Fairchild Memorial Library (1925)

Before the Trumbull Library opened at 33 Quality Street on June 8, 1975, the town of Trumbull was served by three independent libraries: the Nichols Memorial (1923), Fairchild Memorial (1929), and Hawley Memorial (1937). These were merged under town administration in 1969. When plans were made to build that new library at a central location, two of the older libraries closed, but the Fairchild Memorial, now called the Fairchild-Nichols Memorial Library, remained as a branch of the new Trumbull Library System. Fairchild-Nichols began in 1922 as a lending library housed at the Old Firehouse. The library building at 1718 Huntington Turnpike was built in 1925 and the library opened in 1929.

St. Joseph Church, Danbury (1905)

The first Catholic services in Danbury took place in 1845. Saint Peter’s Catholic Church was eventually built on Main Street in the 1870s. In the History of the Diocese of Hartford, published in 1900, Rev. James H. O’Donnell wrote

We have seen that at the time of the first Mass the number of Catholics in Danbury did not exceed 70. The present Catholic population is 6,000 souls, divided into 5,000 Irish and their descendants, and 1,000 of mixed nationalities, Germans, Italians, Hungarians, French, Poles and Slavs.

The Catholic population had grown to an extent that a second Catholic Church was needed. A new parish was established in 1905, followed by the erection of Saint Joseph Church, located at 8 Robinson Avenue, facing Main Street. The Romanesque Revival-style church was designed by Dwyer and McMahon of Hartford.

The parish’s first pastor was Rev. John D. Kennedy, who was also chaplain of the Emmett Club, named after the Irish nationalist Robert Emmett, who led an abortive rebellion against British rule and was executed in 1803. The Emmett Club was the local chapter of Clan na Gael, an Irish republican organization that supported the island’s independence from Britain.

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City Trust Building, Danbury (1912)

The City Trust (later Citytrust) Bank Building, at 234 Main Street in Danbury, was erected in 1912-1913. Originally two stories, the building was remodeled and enlarged (to match the Union Savings Bank next door) in 1929-1931 by Morgan, French & Co. of New York. An Otis elevator was installed in 1931 to reach the new upper floors. Citytrust, based in Bridgeport, failed in 1991 and the building has since been a church.

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.”