Naugatuck Railroad Station (1910)

The railroad came to Naugatuck in 1849 and by the turn-of-the-century the lines through town were owned by the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad. When the time came to design a new and larger railway station, John H. Whittemore, Naugatuck’s great manufacturer and philanthropist, who had done so much to shape the architecture of the town center according to his vision of a “City Beautiful,” offered to help pay for its construction if he could select the building’s architect. Whittemore, who was also director of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad, commissioned Henry Bacon to design the station, which was constructed between 1908 and 1910. The style of the building has been described as Spanish Colonial Revival, but also as Italian Villa style. Although trains still stop at a newer station nearby, the old station closed in the mid-1960s. Used for a time as a newspaper plant by the Naugatuck Daily News, the building has more recently been restored and converted into a museum by the Naugatuck Historical Society.

New Britain City Hall (1886)

The building which is today New Britain’s City Hall was first opened in 1886 as the Hotel Russwin.  Financed by Henry E. Russell and Cornelius B. Erwin, it mainly served the numerous salesmen and clients of the Russell and Erwin Manufacturing Company, makers of architectural hardware.  The Italian Renaissance Revival design was created by Joseph Merrill Wells of McKim, Meade & White (Wells was Stanford White’s principal assistant).  Wells was a pioneer in the use of terra cotta detailing, as displayed on the Russwin Building.  The same firm was hired in 1907 for the building‘s conversion into City Hall that took place in 1908-1909.  An addition to the building was completed in 1992.  On either side of the Russwin are two other nineteenth-century buildings that were later incorporated into the City Hall.  The building on the right/west side was built c. 1860 as the New Britain National Bank (the Bank later moved to a new building next door).  The building on the left/east side was built c. 1870 as a U.S. Post Office and served until a new one was built in 1911.  (more…)

Court Exchange Building (1896)

The Court Exchange Building, at 211 State Street in Bridgeport, is a grandiose commercial structure, built in 1896. It was built by C. Barnum Seeley, the grandson of P.T. Barnum. The great showman, who had no sons, wanted the family name to continue and so he had provided that C. H. Seeley would receive the sum of $25,000, in addition to his portion of his grandfather’s estate, if he added Barnum to his name. For the Court Exchange Building, Seeley hired architect George Longstaff, whose extravagant plans caused building costs to skyrocket. The top floor became the headquarters of the Algonquin Club, which moved to a new clubhouse on Golden Hill Street in 1931. The Club disbanded around 1998. (more…)

Chester Bragaw House (1908)

The Chester, or Elias, Bragaw House is a brick mansion at the corner of Broad and Williams Streets in New London. Built in 1908 in the style of the Second Renaissance Revival (1890s-1920s), the house (183 Williams Street) was designed by James P. Duffy. A fire destroyed the interior of the building in 1980, which was restored and is now used for apartments (note, in the picture above, how the window openings of the house were made smaller to accommodate smaller standard-sized window panes).

Society for Savings (1893)

The former Society for Savings building, at 31 Pratt Street in Hartford, was that bank’s third sucessive building on the same site. Organized in 1819, Society for Savings was the state’s first mutual savings bank. Its first building was constructed in 1834, the second in 1860, and the present structure in 1893. It has since been altered: the ground floor during an interior renovation in 1927 and the upper floors in 1957, when architect Sherwood F. Jeter departed drastically from the Renaissance Revival style of the first floor. Society for Savings merged with Bank of Boston Connecticut in 1993 and the old building remained closed for over a decade. More recently, it has become the Society Room of Hartford, which takes advantage of the grand 1926 interior, an ornate space designed by Denison & Hirons with ornamental plaster work by Anthony DiLorenzo and murals by H.T. Schladermundt.

J.R. Montgomery Company (1905)

As detailed in the Nineteenth Annual Report of the State of Connecticut’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (1903):

The firm of J. R. Montgomery & Co. [in Windsor Locks] was established in 1871, for the purpose of manufacturing cotton warps used in satinets and union cassimeres. The firm was composed of J. R. Montgomery as the active partner, with two others who constituted the partnership. A few years after the outside interests were bought by J. R. Montgomery, who continued the business under the old firm name, until in 1885. George M. Montgomery was admitted into the business as an active partner, and the line of manufacture was enlarged, taking up the making of novelty yarns, which was a new and unique line of manufacture. […]

In 1891, the firm of J. R. Montgomery & Co. was merged into a corporation under the name of The J. R. Montgomery Co., of which J. R. Montgomery, President, and George M. Montgomery, Vice-President and Secretary, are the active managers. A new cotton warp mill and an addition to the Novelty Mill was built. The capital of $350,000 was invested in enlarging and increasing the scope of its business.

The first Warp Mill was expanded in 1904-1905, as described in Fibre and Fabric: A Record of Progress in American Textile Industries, Vol. XLL, No. 1054, May 13, 1905:

The machinery of the new factory of the J. R Montgomery Company is gradually being put into operation as fast as the various processes involved will allow. The completion of this building, states the Windsor Locks Journal, marks a new epoch in the prosperity of the town. Standing on the canal bank with its five stories beside the basement, and its frontage of 173 feet, it presents a handsome and imposing appearance. Its width is 63 feet, and it is so built as to connect with and open into the former five story building on the north, making a frontage of 248 feet. The designer is Fred. S. Hines of Boston and the contractors C. H. Hathaway & Co., of Providence, R. I. The work was begun early last Spring and has continued without interruption or accident. In its construction and equipment it embodies all the latest improvements in every feature, as regards fire proofing, heating, lighting, the distribution of power, etc.

All the power and lighting in the new mill is supplied by electricity, and the electrical plant is one of the most complete in this section of the country. The cotton machinery is all new and of modern construction for the manufacture of high grade yarns and warps. A combing plant has been installed for making a higher grade of work than heretofore attempted in that line. It is the intention of the company to continue along the same lines as in the past, but to improve the quality of the output, and to add to its reputation for high grade goods.

In the 1890s, the company began producing tinsel products, eventually becoming the country’s largest manufacturer of decorative and electric tinsels. In 1920, the Montgomery Company purchased the adjacent Anchor Mills Paper Company building, razing it and building a new white reinforced concrete building, which extended southwards from the 1891/1905 structure. The Montgomery Company ended its operations in Windsor Locks in 1989 and the factory buildings have since remained vacant, suffering fires in 2006, 2009 and again earlier this year. Since 2009, the Town of Windsor Locks has been attempting to foreclose on the now burned-out buildings.

2019 Update: The old factory buildings are currently being repurposed as apartment housing.

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