Chelsea Savings Bank (1911)

The Chelsea Savings Bank in Norwich was incorporated in 1858. According to A Modern History of New London County, Connecticut, Volume 2 (1922):

The home of the bank was in the Merchants Hotel building until April, 1864, when quarters were secured on Shetuckct street, which were occupied until 1909, when the bank building was so badly damaged by fire that the erection of a new modern building, large and imposing, was decided upon. The present building, most splendidly located and planned, was finished and occupied in November, 1911.

The building has a monumental character due to its location at the angle formed by the intersection of Cliff and Main Streets. A Universalist Church at the site was demolished to make way for the new building. The Chelsea Savings Bank was designed by the firm of Cudworth & Woodworth, who also designed the Norwich State Hospital.

Augusta Curtis Cultural Center (1903)

As described in A Century of Meriden (1906), in the nineteenth century there had been “various spasmodic attempts to raise sufficient money to start a free public library” in Meriden, a goal finally achieved with the opening of a library in 1899, located in two rented rooms in a house on East Main Street. Funding for the library came from “the ladies of the Thursday Morning Club,” whose winter lecture series of 1897-1898 had “proved so successful that at the close of the season the treasury of the club was found to have quite a sum of money on hand.” The library quickly outgrew its small rooms and

On December 7, 1900, Mrs. George R. Curtis announced that she would contribute sufficient money to buy a site, erect a suitable building for a library and thoroughly equip it, providing the town would vote to annually appropriate $3,000 for running expenses. At a special town meeting held on the evening of March 12, 1901, it was unanimously voted to accept the offer made by Mrs. Curtis. Plans presented by W. H. Allen, of New Haven, were accepted, but as Mr. Allen at this time removed to California, Richard Williams, his successor, and who had drawn the plans, became the supervising architect. The Lawrence property on the east corner of East Main and Pleasant streets was bought and work on the site was soon begun.

The cornerstone of the Curtis Memorial Library was laid on September 28, 1901. The completed building, constructed of Vermont White marble by the H. Wales Lines Company, Meriden’s premier construction firm, was formally opened on April 20, 1903. The building served as the library for seventy years, until a new building was erected on Miller Street. Today, the former library is home to the Augusta Curtis Cultural Center, a non-profit organization founded in 2000, which hosts lectures, exhibits and interactive programs focused on the arts and sciences.

Torrington Library (1901)

Torrington Library

A history of the Torrington Library is provided in Vol. 1 of William J. Pape’s History of Waterbury and the Naugatuck Valley (1918):

The Torrington Library was founded on October 22, 1864, by a group of what were then Wolcottville residents, each supplying a quantity of books. It was known as the Wolcottville Library Association. Early in 1865 the library and reading room were opened to the public. During its first fifteen years it occupied rooms in the Granite Block. In 1880 it was removed to larger quarters, in the Wetmore Building, on the corner of Church and Prospect streets, subsequently called the Library Building. In 1881 it became known as the Torrington Library Association, and in 1899 it was officially incorporated as the “Torrington Library.”

The library owes its present equipment to two Torrington benefactors, Lauren Wetmore and Elisha Turner. The former, who died in 1890, gave to the public for “the establishment of a free public library and reading room,” the income from the Wetmore Building and personal property to the value of $20,000. Elisha Turner, in 1899, gave the site and present magnificent library structure to Torrington. Mr. Turner died in 1900 and willed a total, including his previous gift, of $100,000 to the association.

The dedication took place in 1901. The building is of white marble in a simple treatment of the Neo-Greek style of architecture.

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Bristol Bank and Trust Company (1922)

In downtown Bristol there are two buildings which once housed the Bristol National Bank (established in 1875). The first building is at 245 Main Street and was succeeded by the second building, at 200 Main Street. Built in 1920-1923, the second building later became the Bristol Bank and Trust Company, and still bears that name. It was designed by the firm of McKim, Mead & White, although McKim and White had died by that time. The building was probably the work of Stanford White‘s son, Lawrence White.

Waterbury National Bank (1921)

At the intersection of Field and Grand Streets in Waterbury is the former Waterbury National Bank Building, now the headquarters for Junior Achievement of Southwestern New England. Built in 1919-1922, the building is one of several notable structures along Grand Street designed by Cass Gilbert. The Chase family had a long association with the Waterbury National Bank, which was founded in 1848 and was Waterbury’s first bank. Augustus Savin Chase, who became the Bank‘s Cashier in 1852 and President in 1865, controlled it until his death in 1896. The Bank’s original building was located at Grand and Bank Streets, giving the latter thoroughfare its name. Henry S. Chase intended the new bank building to be part of his plan for an impressive Waterbury municipal center. Henry died in 1918 and his brother Irving Chase assumed management of construction, utilizing Cass Gilbert, the same architect who had designed the Chase Brass and Copper Company’s headquarters, also located on Grand Street.

Gates Building (1906)

Established in 1860, the New Britain National Bank constructed a building at the corner of West Main and Main Streets in 1906. It was designed in the Beaux Arts style by the firm of Davis & Brooks and was used by the bank into the 1930s. Now called the Gates Building, it was acquired by Florence Judd Gates, whose family had become wealthy making barbed wire. Used as retail and office space through the late 1980s, the Gates Building was later restored and now contains the New Britain Board of Education.

Central Baptist Church, Hartford (1926)

In this post I’m trying something new: many of the links embedded below point to articles from the Hartford Courant from the 1920s, available at iconn.org (for those with a Connecticut Library Card).

There were once two Baptist Churches on Main Street in Hartford. The First Baptist Church, originally located (from 1798 to 1831) at the corner Market and Temple Streets, moved to a second building on Main Street and finally to a third, at Main and Talcott Streets. The South Baptist Church had two edifices, the first built in the 1830s and the second, at Main and Elm, dating to 1854. In the 1920s, the two Baptist churches united to form the Central Baptist Church. Worship services continued at the First Baptist Church, while the former South Baptist Church was demolished and a new church built on the site for the combined Central Baptist congregation. While many other churches at the time had been moving to neighborhoods to the west, the Baptist Church, after considering such a move for financial reasons, decided to remain on Main Street. Ground was broken in 1924, the cornerstone was laid the following year and the completed church was dedicated in 1926. Designed by Isaac A. Allen, the church would contain a large auditorium and gymnasium.