Birmingham National Bank (1892)

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The old Birmingham National Bank building is on Main Street in the City of Derby, which was once known as Birmingham. The bank was originally chartered in 1848 as the Manufacturers Bank of Birmingham, with Edward N. Shelton as its first president, and in 1865 became a national bank. Constructed in 1892-1893, the building features an elaborately detailed facade with terra cotta molding in the Sullivanesque, Neo-Grec and Richardsonian Romanesque Revival styles. The building is now the Twisted Vine Restaurant.

Southington Historical Center (1902)

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In 1900, a small library opened in the Southington Town Hall, but money was soon raised to construct a library building on Main Street. Completed in 1902, this original library building is a neoclassical structure built of of glazed terra cotta brick and granite. In 1917, Emma Bradley Yeomans Newell, a wealthy philanthropist, donated money for the addition of a “historical wing” to the library. The wing, not actually built until 1930, was named the Sylvia Bradley Memorial, in honor of the wife of Amon Bradley and grandmother of the notable Southington citizen, Bradley Barnes. The Southington Historical Society, founded in the 1960s, housed its collections and met in the wing. A new library was constructed in 1974 and the old building then became a museum called the Southington Historical Center. It recently received a grant from the Community Foundation of Greater New Britain to complete renovations on the building.

Second Church of Christ Scientist [Hartford] (1927)

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The Georgian Revival-style Second Church of Christ Scientist, located off Columbus Green in Hartford, was designed by the architects Isaac A. Allen & Son and was built over several years in 1920s. The foundation was finished in 1924 and in 1927, with assistance from William A. Boring, the remaining superstructure was completed. The interior dates to 1929. Like such neighboring buildings as the Connecticut State Library and Supreme Court, the church was part of an attempt to create a setting in keeping with the “City Beautiful” movement of the early twentieth century.

The Travelers Tower (1919)

The first part of the Travelers Building was constructed in 1906 as the headquarters of the Travelers Property Casualty Corporation, founded in Hartford in 1864. The company, now part of The Travelers Companies, has had many firsts in the history of insurance, including the first automobile, commercial airline and space travel policies. The first section of the Travelers building to be built, in 1906, was the Renaissance Revival-style structure facing Main Street in Hartford. The building began to expand southwards in 1912, with the 527-foot tower, featuring classical influences, being completed in 1919, at which time it was the tallest building in New England and the seventh tallest in the world. The architect was Donn Barber of New York. In 1963, after the removal of some adjacent buildings between the tower and the Wadsworth Atheneum, a new grand entrance plaza was created facing south. More recently, the building has become a nesting site for Peregrine Falcons. A camera was set up to study them, which is also available to the public online. Visitors can go to the top of the Travelers Tower in the Summer.

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New Haven Post Office and Federal District Court (1913)

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Designed by James Gamble Rogers, New Haven’s Post Office and Federal District Court building was completed on New Haven Green in 1913. It’s Neoclassical design features an especially long and flattened Greek-style columned portico, designed by Rogers to fit in with the need for an extended facade in a crowded urban area. It succeeds in making an impression with its dignified presence.

Beleden (1910)

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Beleden, one of Connecticut’s great high-style mansions, is located on Bellevue Avenue in Bristol. Designed by the architect Samuel Brown of Boston, Beleden was built for William Edwin Sessions, of the Sessions Clock Company. The Sessions family operated a foundry that had been producing castings for the E.N. Welch Company, a Forrestville clock manufacturer. Around 1900, Sessions purchased E.N. Welch and in 1903 renamed it the Sessions Clock Company. In 1906, William E. Sessions, who had been living in a house on Bellevue Avenue in Bristol, purchased the adjacent house and land of Nathan L. Birge. The Birge House was torn down and over the next 4 years Beleden, completed in 1910, was constructed. The U-shaped brownstone mansion was once the centerpiece of a large estate, which featured formal and English gardens, a pool, greenhouses and grape arbors. These former grounds were later divided by Beleden Gardens Drive and built-up with smaller homes. Two buildings, a coachman’s lodge and a gardener’s cottage, were originally part of the estate but are now separated from the main house by newer structures.