Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Apartment Buildings

Marshall Building (1890)

At 111 Main Street in Danbury is a commercial and apartment building erected in 1890-1891. The upper stories of the front facade feature different window designs on each floor. A stone set in the middle of the facade on the fourth story is inscribed: “Marshall, 1890.” The building’s original cast iron storefront was covered when the storefront was later extended. Painted advertising, much faded over the years, on the exposed north wall, reveals a former owner whose business occupied the building: “Cornelius Delohery Undertakers and Home Furnishings.”

Loudon’s (1880)

Loudon’s is a mansard-roofed apartment building, built circa 1880 at 122 West Broad Street in Pawcatuck.

Campbell & Babcock Mill House (1910)

Campbell and Babcock, a company that produced woolen textiles, erected a variety of worker housing in the vicinity of its mill in Pawcatuck. One of these was the mill house at 7-9 Palmer Street, erected circa 1870.

Morse and Norton’s Block (1880)

Morse and Norton’s Block is an Italianate-style commercial and apartment building built in 1880 at 72-80 East Main Street in Meriden. One of the two original owners of the building was Samuel L Norton (1821-1902). In more recent times, tenants had to abandon the building in early 2014 after the back wall of the eastern half partially collapsed. Work to repair the structure was greatly facilitated the following year when the building, still divided between two owners, became the property of a single owner.

The Viking (1910)

As displayed on the sign on its roofline, the building at the corner of Broad and Russ Streets in the Frog Hollow neighborhood of Hartford is called “The Viking” and was built in 1910. The building was restored in 1984.

George J. Capewell House (1870)

George J. Capewell (1843-1919) invented an automatic process to make horse nails. In 1881 he started the Capewell Horse Nail Company in Hartford. His residence in the city was an Italianate-style house at 903 Asylum Avenue, built in 1870. The house, long owned by the Holcombe family, was later converted to apartments.

116-122 High Street, Bristol (1880)

At 116-122 High Street in Bristol, dating to c. 1880, is one of the oldest apartment blocks in the city. An excellent example of Italianate architecture, it is (unusually for a building of its size) of wood frame construction. The 12-unit building was condemned by the City of Bristol in 2015 and the tenants were forced to move out. The property owner was then arrested for reckless endangerment and property maintenance code violations. A new manager later took over the property.