St. Peter Church is a Roman Catholic church at 695 Colorado Avenue in Bridgeport. The church, designed by Anthony J. DePace, was built in 1940. In 1991, St. Anthony Church, also located on Colorado Avenue, merged with St. Peter’s.
Founded in 1857 by D.M. Read, Read’s Department Store in Bridgeport became a retail landmark, evolving into a chain of stores that provided upscale merchandise for over a century. In 1869, the D.M. Read Company moved into a grand Second Empire-style building at the corner of Main Street and Fairfield Avenue in Bridgeport. The store moved again in 1925-1926 into a Neoclassical building at the corner of John and Broad Streets. It was designed by Monks and Johnson of Boston. The downtown Bridgeport store was closed in 1981. In the 1990s, the building, now called Read’s Artspace or Sterling Market Lofts, was converted into apartments for artists as live-work spaces.
At 2403 North Avenue in Bridgeport is a Queen Anne/Shingle style house built in 1892. It was the residence of George W. Jackman, General Manager of the Springfield Manufacturing Company. He was also a Bridgeport Alderman. According to Volume 1 of the History of Bridgeport and Vicinity (1917, edited by George C. Waldo, Jr.):
The Springfield Manufacturing Company, incorporated 1909, succeeded the Springfield Emery Wheel Manufacturing Company, which was established in 1880. Grinding machinery and abrasive wheels are made by this company[.]
Several religious congregations have used the building at 540 East Washington Street in Bridgeport over the years. It was built in 1866-1867 as the Bethesda Mission Chapel and Sunday School. It was later home to the East Washington Avenue Baptist Church (formed in 1874) and then to Congregation Adath Israel, the first Orthodox synagogue in Bridgeport. The edifice’s current cornice dates to 1902. Today the building is owned by the Apostolic Worship Center. The AWC purchased it in 1997 and completed renovating the sanctuary in 2002.
The Guilford Trust Company building, at 1 Boston Street across from Guilford Green, was built in 1912. The Guilford Trust Company and the Guilford Savings Bank shared the building until 1951, when the bank moved out. The trust company was acquired by a New Haven bank in 1957 and the building underwent alterations, including the removal of the front door. The structure is now a commercial building.
At the corner of Main and State Streets in Bridgeport is a bank building designed by Cass Gilbert and built in 1917. It was home to the Bridgeport Savings Bank, which was chartered in 1842 and merged with People’s Savings Bank in 1927. The bank’s first building was constructed at Main and State Streets in 1850, was replaced by a larger building in 1878 and then by the current building. People’s United Bank, as the company has been known since 2007, is now based in an office tower across the street. The 1917 bank building is now a restaurant. (more…)
The former building of the Home Bank and Trust Company, at 16 Colony Street in Meriden, was built in 1922. Originally chartered as the Home Bank of West Meriden in 1854, the bank was first located in the Collins Block, which was later destroyed by fire (the Hall & Lewis Building occupies the site now). In 1863, the bank moved to its own building, at the corner of Colony and Church Streets. Abiram Chamberlin, president of the bank, who served as Governor of Connecticut from 1903 to 1905, lived on the second floor of the brick building. The 1863 building was moved around the corner to make way for the 1922 building, designed by the firm of McKim, Mead and White. The bank became Shawmut Home Bank in 1987 and the following year was acquired by Connecticut National Bank. Today, the former bank building is home to a nightclub. (more…)
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