Van Vleck Observatory (1916)

Dedicated in June 1916, Van Vleck Observatory is located at the highest point on the campus of Wesleyan University in Middletown. It was built to replace Wesleyan’s previous astronomical facilities, which were a tower mounted on a dormitory to serve as an “observatory,” and an astronomy building that was little more than a shed. The new building was funded by Joseph Van Vleck as a memorial to his brother, professor John M. Van Vleck (1833-1912). Professor Van Vleck had already begun planning for the observatory, to which his family had donated more than $25,000 in 1903 to start the fund for its erection, but he died before construction commenced. Henry Bacon, the building‘s architect, designed a number of other buildings for the University, leaving his impact on the Wesleyan campus. Today, the observatory has three onsite telescopes. One of these is a 20″ telescope that recently underwent a restoration in preparation for the Observatory’s 100th anniversary.

Seifert Armory (1891)

As downtown Danbury expanded in the late nineteenth century, commercial buildings were constructed on side streets. One is example is Library Place, formerly a cow path, which was opened after the construction of the Old Danbury Library in 1878. Here, Alexander Wildman built a post office, followed by other commercial buildings, including the Seifert Armory in 1891. Located at 5-15 Library Place, the large armory and commercial building, designed by architect Joel Foster, has storefronts on the ground floor, while the three upper floors contained apartments and the armory hall, itself later converted to apartments. In the 1920s, the Danbury Times began printing in the building and a plate-glass window was installed to show the press at work. The building has lost its original tower that projected above the main entrance. The farthest store on the left now has a Carrara glass (a type of pigmented structural glass) storefront.

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St. Joseph Church, Danbury (1905)

The first Catholic services in Danbury took place in 1845. Saint Peter’s Catholic Church was eventually built on Main Street in the 1870s. In the History of the Diocese of Hartford, published in 1900, Rev. James H. O’Donnell wrote

We have seen that at the time of the first Mass the number of Catholics in Danbury did not exceed 70. The present Catholic population is 6,000 souls, divided into 5,000 Irish and their descendants, and 1,000 of mixed nationalities, Germans, Italians, Hungarians, French, Poles and Slavs.

The Catholic population had grown to an extent that a second Catholic Church was needed. A new parish was established in 1905, followed by the erection of Saint Joseph Church, located at 8 Robinson Avenue, facing Main Street. The Romanesque Revival-style church was designed by Dwyer and McMahon of Hartford.

The parish’s first pastor was Rev. John D. Kennedy, who was also chaplain of the Emmett Club, named after the Irish nationalist Robert Emmett, who led an abortive rebellion against British rule and was executed in 1803. The Emmett Club was the local chapter of Clan na Gael, an Irish republican organization that supported the island’s independence from Britain.

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Union Station, Hartford (1889)

Hartford’s Union Station is located between Union Place and Spruce Street, north of Asylum Street at the western end of the city’s downtown. The original Union Station was an Italianate structure built in 1849. It was replaced by a new station, built in 1887-1889. Hartford architect George Keller initially conceived the design, but the plans were drawn up by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge of Boston. A fire in February 1914 gutted the building‘s roof and interior. The structure was repaired and rebuilt, but instead of the original hipped roof with large gables on the Prospect Place Side, the building was raised to a full third story. A major restoration of Union Station was completed in 1987. Future alterations to the rail line and platforms will need to be made as part of the I-84 Hartford Project. (more…)

Carlyle F. Barnes Memorial Chapel (1930)

Carlyle F. Barnes (1852-1926) was a businessman, musician and prominent citizen of Bristol. A chapel donated to his memory by his wife and two sons is located at 49 Pound Street (at West Cemetery) in Bristol. It was designed in the Norman style by Earle K. Bishop (of the firm of Perry and Bishop of New Britain) with stained-glass windows by by Calvert, Herrick & Riedinger. The Carlyle F. Barnes Memorial Chapel was dedicated on November 9, 1930 and is managed by the West Cemetery Association.

Linstead & Funck Blocks (1889)

At the corner of Main and Prospect Streets in Bristol is a four-story Romanesque Revival red brick commercial building called the Linstead Block (238 Main Street). It was built by William Linstead, an English immigrant who, according to Men of Progress: Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Leaders in Business and Professional Life in and of the State of Connecticut (1898), “erected many of the large buildings in Bristol all of which compare favorably with the best work of their kind, and are a credit to the town and their builder.” Two storefronts on the Main Street side of the building have been altered, but those on the corner and on the Prospect Street side retain their original cast-iron columns. Trinity Episcopal Church was moved from Main Street around the corner to High Street to make way for the construction of the Linstead Block. The church burned down in 1945 and a new one was erected on Summer Street.

Attached to the Linstead Block and continuing along Prospect Street is the Funck Block (13 Prospect Street), also constructed in 1889. It was built for C. Funck & Son, a furniture company that also made coffins. The undertaking business was located further down Main Street until an addition made to the Funck Block allowed it to join the furniture store in 1930. While the earlier section of the building has cast-iron columns like the Linstead Block, the addition at the end has a Tudor Revival storefront. Ten years later the undertaking business (now Funk Funeral Home) moved to the George W. Mitchell House on Bellevue Avenue. The furniture part of the business was absorbed into the Bristol Furniture Store, which continued for some years on Prospect Street.