Harris B. Humason House (1885)

The house at 201 Vine Street in New Britain originally stood on Lexington Street, across from the New Britain Museum of American Art. It was built around 1885 for Edward N. Stanley (1858-1948), president of the Savings Bank of New Britain and a director of The Stanley Works. About 1900, the house was purchased by Harris Burrill Humason (1862-1918), secretary at The Stanley Works, who had previously been renting it. He moved the house to Vine Street and added the porches. Also, please check out my recent posts on my visits to Olana (home of Frederic Edwin Church, who was born in Hartford and is buried at Spring Grove Cemetery), Cedar Grove (home of Thomas Cole) and Hudson, NY.

Sacred Heart Church, New Britain (1904)

Polish immigrants in New Britain first formed a congregation in 1894 as a mission of St. Stanislaus parish in Meriden. The new parish in New Britain was established the following year. Originally named St. Casimir the King, its name was changed in 1896 to the Sacred Heart of Jesus parish. The first church was built on Orange Street in 1896. The current church, at 158 Broad Street, was designed by architect George P. B. Alderman of Holyoke. It was built in 1903-1904.

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…)

Timothy Wadsworth Stanley House (1860)

The Gothic Revival mansion at 1 Hillside Place in New Britain was built in 1859-1860 for Timothy Wadsworth Stanley, a successful businessman and state legislator. With his three brothers, Stanley had founded the Stanley Rule and Level Company in the 1850’s, which would much later become part of the Stanley Tool Works, founded by another brother. In 1866, Stanley became the first president of the Union Manufacturing Company. He was also vice-president and later president of the New Britain Savings Bank. His house was originally surrounded by a four-acre estate, designed by the landscape architect Jacob Weidenmann.

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.

St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, New Britain (1922)

St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in New Britain began in 1836 and the first church building was located on East Main Street. This small wooden structure, later relocated to become St. Mary’s Schoolhouse, was succeeded by a more elaborate wood second church, built in 1848 on the corner of West Main and Washington Streets. Enlarged in 1859, it was replaced by the current granite church, built in 1921 and consecrated the following year. The church has stained glass windows that were originally in the second church building, as well as ones commissioned from the studio of William Morris.

New Britain Public Library (1901)

William F. Brooks designed the building of the New Britain Institute library, now the New Britain Public Library, built in 1900-1901 on the corner of High and West Main streets. The New Britain Institute was founded in 1853 to promote a series of lectures and establish a library and reading room. The library occupied various rented quarters, including the Russwin Hotel (now New Britain’s City Hall), until bequests from Dr. Lucius B. Woodruff and Cornelius B. Erwin allowed the current building to be built. The Library building is constructed of yellow brick and has elaborate terra-cotta reliefs. This structure once also housed the New Britain Institute’s art collection, which was moved in 1937 to a house on Lexington Street and is now the New Britain Museum of American Art.