The Post Building, at 49 Cannon Street in Bridgeport, was built in 1891-1892 as the office of the Bridgeport Evening Post newspaper. The building was expanded 1901 to house both the Post and the Morning Telegram-Union.
Happy New Year from Historic Buildings of Connecticut!!! According to Vol. I of Waldo’s History of Bridgeport and Vicinity (1917), the Mechanics and Farmers Savings Bank of Bridgeport
received its charter in 1871, but was not officially organized until July, 1873, when the incorporators held their first meeting and elected a board of trustees; George W. Hayes, president; Andrew Burke and George Lewis, vice presidents; and Lyman S. Catlin, secretary and treasurer. It was started as an East Bridgeport bank and was located on West Washington Avenue, near East Main Street. From there the bank was moved to the basement of the Connecticut Bank Building, corner of Main and Wall streets, then to the Barnum Building, 407 Main Street, then to the City Bank Building, Wall Street, and finally to the new and attractive structure at 930 Main Street.
In 1930, the Bank constructed a new building, designed by Ernest G. Southey, in front of an earlier brick-faced building. Mechanics & Farmers Savings Bank failed in 1991 and the building has been vacant for many years. The Beaux Arts structure, which was owned for several years by the City of Bridgeport, was used in 2007 as a location for the film Righteous Kill, during which their was a minor fire in the bank’s lobby. Fletcher-Thompson Inc., an engineering and design firm that moved out of Bridgeport in 2002, plans to return to the city, renovating and moving into the former bank building by 2014.
At 22 Court House Square in Norwich is the 1910 building of the Uncas-Merchants National Bank. It is located along what was Norwich’s “Banker’s Row,” with other bank buildings on either side. The building was constructed for the Merchants National Bank, which had been organized in 1823. In 1928, Merchants merged with the Uncas National Bank, which had been organized in 1852 and incorporated in 1855. Before the merger, the Uncas National Bank had been located in a 1913 building on Shetucket Street. The Uncas-Merchants National Bank merged with the Hartford National Bank & Trust in 1955. The bank building is now used as offices.
The house at 401 Noble Avenue in Bridgeport was built in 1887 for Moses Redshaw, a toolmaker. According to his obituary in The Iron Age, Vol. 100, No. 9 (August 30, 1917):
Moses W. Redshaw, Bridgeport, Conn., general superintendent of the Bridgeport works of the Singer Sewing Machine Co., was killed Aug. 22 by a a fall through a hole in the floor of the factory, where repairs were being made. Mr. Redshaw was 65 years old and had been connected with the business for 45 years.
The George Gould House, built in 1896 for an oyster dealer, is located at 110 Ellsworth Street in Black Rock in Bridgeport. It is similar in some respects to the neighboring Arthur Smith House, another Queen Anne structure, although the Gould House’s tower is not on the side, but off-center along the main facade gable.
The son of house builder David Smith, Arthur Smith was born in the Black Rock section of Bridgeport in 1847. After going to sea in his youth, he went into the coal business and later founded Smith’s Express Company. In 1893, he built a house in Black Rock at 118 Ellsworth Street (he had had an earlier house at 260 Brewster Street). The house was constructed by the Gould Brothers, local builders who lived nearby in Black Rock.
At 228 Ellsworth Street, in the Black Rock section of Bridgeport, is an Italianate house with an ornate veranda and wide projecting eaves. It was built in 1853 by carpenter and housewright Oliver Burr as his own residence. After 1860, the house was home to two generations of the Burroughs family.
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