From Dave Brigham:
I recently visited Rockville, a section of Vernon, Connecticut, that was once a separate city. The village is a gold mine for backsiders, filled with old mills (some abandoned, some converted to apartments, others somewhere in between) and beautiful old buildings of all sorts. Recently, I wrote about the mills (see April 24, 2021, "Zooming Through Loom City, Part I: The Mills"); in this post, I will cover municipal and commercial buildings, a school, a social club and other things.
(Lovely sign along East Main Street, across from Courthouse Plaza.)
The Courthouse Plaza shopping center, which is pretty dead in these pandemic days, is so named because of Rockville Superior Court located on Park Street. Across from the courthouse, I spied this building with a sign in the window letting folks know that a bail bond company will be opening soon.
I like this building, but haven't found out anything else about it. I'm guessing it, like many in the downtown area, dates to the late 19th or early 20th century, during the heyday of the mills in the area.
Next door to the future bail bond operation is something called KLC of Connecticut. You can see the courthouse reflected in the windows.
This outfit is a Christian organization, according to its Facebook page. I'm not clear on what "KLC" stands for; the group's page indicates that it is "The Kingdom of Jesus Christ Connecticut, USA Chapter," where "Jesus Christ" is "The Name Above Every Name." As regular blog readers know, I have a thing for churches, be they housed in massive buildings topped by 100-foot spires or located on the second floor of an unremarkable office building above an insurance agency.
A little further up the hill along Park Street, at the corner of School Street, is the beautiful former high school.
Built in 1892, the Richardsonian Romanesque high school was designed by Francis R. Richmond of Springfield, Massachusetts, according to this incredibly helpful web site about the Rockville Historic District. I believe it stopped functioning as the high school in 1925. I'm not sure if it was used for other purposes before becoming home to the central administration office for Vernon Public Schools.
Just around the corner, on Park Place overlooking Central Park and West Main Street, are three breathtaking buildings. I regret to report that I didn't take enough photos of these places, as I was in a bit of a rush. Here's what I've got. Below is Citizens Block, which dates to 1879.
"Citizen’s Block is a three-story, fifteen-thousand square foot structure. Designated as commercial storefront, its first floor is home to the volunteer-based Rockville Downtown Association," according to Volume 3 of the 2017 Vernon Events magazine. "Although the upper floors are residential, it has been vacant since 1998, when it was purchased by the town."
The town has renovated the building in recent years, although, judging by the photo below, there is plenty more work to be done.
The Rockville Downtown Association is a designated Main Street Community of the Connecticut Main Street Center. The organization's primary goals are economic development, neighborhood improvement and housing, and general physical aesthetics and amenities, per its web site.
Next to Citizen's Block is the former Methodist Episcopal Church, which dates to 1867. There was a bank on the ground floor, which I find pretty funny. This was done in order to "make optimum use of this valuable city property," per the previously cited Living Places web site. I didn't get a shot of the front of this hybrid building, but I poked my head down an alley and took the shot below.
I love coming across old bank vault alarm boxes. Such a cool relic of the past. I didn't realize at the time that this building once had a double use, but I wondered why an old bank had what appeared to be a church window. Now I know. Across the alley from this brick behemoth is the Memorial Building, below.
Built n 1889, the Memorial was constructed as a town hall and Civil War memorial on the site of the First Congregational Church of Rockville, per Living Places. Like the old high school, this building was designed by Francis Richmond. The New England Civil War Museum is housed in this building.
(Look closely and you'll see, in reverse, the letters "GAR" in the windows. Those stand for Grand Army of the Republic, a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army, Union Navy, Marines and the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service who served in the American Civil War, per Wikipedia.)
The western end of Central Park is framed by two buildings, only one of which I captured with my camera....
This is the former Rockville National Bank, which was erected in 1889. It now serves as the annex for the adjacent Union Church, which you can see just a little of in the photo above.
Central Park and the buildings around it are raised above West Main Street. From that vantage point, I could see Fox Hill Tower, below.
The tower is a memorial to Vernon's war dead. It was erected in 1939. If I'd had more time, I would've driven up there and checked it out.
Along Union Street, which is what West Main Street turns into just past Union Church, I spied two more cool old buildings.
This is the Fitch Block, which dates to 1889, the same date as many of the buildings in this area of Rockville. Many older, wood-framed buildings here were destroyed in a fire in 1888. I'm guessing this building was named after Samuel Fitch, who ran a mill in town.
Below is a t-shirt and hat shop in a long, low brick building along Union Street. There's no name on the store, but I think it's called Gallery 46, after its address.
Along West Main, across from Central Park, is a line of stores, including La Brioche French Bakery.
I love the old clock from a Friendly's Restaurant in nearby Manchester, in the window of the bakery. Below is an old sign for a defunct restaurant called the Rockville Eatery, located on the side of Craig's Kitchen.
Also along West Main is a sign commemorating this section of Vernon as the place where 1960s hitmaker Gene Pitney -- the Rockville Rocket -- grew up.
From Wikipedia: "Pitney charted 16 top 40 hits in the United States, four in the top ten. In the United Kingdom, he had 22 top 40 hits, and 11 singles in the top ten. Among his most famous hits are 'Town Without Pity', '(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance', 'Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa', 'I'm Gonna Be Strong', and 'It Hurts To Be In Love'. He also wrote the early 1960s hits 'Rubber Ball' recorded by Bobby Vee, 'Hello Mary Lou' by Rick Nelson, and 'He's a Rebel' by the Crystals. In 2002, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame."
A short distance south along West Main Street, at the corner of Vernon Avenue, is the TKB Club, below.
TKB stands for Tadeusz Kosciuszko Benefit, and is a social club founded in 1923. Kosciuszko was "a Polish-Lithuanian military engineer, statesman, and military leader who became a national hero in Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, and the United States," according to Wikipedia. "He fought in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth's struggles against Russia and Prussia, and on the US side in the American Revolutionary War. As Supreme Commander of the Polish National Armed Forces, he led the 1794 Kościuszko Uprising.
I'm gonna wrap up with a building that I initially assumed was a former mill or warehouse.
"TURN-HALLE 1897" it says at the top of the building. When I shot these photos, I assumed that was the name of the company that made or stored woolen products here. I was wrong.
This solid-looking building, you see, was an athletic facility/social club for Rockville's German immigrants. The club, one of many formed in the United States based on the German gymnastics movement called Turnverein, was established in Vernon in 1857. Known as Turners, the members "promoted German culture, physical culture, liberal politics, and supported the Union war effort during the American Civil War," according to Wikipedia. "Turners...were the leading sponsors of gymnastics as an American sport and the field of academic study."
This building was later used by the Polish American Citizens Club, and has been altered quite a bit, according to the Historic Buildings of Connecticut.
So that's it. I went to Rockville not once but twice to take all these photos, against the advice of R.E.M.
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