Aetna Life Insurance Building (1870)

• Period in Existence: 1870 to 1963
• Original Architects: Bryant & Rogers
• Significant alteration in 1913-1914 to plans by Donn Barber
• Location: 214-222 (later 650) Main Street

Previous Buildings on the Site

In the early 1860s, two buildings stood at the northeast corner of Main Street and what was then called Wadsworth Alley (now Atheneum Square), across from the Wadsworth Atheneum. At 220-222 Main Street (pre-1898 numbering) was the Phillips Building, originally built in the late eighteenth century for the publishing firm of Hudson & Goodwin. In 1896, the company published American Cookery by Amelia Simmons, the first cookbook written by an American. They also published the Hartford Courant there from 1796 to 1815. Just south of the Philips Building was the Isaac Toucey House, a Federal-style house built in the first decade of the nineteenth century for Chauncey Gleason, a dry goods merchant. It was then owned by Cyprian Nichols, whose daughter Catherine married Isaac Toucey in 1827. Toucey (1792-1868) would serve as governor of Connecticut, attorney general of the United States in the administration of James K. Polk and secretary of the navy in the administration of James Buchanan. Both of these buildings were demolished in 1868 to make way for the new building of the Charter Oak Life Insurance Company.

Constructing the Charter Oak Life Insurance Building

The new six-story building, designed by the prominent Boston architectural firm of Bryant & Rogers, was erected in 1869-1870. A number of articles in the Hartford Courant discussed the proposed building in 1868:

The design for the new building which is to be erected next spring by the Charter Oak Life Insurance Company upon the old Toucey estate, corner of Main street and Wadsworth avenue, comes from the studio of the celebrated Boston architects, Bryant & Rodgers [sic], the latter now being in the city on business appertaining to the erection of the building. The position of the Atheneum, standing upon the opposite side of Wadsworth avenue, renders the site for the insurance building doubly valuable, and enables the company to secure fine offices on Wadsworth avenue, which they propose to occupy themselves, while the Main street portion will be rented for banking or similar purposes.

“The New Charter Oak Life Building.” (Hartford Courant, August 17, 1868)

The street facades are to be faced with the elegant material of which the Boston City Hall and Horticultural Hall are constructed, the same being obtained from the quarry of the Granite Railway company in Concord, N.H. [. . . .]

Both elevations are designed in the French Renaissance style, with details believed to be more ornate than heretofore introduced into the street edifices of our principal cities.

“Charter Oak Life Building. A Magnificent Structure–Detailed Description of It.” (Hartford Courant, November 18, 1868)

There are photographs from the collections of the Connecticut Historical Society, available through their online Digital Catalog, that show the building in 1869 at early stages of its construction: http://hdl.handle.net/11134/40002:16991 and http://hdl.handle.net/11134/40002:16986.

Becomes the Aetna Life Insurance Company Building

The Charter Oak Life Insurance Company ceased operations in 1888 and the building became the home of the Aetna Life Insurance Company (the Aetna Fire Insurance Company was located in a building adjacent to the north). For many years, the Aetna National Bank also had quarters in the building. Their offices underwent major alterations in 1899-1900 and the results were described in the Courant:

The new and enlarged quarters take in the two south offices in the Aetna building, on the corner of Main and Atheneum streets, the frontage being 40 feet on Main street and 80 on Atheneum. The entrance is on Main street, through large doors of solid mahogany. The Interior is a great room. 70 feet in length by 35 feet in width, and this is only broken by the directors’ room in the rear at the southeast corner.

“Fine Bank Offices. Reconstructed Home of Aetna National Bank.” (Hartford Courant, July 27, 1900)

The following year there was a similar remodeling of the offices on the north side of the building on behalf of Aetna Life to accommodate the company’s increasing business. The Hartford Courant admired the building’s new Main Street entryway, observing

Just now a revolving floor has been hung for the winter season, and this is to work by power, a small electric motor being tuned in such a way that the door will be continually moving, making the entrance to the building in a way automatic. In case the person entering should by any means make a mistake and become an obstruction, the door will stop until he has freed himself and then will start again on its revolutions.

“Aetna Life’s Door. Entrance Hall and Stairways Greatly Improved.” (Hartford Courant, January 22, 1902)

Major Alterations

A decade later the company required even more space and in 1913-1914 dramatically altered the building (see image above) by adding four stories and replacing the original mansard roof with a much flatter roof. The project, to plans by architect Donn Barber, required a significant feat of engineering:

The construction of the additional floors above the original building is of such a nature that no weight rests upon the foundation of the original building, the weight of the addition resting upon eight concrete and steel piers.

“Removing Staging at Aetna Building.” (Hartford Courant, October 29, 1914)

During the work the structure was enclosed in wooden scaffolding. As the Courant reported on November 21, 1914:

The Aetna Life Insurance Company building will be unveiled next week. The event will be marked by little or no ceremony, although it is near unique in the annals of architecture. Statues, tablets and monuments usually are the only things so honored, and few buildings, especially of the size of the Aetna life, are able in later years to include such an occasion in their history. But the Aetna Life will. For months it has been shrouded in a veil or scaffolding that has clouded, even if it has not hidden, the work of erecting four wore stories on the top of the old edifice. All this will disappear within a few days, and this is the unveiling.

“Ready to Unveil Aetna Building.” (Hartford Courant, November 21, 1914)

The completed building continued to serve Aetna until the company built its massive new home office on Farmington Avenue in 1931. The old building on Main Street was then rented out until it was purchased by the neighboring Aetna Fire Insurance Company in 1939. The Aetna property was acquired by Travelers Insurance in 1957 and old building was demolished in 1963 to make way for Travelers Plaza, the grand entrance to the Travelers Tower.

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