Torrington Fire Department Headquarters (1901)

The former Torrington Fire Department Headquarters building is a two-story brick structure with a corner bell tower. Located at 117 Water Street, the building was designed by Charles S. Palmer in the Romanesque Revival style and was erected by Hotchkiss Brothers & Company. It was completed in February 1901, with a one-story rear addition, providing work areas for mechanics, constructed about 1905. The building replaced an earlier wood frame firehouse on the site that was moved back to make way for the new structure (it was later removed from the property entirely). Wired for electricity, the building had a number of innovative features, including an alarm system that automatically released the horses from their stalls and lowered a harness suspended from the ceiling. The 1901 building served as a firehouse until 1980. The current Fire Department Headquarters is located just next door, at 111 Water Street.

Danbury Post Office (1916)

The Post Office at 265 Main Street in Danbury was erected in 1915-1916. It was designed by Oscar Wenderoth, who was Supervising Architect of the U.S. Department of Treasury from 1912 to 1915, during which time he designed many federal building throughout the country. The Georgian Revival building, which has a stained oak interior, served as the city’s main post office until 1985, when a new main post office facility opened on Backus Avenue. Mail processing operations moved to the Backus location in 2007 and the Main Street office has continued as mostly a retail facility that also accepts mail and has over 800 P.O. boxes. With the Postal Service utilizing only a small portion of the large building, there have been concerns in recent years that the Main Street office might close. Local residents have voiced their support for a post office downtown, if not in the 1916 building, than at an alternative location on or near Main Street.

Old Woodbury Town Hall (1846)

The old Town Hall of Woodbury, located at 5 Mountain Road, was erected in 1845-1846. Before its construction, another building had been used as Town Hall for over twenty years, as described by William Cothren in Vol. I of the History of Ancient Woodbury (1854):

Previous to 1823, there had been an effort to locate and build a new town hall for the use of the town, but as is usual in such cases, a great deal of bickering and bad feeling had arisen on the occasion, and no conclusion was arrived at. Finally, to end the difficulty, Mr. Daniel Bacon built a new two story building, near his dwelling-house, now owned by his son, Rev. William T. Bacon, and offered the use of the second story, rent free, to the town for its meetings.
[. . . .]

This continued to be used as the place for all meetings of the town till 1845, when the present commodious town-hall was built.

At that date, it was thought that the old town-hall did not answer the necessities of the town, and that a new and more commodious building should be erected. In the conclusion that a new building should be erected, all agreed; but the location was quite another matter. In this the “ends” of the town were widely at variance.
[. . . .]

A meeting was called in the “dead of winter,” to determine the question of location, and after a spirited debate, a respectable majority voted to locate the building in the spot it now occupies. But there being a suspicion of unfairness in the vote, application was made to the selectmen to appoint another meeting to try the question anew. The meeting was called, and though Providence, the evening before the appointed day, shed down some two feet of snow, enough one would think, to cool the feelings of the belligerent parties, yet the high piled drifts were penetrated in every direction, and almost every legal voter appeared at the meeting for the decision of the momentous question of a difference in distance of one or two hundred rods! The vote was taken by ballot, and the former location ratified by an increased majority.

In 1895, the Library Association moved into a room on the second floor, which it occupied until relocating to the former Parker Academy in 1902. A stage was added to the Town Hall in 1923 and the center section of the second floor was removed to create balconies on either side. Many events in town have been held in the building over the years, including performances by the Community Theatre at Woodbury. The structure was renovated in 2009.

Memorial Town Hall, North Haven (1886)

Like Memorial Hall in Windsor Locks, the town of North Haven chose to honor its men who died in the Civil War with a functional building, instead of a traditional stone monument. Veterans had formed an association in 1885 to erect a monument and money was appropriated for the purpose in a town meeting, but a later meeting reversed this, as public opinion favored erecting a memorial building instead. As related in North Haven Annals (1892), by Sheldon B. Thorpe:

A lot was purchased from the Cowles estate, plans for a building adopted, and ground broken May 10, 1886. It had been voted by the town the year previous to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of its incorporation the next October, and hence the appropriateness of dedicating the new hall at the same time.

The contract for erection was awarded to Solomon F. Linsley. The work was driven forward during the summer with all possible speed, but as early as October it was foreseen the building could not be completed in season for the Centennial ceremonies. Attention was then turned to finishing such portions of it as would be most needed on that occasion. A popular concert to be given as the inauguration of the joyful occasion, seemed to call especially for hall privileges, and consequently the upper floor was completed first

The completed building was severely criticized for inadequately referencing its memorial purpose. Thorpe, quoted above, wrote that

As the building progressed it became more and more apparent that its chief promotors [sic] sought more a public edifice than a soldiers’ memorial, and the sequel abundantly proved it. No provision whatever was made for an assembling place or headquarters for the veterans, and for some three years after its completion the latter body was required to pay rent for holding its meetings in it.

When constructed, the front of the building featured the words “1886 Memorial Hall.” Thorpe felt that

To the stranger such is an indefinite inscription. So many memorial structures are erected from other than patriotic motives in this day, that the lack of specific statement, either by word or device, makes this pile valueless as an object lesson. Furthermore, even within its doors no emblem to denote its character is seen until a small marble tablet, six feet by three, set in the vestibule on the second floor is pointed out as containing the names of those who died in service during the Rebellion.

The veterans persisted in their efforts to erect a monument, and one was finally dedicated in 1905. Memorial Town Hall has continued in use, but has a completely different appearance from what was built in 1886. It was an eclectic Renaissance Revival/Neoclassical structure, designed by local builder-architect Solomon Fowler Linsley (1830-1901). With brick provided by I. L. Stiles & Son, a local company, it showcased the thriving brick industry of North Haven, which was then at its peak. The building’s current Colonial Revival look dates to a 1949 renovation. Memorial Town Hall also housed the Bradley Library, which became the North Haven Memorial Library in 1907 and moved to its own building in 1938.

Old Town Hall, Bethany (1914)

The building at 512 Amity Road in Bethany was erected in 1914 (with a small addition built in 1952) to serve as the Town Hall. In 1977, part of an elementary school on Peck Road was renovated for use as a new Town Hall. The old building on Amity Road was renamed the Stanley Downs Memorial Building to commemorate former First Selectman Stanley H. Downs (1906-1963). The Bethany Episcopal Church purchased the building from the town in 1980. In 1994, the church gave it to the new Bethany Historical Society, which had just been formed the year before. The Historical Society restored the building in 1995-1996 to become a museum.