Masonic Temple, Manchester (1927)

Masonic Temple, Manchester

The home of Manchester’s Masonic Lodge No. 73 AF & AM is at 25 East Center Street. Lodge #73 was chartered in 1826 and met in various places over the years before the Masonic Temple was built. These included the the upper floor of a two room school-house at Manchester Green (until 1855, except for a period of anti-Masonic sentiment, when the Lodge met at the home of John Mather, the first elected Worshipful Master of Manchester, from 1827 to 1844), the Center Academy building (1855-1875 and 1886-1913), the Spencer Block (1875-1885), Cheney Hall (1886) and lastly the Odd Fellows Building. The corner stone of the current temple was laid on October 2, 1926 at a ceremony which was combined with the observance of the 100th Anniversary of the establishment of the lodge. The Temple was dedicated on October 8, 1927. The Temple is also the home of Friendship Tuscan Lodge No. 145 A.F. & A.M.

Enfield Public Library, Pearl Street Branch (1914)

Carnegie Library, Enfield, Connecticut

Industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie funded the construction of thousands of libraries in North America, Europe and Oceania, including the one at 159 Pearl Street in Enfield. Carnegie provided $20,000 for the library, which covered the land, construction and furnishings. John Pickens, who successfully petitioned Carnegie for the funds in 1910, at first faced resistance from the town, which feared the library would be a burden. Pickens persevered and the library opened on May 5, 1914. The building later became a branch library after a new Enfield Center Library was built in 1967. Interestingly, there is also a Carnegie Library in the London Borough of Enfield.

Capitol Theater, Middletown (1926)

Former Capitol Theater

The Capitol Theater, at 350 (354) Main Street in Middletown, was opened in 1926 by two Italian-immigrant brothers, Alessandro and Salvatore Sareceno. The theater originally presented vaudeville and silent films, later becoming a movie theater. By the early 1930s, the theatre was being run by Salvatore Adorno, also an Italian immigrant, who had built the Grand Theater (later called the Palace Theater), located next door on Main Street, in 1915 and was leasing both the nearby Capitol and Middlesex theaters. The Capitol closed in 1975 and the lobby was converted to become a liquor store. The Palace Theater was demolished in 1980 to be replaced by the Middletown Transit Authority bus station. The 1892 Middlesex Theater was demolished in 1984, but the lobby was saved and is now home to the Tuscany Grill restaurant. Over the years the Capitol Theater became dilapidated. Its interior ornamentation had been removed and holes in the roof left the interior exposed to the elements. Trees were also growing on the roof! The building was declared unsafe by the city in 2009 and was finally demolished late in 2011. Today only the former lobby facing Main Street remains.

Bristol National Bank (1904)

Bristol National Bank

The Bristol National Bank, organized by John H. Sessions and Charles S. Treadway, was chartered in 1875. Sessions was president until his death in 1899 and was succeeded by Treadway, who died in 1905. The bank occupied a building on Main Street, built in 1877-1878, until a new building (245-247 Main Street), built in 1904-1905, was ready for occupancy in August, 1905. The 1878 building was then demolished, as the Hartford Courant described the plans on March 31, 1904, “so that the bank will have an open space between it and the driveway which goes to the freight depot of the “Consolidated” railroad.” As the Courant described the new building on August 3, 1905:

The bank building occupies one lot north of the old bank on Main street, which was erected in 1878. It has a liberal frontage on Main street and is two stories high. The construction is of Roman brick with white marble trimmings and in front are four large pillars. There are two floors; the first is used exclusively by the bank and the second contains the law offices of Judge Roger S. Newell, William J. Malone, the probate court rooms, and the patent law department of the New Departure Manufacturing Company, which occupies three rooms.

The building was designed by Theodore Peck and built by the Torrington Building Company. In 1922, the bank moved again, this time to a new building, located further south on Main Street.

Woolsey Hall, Yale University (1901)

Woolsey Hall

Woolsey Hall in New Haven was built in 1901 for the commemoration of Yale’s bicentennial. A concert hall, it can seat 2,691. Built as one of a group of bicentennial buildings, its architects were Carrère and Hastings, designers of the New York Public Library. Woolsey Hall‘s murals that represent the ideal of a classical education and include images of the Nine Muses and the goddess Athena. The hall is home to the Newberry Memorial Organ, one of the largest in the world.