Weisman Building (1902)
Monday, May 20th, 2013 Posted in Commercial Buildings, Renaissance Revival, Waterbury | No Comments »
The Weisman Building (originally the Meigs Building), located at 105-109 Bank Street in Waterbury, was built in 1902. It is one of the many structures built in the wake of the downtown Waterbury Fire of 1902. This now vacant commercial building has been for sale/lease for many years.
Corning Building (1929)
Thursday, March 14th, 2013 Posted in Commercial Buildings, Hartford, Renaissance Revival | No Comments »
The Corning Building is at the southwest corner of Main and Trumbull Streets in Hartford. Today’s Corning Building was built in 1928–30 and replaced an earlier Corning Building on the site, which dated to the 1870s. Before that, the three-story Robinson and Corning Building stood here. Dating to the 1820s, it was long home to the Brown & Gross bookstore, which later moved to Asylum Street. Arriving by train to deliver a speech in Hartford on March 5, 1860, future president Abraham Lincoln walked up Asylum Street to the bookstore, where he first met Gideon Welles, the editor of the Hartford Evening Press. Welles would later serve as Lincoln’s secretary of the navy. Dr. Horace Wells had his office here, where in 1844 he had a tooth successfully removed without pain after first inhaling laughing gas–the first use of anesthesia. A plaque was placed on the Corning Building in 1894 to honor Wells on the fiftieth anniversary of his discovery.
Old Middletown Post Office (1916)
Saturday, February 23rd, 2013 Posted in Middletown, Public Buildings, Renaissance Revival | No Comments »
At 291 Main Street in Middletown is a former U.S. Post Office, a limestone Renaissance Revival structure built in 1916. Planning for a new post office had commenced in 1911, but there was controversy over where to built it. Its location, at the southwest corner of Court and Main Streets, had been owned by the Federal Government since 1841. The Post Office ceased operations in 1977 and is now used by Liberty Bank.
2050-2052 Park Street (1917)
Friday, February 15th, 2013 Posted in Apartment Buildings, Commercial Buildings, Hartford, Renaissance Revival | No Comments »
The two-story apartment building at 2050-2052 Park Street in Hartford is constructed of contrasting tawny brick and has a corner storefront. It was designed by Burton A. Sellow and was built in 1917.
First National Bank, Wallingford (1882)
Monday, February 11th, 2013 Posted in Banks, Renaissance Revival, Wallingford | No Comments »
The Renaissance Revival building at 35 South Main Street in Wallingford, built in 1882, was originally the home of the First National Bank (founded in 1881), which moved to a new building in 1921. The building’s original first floor arcade has been partially filled in.
Mullings Building (1902)
Monday, January 7th, 2013 Posted in Commercial Buildings, Renaissance Revival, Waterbury | No Comments »
One of the many buildings constructed in the wake of the 1902 fire in downtown Waterbury (or was it built in 1900, before the fire?) is the Mullings Building at 95-103 Bank Street. It was originally home to John Mullings‘s clothing store.
Cathedral Lyceum (1895)
Thursday, September 20th, 2012 Posted in Hartford, Organizations, Renaissance Revival | No Comments »
The Cathedral Lyceum (pdf) in Hartford’s Frog Hollow neighborhood was built in 1895 by the Archdiocese of Hartford for the Cathedral Lyceum Society, a catholic club for young Irish men. Located at 227 Lawrence Street, the Renaissance Revival building, designed by John J. Dwyer, served for many years as a community center for the city’s growing immigrant population. The church sold the building in 1920 to the Hartford Box Company. The structure later served as as the home of the Lithuanian-American Citizens Club. It has since been a restaurant, a dance club, a roller skating business and a balloon manufacturer. In 2003 it was purchased by the Melville Charitable Trust, an organization dedicated to promoting affordable housing, and was renovated to become the Lyceum Conference Center.
