Odd Fellows Hall, Waterbury (1895)

Nosahogan Lodge, No. 21, of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows was organized in Waterbury in 1845. The Lodge met in various rented halls until 1895, when the Odd Fellows Hall was completed and dedicated on North Main Street. Plans for the building were drawn up by Wilfred E. Griggs, a member of the order who designed many prominent buildings in Waterbury. As described in The Town and City of Waterbury, Vol. 3 (1896),

The hall occupies the ground formerly occupied by the Second Congregational church (the side and rear walls having been left standing), and also the space which lay between it and the street. The new building fronting on the street is forty-three and a half feet deep and six stories high, and contains the Odd Fellows’ parlors and about forty offices. The rear portion is partly three and partly two stories high, and contains the lodge room, various working rooms and the banquet hall. The building is in the Venetian Gothic style, in this respect standing alone among Waterbury edifices. The first two stories are built of Potsdam red sandstone, the stories above of “old gold” Pompeian brick, trimmed with speckled terra cotta. The building is provided with an elevator, is heated throughout with steam, and is more nearly fire-proof than any other office building in Waterbury.

In 1948, the building was sold to the Grieve, Bisset & Holland Department Store. The building‘s original front entrance and decorative roofline crown were later removed.