Litchfield COUNTY · Places & community
Litchfield: a small school, a far-reaching town
Step from the law school on South Street to a meetinghouse balcony and the doorways of village homes, through twelve federal survey photographs.
Historical focus · 1760–1940
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The story in photographs
Photograph date not stated
Front
Front. Photograph date not stated.
Image credit & source
William Rainey / Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress
No known restrictions on photographs made by the U.S. Government. This selection excludes identified third-party photocopies.
Original source · Reuse termsSept. 6, 1940
Exterior, general view from south east
Exterior, general view from south east. Sept. 6, 1940.
Image credit & source
Stanley P. Mixon / Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress
No known restrictions on photographs made by the U.S. Government. This selection excludes identified third-party photocopies.
Original source · Reuse termsSept. 6, 1940
Exterior, detail of entrance portico, from south west
Exterior, detail of entrance portico, from south west. Sept. 6, 1940.
Image credit & source
Stanley P. Mixon / Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress
No known restrictions on photographs made by the U.S. Government. This selection excludes identified third-party photocopies.
Original source · Reuse termsSept. 6, 1940
Interior, general view from north east corner, toward rear of auditorium
Interior, general view from north east corner, toward rear of auditorium. Sept. 6, 1940.
Image credit & source
Stanley P. Mixon / Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress
No known restrictions on photographs made by the U.S. Government. This selection excludes identified third-party photocopies.
Original source · Reuse termsSept. 6, 1940
Interior, general view, looking toward pulpit from south east
Interior, general view, looking toward pulpit from south east. Sept. 6, 1940.
Image credit & source
Stanley P. Mixon / Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress
No known restrictions on photographs made by the U.S. Government. This selection excludes identified third-party photocopies.
Original source · Reuse termsSept. 6, 1940
Interior detail of pulpit, from south west
Interior detail of pulpit, from south west. Sept. 6, 1940.
Image credit & source
Stanley P. Mixon / Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress
No known restrictions on photographs made by the U.S. Government. This selection excludes identified third-party photocopies.
Original source · Reuse termsSept. 6, 1940
Int., detail of door and balcony column, north west corner, pulpit end
Int., detail of door and balcony column, north west corner, pulpit end. Sept. 6, 1940.
Image credit & source
Stanley P. Mixon / Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress
No known restrictions on photographs made by the U.S. Government. This selection excludes identified third-party photocopies.
Original source · Reuse termsSept. 6, 1940
Interior, general view from south east corner of balcony looking toward pulpit end
Interior, general view from south east corner of balcony looking toward pulpit end. Sept. 6, 1940.
Image credit & source
Stanley P. Mixon / Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress
No known restrictions on photographs made by the U.S. Government. This selection excludes identified third-party photocopies.
Original source · Reuse termsSept. 6, 1940
Interior, east end of balcony, showing columns and organ
Interior, east end of balcony, showing columns and organ. Sept. 6, 1940.
Image credit & source
Stanley P. Mixon / Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress
No known restrictions on photographs made by the U.S. Government. This selection excludes identified third-party photocopies.
Original source · Reuse termsSept 6, 1940
Exterior, general view of house from south east. showing street front
Exterior, general view of house from south east. showing street front. Sept 6, 1940.
Image credit & source
Stanley P. Mixon / Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress
No known restrictions on photographs made by the U.S. Government. This selection excludes identified third-party photocopies.
Original source · Reuse termsSept. 6, 1940
Exterior, detail of doorway & central pediment, from north east
Exterior, detail of doorway & central pediment, from north east. Sept. 6, 1940.
Image credit & source
Stanley P. Mixon / Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress
No known restrictions on photographs made by the U.S. Government. This selection excludes identified third-party photocopies.
Original source · Reuse termsPhotograph date not stated
General view showing front and side
General view showing front and side. Photograph date not stated.
Image credit & source
William Rainey / Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress
No known restrictions on photographs made by the U.S. Government. This selection excludes identified third-party photocopies.
Original source · Reuse termsTHE STORY BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHS
People, places, and change.
Learning law in a country town
Between 1774 and 1833, Tapping Reeve and James Gould taught more than a thousand young men in Litchfield. Their pupils carried their training into legal practice, politics, business and education. The modest law-school building in William Rainey’s photograph makes a useful starting point: this nationally influential institution operated within the daily life of a Connecticut town. The photograph records the building long after the school’s teaching years; its exposure date is not stated in the catalog caption. [5] [1]
A village seen from the inside
Stanley P. Mixon photographed the First Congregational Church on September 6, 1940. His sequence moves beyond the portico to the pulpit, balcony, organ and columns. These interior views let us follow the arrangement of seats and the relationship between speaker and congregation. The Library of Congress dates the church building to 1829. Those are two different moments: the making of the meetinghouse and a twentieth-century effort to record it. [2]
The doors along the street
The same September assignment included the Elisha Sheldon House, cataloged with a 1760 construction date. Mixon framed both the street front and the central doorway and pediment. A separate Rainey view records the Ozias Seymour Homestead. Read together, the images show the range of domestic and public buildings preserved by the survey. They do not document every household or everyone who lived and worked behind these doors. [3] [4]
Follow the students as well as the buildings
The Litchfield Historical Society’s Ledger connects students and instructors from the law school and the Litchfield Female Academy to biographical evidence. It is a valuable companion to the architectural photographs: a doorway can establish a place, while letters, notebooks and student records can recover the people who used it. The society’s museum explores travel, communication, education and community through individual students’ experiences. [5]
Sources & further reading (5)
- Library of Congress: Law School, South Street, Litchfield, Litchfield County, CT
- Library of Congress: First Congregational Church, Litchfield, Litchfield County, CT
- Library of Congress: Elisha Sheldon House, Litchfield, Litchfield County, CT
- Library of Congress: Ozias Seymour Homestead, South Street, Litchfield, Litchfield County, CT
- Litchfield Historical Society: Tapping Reeve House and Law School
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Download this collection’s notes, timeline and image credits. Photographs link to their original archives and require an internet connection.
Building dates and photograph dates are recorded separately. Later photographs are identified in their captions; unknown exposure dates remain unknown. Follow each image’s credit and reuse terms.