forrester, one of Salem’s most successful merchants. The Forrester House was purchased in the 1830s by George Peabody, who added the one-story ballroom wing. Peabody lived in the house until 1892 and the building later housed the Salem Club, a men’s social organization with over two-hundred well-connected members. In the 1920s, it became the Bertram Home for Aged Men, named after Captain John Bertram, who founded the organization in 1877 as a charitable residence providing housing and socialization space for aged men in Salem. The home had fallen into disrepair when it was closed in 1988, to reopen two years later as the first free-standing assisted living community for men and women in Massachusetts, today known as the Bertram House.
The Riccar Inn, now known as the Presidential Inn, was constructed in 1913 on the grounds of the former Poland Springs House. The structure was the last of the hotel buildings constructed by the Ricker family, who started the resort aimed at drawing in tourists to take in the area’s natural healing waters. The annex hotel building was named Riccar Inn, with the spelling “Riccar” from the historic surname used by members of the family before they emigrated to America. The Queen Anne/Colonial Revival style hotel building survived the 1975 fire that destroyed the main hotel, the Poland Springs House. Architecturally grand, this three-story irregular plan hotel has a flat roof and features a four-story projecting double bay in the front facade topped with two octagonal towers. While covered in vinyl siding, much of the original ornament still shines (and there is likely more underneath the siding to be uncovered at a future date). What a beautiful building.
Built in 1886, Mallett Hall is one of the most interesting and significant buildings in the small town of Pownal, Maine. The town is located equidistant to the larger cities of Portland, Brunswick, and Lewiston, but retains a very rural charm. This hall was built following a town meeting on March 15, 1886, where an article was approved to appoint a committee charged with developing plans and estimates for a new town hall. The hall is named after Edmund Mallett, a businessman who partially funded its construction. The architect is not officially known, but estimates guess it was the work of Francis Fassett, a popular architect at the time in the area. In addition to housing town offices and functions, it has also served as a community center, hosting social events. The Colonial Revival style building takes strong cues from Greek Revival meeting houses in the area but exhibits a Palladian window and fanlight in the pediment.
Located at the corner of Causeway and Portland streets in the Bulfinch Triangle Historic District of Boston, you will find the Peter Bent Brigham Building, one of the best examples of the Richardsonian Romanesque architecture style in the city. The building was built by the estate of Peter Bent Brigham (1807-1877), an interesting character in Boston’s history. Peter B. Brigham was born in Vermont and eventually moved to Boston and began his career selling fish and oysters in Boston. A self-made, hardworking man, Peter would eventually own a restaurant in the city and began making connections with the movers and shakers of town. With his success, he began investing in real estate and would become a founding director of the Fitchburg Railroad. Peter died in 1877, he never married nor had children. His estate valued in the millions and was to be spent 25 years after his death, for a hospital “for the care of sick persons in indigent circumstances”. The money appreciated to $2,000,000 by 1902 and was used to establish the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, now Brigham and Women’s Hospital. His family, who also received a substantial amount of money in the will, built this building, hiring the firm of Hartwell & Richardson to design the 1888 corner and the later, larger 1891 addition. The commercial building was rented to stores and professionals and even retains Peter B. Brigham’s name in the facade carved in terra cotta.
Wadsworth Hall is a significant and hidden estate house located in rural Hiram, Maine. The house was built in 1800 for Peleg Wadsworth (1748-1829), an officer during the American Revolutionary War and a Congressman from Massachusetts representing the District of Maine. He was also grandfather of noted American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. General Wadsworth’s primary residence, now known as the Wadsworth-Longfellow House in Portland, Maine, was built in 1785–86. Following the war, Wadsworth was granted 7,800 acres of land by the state in 1790 for his war service, the land was located here in Hiram. General Wadsworth would build this large Federal period home. After, he gave his Portland home to his daughter Zilpah and her husband Stephen Longfellow, parents of the poet Henry W. Longfellow. Wadsworth, in his role as a leading citizen in Hiram, opened his house for meetings and town functions, and even used the large hall for militia drills during bad weather.
The Witter House of Chaplin, Connecticut was built in 1821 and owned by three generations of medical doctors all named Orin Witter. The Witter House stands on Chaplin Street and is among the finest Federal style residences in this part of the state. Orin Witter had the house built just before the town was incorporated in 1822 and would also serve as the town’s first Clerk. The Witter House is five bays wide, with paired chimneys at the ends of the hip roof. The centered entrance is flanked by arched sidelight windows and has a fanlight above. The fanlight detail is echoed by semi-elliptical fan louvers above each window. The roof has a monitor section at its center. Due to its architectural merit and state of preservation, the house was individually listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
One of the most unique houses in Connecticut is this massive Federal style residence located in the small town of Eastford. Built next to the Congregational Church of Eastford (1829-2023), which burned down in 2023 by arson, the massive house has been known as both the Benjamin Bosworth House and Squire Bosworth’s Castle due to its first owner, Benjamin Bosworth (1762-1850). According to the Bosworth Family, the house was built in 1800 by Bosworth was a wealthy merchant, who hired Vini Goodell, a local carpenter to design and build the large Federal home. The house was completed by 1801 when the local Masonic group met in the building. As Bosworth was also a merchant, he used the basement as a storeroom. The house is also unusual for its monitor roof, a rarity in Federal period construction, which reads like a second structure on the house, due to the building’s size. After Bosworth’s death, the house was occupied by his niece, and was later purchased by Elisha Grant Trowbridge in 1897. Trowbridge was a grand-nephew of General Nathaniel Lyon (1818-1861), a local hero who was the first Union general killed during the Civil War. Trowbridge, an engineer, lived here until he died in 1963 at the age of 96. Later owners have had the monumental task of restoring and maintaining this behemoth of a house, to great success.
The Derby House Hotel is located on Main Street in Derby Center, Vermont and was built in 1896 by Ms. Luvia A. Rickard, a widow. Since its construction, the hotel has been at the center of both the commercial and social activities of Derby Center and is one of the town’s few Second Empire style buildings. While built in the Second Empire style, then in declining use in Vermont, the Derby House Hotel was adorned with high-style touches including elaborately detailed porches and hardware. The rear section afforded extra living space, and a livery stable/barn provided for the guests’ horses and carriages. Luvia ran the hotel for extra income until her death in 1905. It appears that after, her son Harry took over the hotel for a few years until he sold the property to Albert C. Fellows, a local businessman. Tourism never really took-off in the early-mid decades of the 20th century, and the hotel was converted to apartments, a use that remains to this day.
The Lewis June House sits on North Salem Road in northern Ridgefield, Connecticut, and is one of the finest Second Empire style homes in this part of the state. The c.1865 home was built for Lewis June (1824-1888), who was in the circus business, and it replaced an earlier home on the site that burned. Lewis June was a partner in the June, Titus and Angevine & Co. Circus that as early as 1842 toured 85 towns in six states. The circus wintered in Ridgefield. Past owners have since found many horseshoes, largely of small horses, on the property, suggesting that June kept the circus’ horses and ponies on this property. The home has been preserved thoughtfully and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
In 1782, Stephen Chase (1740-1821) settled in present-day Unity, Maine, and built the first frame house there to establish a community. After Stephen’s death, his son, Hezekiah Chase (1774-1848) built this brick, Federal period home for his family, moving his father’s wood-frame house and adding it onto the rear, which remains there to this day. Hezekiah was a judge and was involved in town affairs ever since it was established. The bricks were made locally and were of fine quality. Hezekiah’s son George C. Chase (1844-1919) was raised here. He attended Bates College in its second class, and eventually became a professor of English there. In 1894 he became the second president of Bates College and oversaw a period of significant growth at the college. Chase became known as “The Great Builder” at the college. The old Chase House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places both for its architectural merit and its history and significance to the town and region.
Buildings of New England 