Mansfield Historical Society, CT: January 2012

1.31.2012

Romance in Old Mansfield

Valentine's Day is two weeks away, and as the world freckles with pink and red hearts, we at the Mansfield Historical Society are remembering one of the town's famous romances.

Edwin Sullivan Fitch was born in 1812 in Windham, Connecticut. He probably did not come from much money because he apprenticed to a carpenter-builder as a young man. Taking to the craft, he completed a house in Coventry when he was 21 years old.

The following year, in 1834, Fitch was boarding in Mansfield when he met and fell in love with the daughter of Dr. Jabez Adams, a prominent town physician. One can imagine that Alice Adams must have been very lovely. In any event, young Edwin seemed to think so. He himself would later be remembered by a local resident for his “sparkling black eyes, and genial manners” – in short, “[h]e was a handsome man” (Marsh).

Edwin Fitch, then, with his bright dark eyes and pleasant ways, determined to marry his beloved. In order to persuade Alice’s father of the match’s suitability, Fitch resolved to build her the handsomest house in all of Mansfield. On October 17, 1835, he purchased from Isaac Arnold an imposing hilltop lot in Mansfield Center. The following year, he built Alice the grandest home the town had ever seen.

In the words of scholar Lloyd Grosvenor Marsh, it was “the most monumental and contemporary of houses” (Marsh). The building was in the Greek Revival style, with a magnificent Grecian portico upheld by two fluted Ionic columns, and with a thickly ornate front door. In designing and building the house, Fitch had demonstrated a talent for architecture as well as carpentry, and the house served to launch his career.

Meanwhile, Fitch had won over Dr. Adams. The sweethearts married and moved into their new home.

Unfortunately, Mr. and Mrs. Fitch’s idyllic stay in the house was terminated when Edwin’s tax loans and unpaid mortgage caught up with him. He declared bankruptcy in 1843 and sold the northerly half of the estate to silk manufacturer Edmund Golding and his family. Thus the two families lived side by side.

One might imagine that the strains of house-sharing proved great for both parties. By this point, the Fitches had four children. In 1848, the youngest son Jabez died. At this point, Fitch sold his half of the mansion to Golding and built his own family a new home on nearby Centre Street. On the property, which abutted that of the Adamses, Fitch also built himself a barn and a carpenter’s shop. This second home was simpler but still elegant. The house stayed in the family until 1968.

Both of the Fitches’ homes still stand in Mansfield Center. The former is now a bed and breakfast and the latter is a private residence. On this last day of January, 178 years after Edwin Fitch and Alice Adams first met, we salute the lingering reminders of one of Mansfield’s dearest love stories.

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If You’d Like to Learn More:

· “About the Fitch House.”About Us. The Fitch House Bed and Breakfast. 2010. Web. 30 Jan. 2012.

· Favretti, Rudy J., Kenneth Forman, Roberta K. Smith, and James Slater. Historic Mansfield Center: Site of the Earliest Settlement of Mansfield, Connecticut. Mansfield, Conn.: Mansfield Historical Society, 2002.

· Marsh, Lloyd Grosvenor. Selections from “Edwin S. Fitch of Mansfield: A Connecticut Builder-Architect, 1830-1860. Thesis for M.A. Storrs, Conn.: University of Connecticut, 1970.

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Please click here for the Mansfield Historical Society's website, which includes further information about the Society's services, programs, and publications, as well as archived articles and newsletters.

1.24.2012

View from the Archives: Storrs Sewing Club, 1914

Today we tend to consider ourselves residents of a record-breakingly fast-paced world. Though this is indubitably the case, the world of the photograph above was a radically changing one as well. The image, taken in 1914, represents an era of transformation for the town of Mansfield and its people.

In this photograph from the Mansfield Historical Society’s archives, the members of Connecticut’s first 4-H sewing club pose on a lawn at the Connecticut Agricultural College. The 4-H movement grew from public university researchers’ realization that rural youth could take a large and important role in introducing new agricultural practices to their communities. In 1913, the Mansfield Corn Club was formed in Mansfield. This was the state’s first 4-H club, though others quickly followed including the Storrs Sewing Club, which formed the next year.

The Storrs Sewing Club brought together girls from villages and areas across Mansfield—Gurleyville, Eagleville, Four Corners, and Storrs—who walked to Storrs for each meeting. Ethel Cously, club head, was on the staff of the Agricultural College. In the foreground of this picture, Cously and the girls smile toward the camera. They are doubtless pleased to represent their new club, and the weather looks fair and bright. But we may speculate additional reasons for their happiness.

The College, on the grounds of which the girls stand, had recently undergone several exciting changes. At the time the photograph was taken, the College was a mere 33 years old. Begun as the Storrs Agricultural School in 1881 with three faculty members and 13 male students, the institution quickly expanded in numbers and scope.

In 1890, Gold Hall (a men’s dormitory) and “Old Main” (the main administrative building) were built. These are the buildings just barely visible in the upper left corner of the photograph. During the same year in which Gold Hall and Old Main were built, Mansfield resident Nellie Wilson became the first female to attend classes at the School. Thus in posing proudly in front of the buildings, the members of the Storrs Sewing Club were grounding themselves in a larger system of accomplishments and gains.

In 1893, the School changed its name to the Storrs Agricultural College and, in a measure passed by the Connecticut General Assembly, officially opened its doors to female pupils. The following year, three women graduated from the College. In 1899, the College was again renamed, becoming the Connecticut Agricultural College. (It would be renamed twice more, first as the Connecticut State College in 1933, and finally as the University of Connecticut in 1939.) In 1914, the same year in which this photograph was taken, Alan Thacker Busby became the first African-American student to enroll at the institution.

Within four decades, the college formed, began admitting females and African-Americans, and was already working on transforming Mansfield from a quiet system of rural villages to the bustling college town it is today. On a sunny day in 1914, 21 girls and one woman stood on the grounds of a campus that was bursting with change. They formed a wide circle, stretched their arms wide, and smiled. The image was frozen; the figures were not. They, and the world around them, left that moment and continued moving forward.

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If You’d Like to Learn More:

· A Guide to the 4-H Club Work in Mansfield Exhibit. 1995. Print. Mansfield Historical Society Archives.

· Bull, Nancy H. et al. 4-H Youth Development in Connecticut 1952-2002: An Overview of Who We Are and What We Remember. Storrs, Conn.: UConn, 2002. Print.

· “History.” About 4-H. National 4-H Council. 2012. Web. 20 Jan. 2012.

· “Timeline.” The UConn Story. University of Connecticut. 2006. Web. 20 Jan. 2012.

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1.17.2012

Standing Strong after 169 Years: The Old Town Hall

Last week we traced the history of the Mansfield Historical Society’s museum building. Now we are shifting one door over to examine the origins of the Old Town Hall building.

Separating from the town of Windham, Mansfield was incorporated in May 1703. At this time, and for well over a century to come, there was no official town hall in which meetings were held. Instead, the townspeople met in the homes of prominent settlers. These meetings took place long before the separation of church and state, so it was natural that over time, the Ecclesiastical Societies’ meeting houses became the natural locations for town meetings.

Finally, at a meeting on December 3, 1838, the desire was expressed for an edifice to be built specifically “for the purpose of holding Town and Electors meetings and of doing other necessary business of said Town” (Smith 33). For three years, electors squabbled over the implications and complications of building such a structure.

At last residents assembled at the North Society’s meeting house on January 24, 1842, and voted to confirm a building committee. The building would be 50 by 38 feet in dimension and one story high, and would be nestled into the village of Spring Hill, near the geographic center of the town.

On September 4, 1843, the voters met within their new Town House. Over the next century and a half, the building faithfully served the government and residents of Mansfield. Aside from its governmental role, the building functioned as a sort of community gathering place where events such as dramatic exhibitions and balls were held.

In 1935 the town built a stone building next door to house its valuable records and to centralize government offices. Up until the 1970s, though, the town meetings were held in the old wooden one-story town hall. In 1971, a vote was passed allowing for town meetings to be held “in locations other than the Town Hall, which is 127 years old” (Chronology 147).

For the rest of the story, in which the town moved its offices and meeting rooms to the shortly thereafter-named Audrey Beck Municipal Building, please see this post. In 1980, the Mansfield Historical Society moved into the Old Town Office Building (the colonial-style building built in 1935). Two years later, restoration of the Old Town Hall was completed.

Today, the Old Town Hall serves as a second building in which the Mansfield Historical Society displays exhibits and holds events. Though the edifice is no longer the heart of the town’s government, it remains at the heart of the town’s history. Standing strong 169 years after its construction, the Old Town Hall calls us to remember the presence of the past.

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If You'd Like To Learn More:

Chronology of Mansfield, Connecticut: 1702-2002. Mansfield, Conn.: Mansfield Historical Society, 2003.
Smith, Roberta K. Listen to the Echoes: The Early History of Spring Hill, Mansfield, Connecticut. Mansfield, Conn.: Mansfield Historical Society, 2004.

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1.09.2012

Looking Back: Our Museum's Home

Today, as the nation works its way out of a mighty recession, it seems natural to look back at the Depression-era origins of the old stone building in which the Mansfield Historical Society is housed.

Construction began in late 1934 for the Mansfield Town Office Building. The project was one of many sponsored by the Work Projects Administration (WPA) during the period. A one-story colonial edifice with stone exterior and a fireproof vault within, the building was designed to provide a central place for carrying on town business and for safely housing important town records. Meanwhile, however, the construction project gave much-needed work to the town's unemployed.

Previously, the records and town meetings were located in the Old Town Hall (built in 1843). Town business was conducted out of the homes of the various officers. This arrangement became progressively less satisfactory: first, the Town Hall was old and wooden, making it a dangerously fire-prone depository for valuable records; secondly, the town needed to have a central place for offices. The new building, built on the premises of the Old Town Hall, solved these problems and, as an added benefit, employed those in need of work.

The town conducted business from the Mansfield Town Office Building for over four decades. In 1957, a few changes were made to the original building: an addition was built, enlarging the vault area and adding more office space. Eventually, however, Mansfield's government sought a larger edifice. In 1977, voters approved plans to renovate the old Storrs Grammar School and transform it into a new municipal building. The town offices moved into the new municipal building at the end of the 1970s. In 1984, the building was named after the late Senator Audrey Buck, and the town offices remain in the Audrey Buck Municipal Building to this day. Meanwhile, in 1980, the Mansfield Historical Society moved into the stone structure at 954 Storrs Rd. This building and the Old Town Hall next door are where the Society's museum and library are located today.

Held within the strength of stone and history, the Society makes its home.

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If You'd Like To Learn More:

Chronology of Mansfield, Connecticut: 1702-2002. Mansfield, Conn.: Mansfield Historical Society, 2003.
"Report of Completed, Transferred, or Discontinued Projects." 11 Feb. 1936. Mansfield Historical Society Archives.
Smith, Roberta K. Listen to the Echoes: The Early History of Spring Hill, Mansfield, Connecticut. Mansfield, Conn.: Mansfield Historical Society, 2004.

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