American Museum of Tort Law [former Winsted Savings Bank] (1925)

In 2013, Ralph Nader purchased the former Winsted Savings Bank building at 654 Main Street in Winsted to become the future home of the American Museum of Tort Law, which he first announced was in development in 1998. The museum, which opened in 2015, has a mission to inform and inspire Americans about trial by jury and the benefits of tort law (the law of wrongful injuries). The museum‘s building was erected in 1925 by the Winsted Savings Bank, which was incorporated in 1860. From 1867 until 1925 the bank had occupied the 1851 building at 690 Main Street that had originally been erected by the Winsted Bank.

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Thomas Settle Building (1887)

246 Main Street in Danbury

The building at 248 Main Street in Danbury was erected in 1887 as the home of the Danbury National Bank. It was designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque style by Bridgeport architect Warren Briggs. It served the bank until 1924. In 1940 the building became the home of the Settle Agency, an insurance Agency run by Thomas Settle. The building now bears his name. A fire in 1873 destroyed the building’s original third-story steep gables and roof. The third floor was then rebuilt. As related in The Bankers Magazine (Vol. XLIII, No. 5, November 1888):

The Danbury National Bank has taken possession of its new building which is spacious, well arranged, well lighted, and is a model of its kind. The front is occupied by the president and cashier, each having separate offices. The remainder is divided into compartments for tellers and clerks Each of these are divided by open metal work giving one a view of the entire room from any point. Outside is an abundance of room for patrons of the bank and desks are conveniently arranged for their use. The furniture of this room is of cherry. The ceiling is sixteen feet high. This institution has an excellent history. In 1824 the Fairfield County Bank, located at Norwalk, was chartered by the legislature, with the provision that it should have a branch at Danbury At the meeting of the directors held August 24, 1824, Zalmon Wildman (the father of Frederick S Wildman, president of the Savings Bank of Danbury) was elected president of said branch bank, and David Foot was appointed a committee to contract with Dr Comstock for the use of a room in his house, and to fit it up for the use of the bank. On the 20th of September, 1824, Curtis Clark was elected cashier of the branch bank, and the bank commenced business. On the 29th day of August, 1825, it was “voted that in the opinion of this board it is expedient to build a banking house for the accommodation of the institution as soon as may be convenient,” and a building was erected and occupied for a period of twenty nine years as the Fairfield County Branch Bank, until July 1844, when the Danbury Bank was chartered, and took the place of the Fairfield County Branch Bank. with same board of president and directors. The Danbury Bank occupied that building until April 14th, 1855. Then another building was projected but for various reasons was not built until the present time.

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Canaan Savings Bank (1952)

The Operations Center of the Salisbury Bank and Trust Company is located in a brick Colonial Revival building in the Village of Canaan in the Town of North Canaan. The building was erected in 1952 for the Canaan Savings Bank. It replaced an earlier building on the property, called the Cummings Building, that was destroyed by fire. A circa 1905-1910 postcard of that building shows that it then housed the Canaan Post Office, the F.R. Collin jewelry and watch store, and the Canaan Savings Bank.

Savings Bank of Danbury (1908)

The Beaux Arts building at 220 Main Street in Danbury, one of a row of three bank buildings, was erected in 1908-1909 as the headquarters of the Savings Bank of Danbury. It was designed by Danbury architect Philip Sunderland. The origin of the bank, which was founded by George White Ives, the grandfather of composer Charles Ives, is described in James Montgomery Bailey’s History of Danbury (1896):

Nearly a half century ago, when Danbury had no electric lights, no pavements, no street railway, but was a pretty town with grand old trees and beautiful gardens, one of her venerated citizens, Horace Bull, suggested to George W. Ives that a savings bank would be a blessing to many of the town people. To one so keenly alive to the interests of Danbury and of his fellow-citizens the suggestion had but to be made to be acted upon, and the Savings Bank of Danbury, chartered in 1849, commenced business on June 29th of that year [. . . .]

Notice was duly given that deposits would be received at the house of the Treasurer from 2 P.m. to 5 P.m. on Saturday of each week.

The old Ives homestead, so well known and so full of pleasant memories, thus became the cradle of the first savings bank. A desk in the dining-room was the safe, and in the absence of the Treasurer Mrs. Ives received deposits and attended to the business of the bank. After a time it seemed necessary to have a building and a safe, and Mr. Ives built at his own expense the little building, still standing in the corner of the dooryard of his old homestead, and the savings bank had a “habitation” as well as a “name.” From this small beginning the assets of the bank have increased to the sum of $2,869,922 on March 30th, 1895.

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Winsted Bank (1851)

Sometime between the evening of Saturday, November 9 and the morning of Monday, November 11, 1861, robbers stole approximately $60,000, from the Winsted Bank. About $8,000 of this was in specie (gold and silver) and the rest included miscellaneous bills and treasury notes. The bank had been formed in 1848 (making it the second oldest bank in Litchfield County after the branch of the Phoenix Bank of Hartford on North Street in Litchfield) and the bank building was erected at 690 Main Street in 1851. Many of the stolen bills were Winsted Bank notes and the loss from the robbery led to the bank having insufficient net worth to receive a federal bank charter. The bank closed in 1864 and the building was acquired by the Winsted Savings Bank in 1867.

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City Trust Building, Danbury (1912)

The City Trust (later Citytrust) Bank Building, at 234 Main Street in Danbury, was erected in 1912-1913. Originally two stories, the building was remodeled and enlarged (to match the Union Savings Bank next door) in 1929-1931 by Morgan, French & Co. of New York. An Otis elevator was installed in 1931 to reach the new upper floors. Citytrust, based in Bridgeport, failed in 1991 and the building has since been a church.