Mystic River National Bank (1931)

The Mystic River Bank was chartered in 1851 and became a national bank in 1864. The bank’s first building, a Greek Revival structure, was constructed on West Main Street in Mystic in 1851. It was replaced (on the same site) by a new granite structure, with two side wings, in 1931. The Groton Savings Bank, chartered in 1854, shared space with the Mystic River Bank until constructing its own building across the street in 1953. The Mystic River National Bank merged into the Hartford National Bank in 1950. The 1931 bank building is now a Bank of America branch.

Hartford Electric Light Company (1914)

The Hartford Electric Light Company began operations in 1883, led by its first president, Austin Cornelius Dunham. He had earlier pioneered the use of electricity for industrial lighting in 1878 by installing a six-lamp arc-light system in a building of the Willimantic Linen Company. The Hartford Electric Light Company established an office on Pearl Street in Hartford, which was later replaced by the current building at 266 Pearl Street. According to the Hartford Courant of April 14, 1913:

The new building to be erected on Pearl Street by the Hartford Electric Light Company and covering the site of the old office of the company and the vacant land immediately west of it, and extending north from Pearl street to the present Pearl street substation of the company, will have a frontage of substantially 131 feet, and a depth of 100 feet. It will be five stories high, with a basement.

It is to be constructed as a fireproof building of brick and steel throughout. The entire front, together with the east and west sides to a depth of twenty-nine feet, will be constructed of limestone up to the level of the second story. The rest of the structure will be of a soft grey brick, harmonizing with the limestone of the first floor.

On July 27, 1914, the Courant announced that the new building was ready and the company would move into its new quarters that day. The Hartford Electric Light Co. (HELCO) sold the building in 1960 (but continued to rent space in it for a number of years). In more recent years, the building, which has had an extra floor added on the roof, has been converted into condominiums. (more…)

Scottish Union and National Insurance Company (1913)

Now used by Connecticut’s Appellate Court, the building at 75 Elm Street in Hartford was built in 1913 as the American headquarters of the Scottish Union and National Insurance Company. The Scottish Union Insurance Company was established in 1833 and merged with the Scottish National Insurance Company in 1877. The building, later used as state offices, was designed by Edward T. Hapgood.

Former Milford High School (1909)

Known locally as the Yellow Building (and later named the Diane S. Toulson Building), the Beaux-Arts structure at 38 W River Street in Milford was constructed in 1908-1909 as a high school. It was later used for all grades but in the 1980s it was threatened with demolition. Local citizens fought to save it and it was reused as senior housing. Today it continues as part of Elderly Housing Management under the name River Park Apartments.

Capitol Building (1926)

The Capitol Building, at 410 Asylum Street in Hartford, was built in 1926 as a retail and office block, a primary tenant being the newly chartered Capitol National Bank and Trust. The neo-Classical Revival structure was built by two partners, Joseph Ferrigno and Thomas Perrone and was designed by Thomas W. Lamb. Left vacant in the fall of 2007, the building was in danger of being demolished for a parking lot. City officials and preservationists successfully worked to have the Capitol Building listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Capitol Center, a group headed by Milton and Betty Ruth Hollander of Stamford, then donated the building to Common Ground, a New York-based nonprofit developer. Now known as the Hollander, the building has been converted into mixed-income apartments.