Barnum Museum (1893)

This is Historic Buildings of Connecticut’s 900th post, excepting the two April Fools posts, which some people have taken too seriously! What is that famous quote often attributed to P.T. Barnum? Well, with that in mind, let’s keep to the Barnum theme! The Barnum Museum is a place worth celebrating in an anniversary post, as it is a surviving legacy from one of Connecticut’s most important historical figures. P.T. Barnum had his famous American Museum in Manhattan, but this later burned. Barnum built four successive mansions in Bridgeport, where he served as mayor in 1875, but only a few traces of these survive today. The museum in Bridgeport which today bears his name was built in 1893 as the Barnum Institute of Science and History and originally housed a resource library and lecture hall. The building, which reflects the influence of Byzantine, Moorish and Richardsonian Romanesque architecture, was constructed of stone and terra cotta after Barnum‘s death using funds he had bequeathed for the purpose. The original societies which occupied the building ceased operation during the Great Depression and the city of Bridgeport assumed ownership in 1933. In 1943 the museum was closed for remodeling, reopening in 1946 as a city hall annex. In 1965, the city offices were removed and the building was again remodeled to reopen as the P. T. Barnum Museum in 1968, with exhibits about Barnum and the history of Bridgeport. The museum, which since 1986 has been operated by the Barnum Museum Foundation, was renovated in 1986-1989 and is today the only museum dedicated to the life of P. T. Barnum

New London Public Library (1892)

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The New London whaling merchant, Henry Philemon Haven, who died in 1876, left a bequest to be used for charitable purposes. His trustees used the funds to build a library, completed in 1892 and designed by the firm of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge (H.H. Richardson‘s successor firm). The architects sent George Warren Cole, who eventually established his own firm in the city, to New London to supervise three simultaneous projects: the Library, Williams Memorial Institute and Nathan Hale School. The Richardsonian Romanesque Public Library of New London building features a design similar to the libraries designed by Richardson and contrasts a Milford granite construction with brownstone trim.

Ansonia Library (1892)

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We begin June with libraries, as we declare this week to be Library Week at Historic Buildings of Connecticut! Our first library is the Ansonia Library, designed by the architect George Keller, who was responsible for many other interesting buildings in the state. Caroline Phelps Stokes, granddaughter of Anson Greene Phelps, who founded Ansonia, donated the library, buying the land for it on the corner of South Cliff Street and Cottage Avenue. She traveled from New York to supervise the construction of the building, which utilized Longmeadow freestone with a foundation of granite from Ansonia. In a gable, above the library’s entryway, is a relief sculpture of Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom and knowledge. The Ansonia Library was completed in 1892, but did not open its doors until 1896, because the town government was initially reluctant to provide the $1,500 per year required for the library’s operating expenses.

Bill Memorial Library (1890)

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The Bill Memorial Library in Groton, adjacent to Fort Griswold Battlefield State Park, was founded by Frederic Bill, a publisher and linen goods manufacturer, who was born in the part of Groton which is now the town of Ledyard and who retired to a farm in Groton on the Thames River. The library, dedicated to the memory of Bill’s sisters, Eliza and Harriet, began in 1888, as a room in Groton’s First District Schoolhouse. The Bill Library building, designed by the Worcester architect, Stephen C. Earle, was dedicated in 1890. Bill expanded the library in 1907, enlarging the main reading room and providing space for a natural history museum. The library was again expanded in 1994. After the death of his first wife, in 1894, Bill married Julia 0. Avery, the libary’s first librarian.

Union Station, New London (1888)

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When it was built in 1888, New London’s Union Station made a powerful architectural statement with its strong massing. It was planned to integrate New London transportation, which included service by six railroad companies. Unlike the preceding train dept of 1852, Union Station was on the city side of the railroad tracks and blocked the view of the city’s active harbor and busy rail yards from the commercial district on State and Bank Streets. Commissioned in 1885, the station was designed by H.H. Richardson, but was not completed until after his death in 1886. The building represents a variation of his distinctive Romanesque style in a scheme recalling his plan for Harvard’s Sever Hall (1880). It is therefore referred to as Richardson’s “Last Station.” Saved from demolition and renovated in the 1970s, the station has recently been again restored.

Old Bristol High School (1890)

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Bristol’s High School building of 1890, at the intersection of Center and Summer Streets, was designed by Bristol-born architect Theodore Peck (who also designed such buildings in Bristol as a house for his brother, Miles Lewis Peck). The school displays the hallmarks of the Richardsonian Romanesque, including the use of stone (here added as trim on a brick building) and semicircular Romanesque arches. The style was named for the influential architect H.H. Richardson, who designed the Cheney Building in Hartford. The High School, which was expanded in 1912, was used as a school until 1922, when a larger building was needed. It has since served various purposes and was named the Messier Building. One notable change to the building since 1890 is a significant shortening of the original chimney. It is currently being renovated as the new home of the Bristol Historical Society.