The Weisman Building (originally the Meigs Building), located at 105-109 Bank Street in Waterbury, was built in 1902. It is one of the many structures built in the wake of the downtown Waterbury Fire of 1902. This now vacant commercial building has been for sale/lease for many years.
At 27 Leavenworth Street in Waterbury is a house built in the early 1860s and much altered over the years. Known as the Armstrong/McDonald House, it has an Italianate form, but the exterior details are Georgian Revival. In about 1897, the house became the headquarters of the Young Women’s Friendly League (called the Waterbury Institute of Craft and Industry after 1908), which aided young working women. The organization began in 1889 and was incorporated in 1893. A large brick Georgian Revival building (31 Leavenworth Street) was constructed in 1900 as a rear addition to the house. This was the Young Women’s Friendly League Assembly Hall, also known as Leavenworth Hall.
One of the many buildings constructed in the wake of the 1902 fire in downtown Waterbury (or was it built in 1900, before the fire?) is the Mullings Building at 95-103 Bank Street. It was originally home to John Mullings‘s clothing store.
Henry Bacon, architect of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., designed the bank building at 18 Leavenworth Street in Waterbury. It was constructed in 1922 as the Citizens & Manufacturers Bank, which was formed from the merging of two banks: the Citizens’ Bank, which was established in 1853 and became a national bank in 1865, and the Manufacturers’ National Bank, established in 1880. The bank later merged again in 1959 to form the Colonial Bank and Trust Company. The structure is now part of the bank building at 81 West Main Street, which today is a branch of Sovereign Bank.
For my 50th post for Waterbury, Historic Buildings of Connecticut features a local landmark. In 1894, J. Alfred Drescher, an immigrant from Zurich, Switzerland, and Frederick Keil, who came from Mannheim, Germany, purchased “Miller’s Saloon,” which had opened in 1868. Frederick Keil had previously married the daughter of the previous owner, Charlie Miller. When Drescher and Keil retired in 1912, Drescher’s son Alfred, who had married Frederick Keil’s daighter, ran the business under the name Drescher and Keck with his partner, Michael Keck. After Keck died in 1944, the restaurant was known as Drescher’s and was run by the family until 1957. It has since continued in business with other owners. In 1982, an urban renewal project threatened the Drescher building, built in 1903-1904. The building was saved when it was moved from its old location on Harrison Alley to its current address at 25 Leavenworth Street.
Bohl’s Block, a commercial building at 65 Bank Street in Waterbury, was built in 1888 by Simon Bohl, a German immigrant who owned a meat market. The Romanesque structure was designed by Joseph A. Jackson.
Dating to 1922, Fire Station 2 of the Waterbury Fire Department is home to Truck 3 and Engine 2. The station is located at 519 E. Main Street.
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