Public Buildings - Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Connecticut State Capitol (1878)

From 1701 to 1875, Hartford and New Haven alternated as Connecticut’s state capital. Once Hartford won the designation as sole capital city, plans were made to build a new capitol building to replace the Old State House. The new state house was constructed on a hill at the western end of Bushnell Park, on land that had been the original home of Trinity College. The College’s Greek Revival buildings were demolished and the State Capitol building was completed on the site in 1878. The legislature met there for the first time in 1879. The only High Victorian Gothic-style capitol building in America, it was designed by Richard Michell Upjohn, who won the design competitions. He had to make modifications to his plan in order to please the demanding Board of Capitol Commissioners, who were influenced by the contractor commissioned to construct the building, James G. Batterson. The most notable change was the addition of a domed tower. Upjohn had originally planned a traditional Gothic clock tower, but the Board wanted a dome which, while traditional on NeoClassical-style capitol buildings, is highly unusual for a Gothic building.

The Connecticut State Library and Supreme Court Building (1910)

Located on Capitol Avenue in Hartford, right across from the State Capitol building, Connecticut’s State Library and Supreme Court Building was constructed in 1908-1910. It was designed by the New York architect, Donn Barber, in a style influenced by the Italian Renaissance. The statues above the front entrance, installed in 1913, are figures of Justice, History, Art and Science, sculpted by Michel Louis Tonnetti. The building’s East Wing houses the State Library, while the West Wing houses the Supreme Court. Between the two wings is Memorial Hall, which is home to the Museum of Connecticut History. As with the neighboring State Capitol, visitors can take tours of the Supreme Court.

Museum on the Green (1840)

Located on the Green in Glastonbury, the town’s first secular Town Hall was built between 1839 and 1840 by Parley Bidwell, who probably also designed it. Glastonbury’s first Meeting House of 1693 had stood nearby. The 1840 building served as the Town House for a century, and is now the Museum on the Green, operated by the Historical Society of Glastonbury.

Hartford County Building (1929)

Begun in 1926, the Hartford County Courthouse Building, on Washington Street in Hartford, opened in 1929. The architects were Paul P. Cret, of Philadelphia, working with the Hartford architectural firm of Smith & Bassette (Roy Bassette had been Cret’s student at the University of Pennsylvania). Designed in Cret‘s severe variation of the Beaux-Arts style, featuring striped-down classical details, it replaced an earlier 1885 structure, located at the corner of Trumbull and Allyn Streets, that was later torn down. The Hartford County Building now serves as the Hartford Judicial District Courthouse.

East Windsor Hill Post Office (1757)

In 1757, David Bissell Jr. sold part of his land to Jeremiah Ballard, a barber, who built a shop on Main Street, in East Windsor Hill. The remainder of this shop is the present long ell of the East Windsor Hill Post Office. In 1759, Bissell gave the rest of his land to his son, David Bissell III, who later attached a shop/storehouse to Ballard’s shop. This is the gambrel-roofed warehouse with overhead doorway that now houses the Post Office. Different owners divided the structure for various businesses selling dry goods and groceries over the following years, well into the twentieth century. It also served as a post office, receiving its first government post rider in 1783. It is the oldest continuously operated post office in the country.

The Old State House (1796)

The Old State House in Hartford was designed by Charles Bulfinch, who sent the plans from Boston. Bulfinch was perhaps influenced by the design of the Town Hall of Liverpool, England. The original design was much simpler than what is seen today. Many important features were added later, including the balustrade along the roof-line, added to protect firefighters, and the cupola, with a figure of Justice, completed in 1827. It was designed by John Stanwood and modeled on the cupola of City Hall in New York. The entrance to the Old State House faces the Connecticut River, emphasizing the importance of the river to the city at that time. The Connecticut General Assembly, which alternated sessions between Hartford and New Haven until 1875, held its Hartford sessions in the building from 1796 until 1878, when the new State Capitol Building was opened. The Connecticut Supreme Court also met in the Old State House until 1878. Famous events to take place in the building include the infamous Hartford Convention of 1815 and the first Amistad Trial in 1839.

The Old State House building next served as Hartford’s City Hall from 1878 to 1915, when the new Municipal Building was constructed. For many decades, a large Second Empire style Post Office building occupied the front lawn of the Old State House until it was torn down in 1934 and the open area in front was restored. In the twentieth century, the building was either neglected or in danger of being torn down on several occasions, but citizens groups stepped in to save it. It has also undergone several restorations and been open as a museum operated by several different organizations over the years, most recently the Connecticut Historical Society since 2003. The Old State House was in the news earlier this year due to a funding crisis. This prompted a variety of responses and ideas about the future of this historic building.

Memorial Building, Rockville (1890)

Built in 1889-1890 in Rockville (part of Vernon) to serve as the Town Hall, the second floor features a Grand Army of the Republic Hall. It is the longest continuously operated GAR hall and the only one still intact with its original contents in Connecticut. Today it is open to the public as the New England Civil War Museum. The museum displays original stained glass windows and Civil War artifacts, including the Thomas F. Burpee Collection and the Hirst Brothers Collection. Originally planned to be constructed of wood, it was eventually decided to build the Memorial Building in stone, as the nearby Congregational church, which had been made of wood, burned down twice! After the church burned down in 1888, the new Union Congregational Church of 1890 was also built in stone. The Memorial Building was built by GAR veterans, one worker falling to his death during the construction. In Central Park in front of the building is the Cogswell Fountain, donated to the town by the temperance activist Henry D. Cogswell in 1883.