Historic Buildings of Connecticut

• Period in Existence: 1870 to 1963
• Original Architects: Bryant & Rogers
• Significant alteration in 1913-1914 to plans by Donn Barber
• Location: 214-222 (later 650) Main Street

Previous Buildings on the Site

In the early 1860s, two buildings stood at the northeast corner of Main Street and what was then called Wadsworth Alley (now Atheneum Square), across from the Wadsworth Atheneum. At 220-222 Main Street (pre-1898 numbering) was the Phillips Building, originally built in the late eighteenth century for the publishing firm of Hudson & Goodwin. In 1896, the company published American Cookery by Amelia Simmons, the first cookbook written by an American. They also published the Hartford Courant there from 1796 to 1815. Just south of the Philips Building was the Isaac Toucey House, a Federal-style house built in the first decade of the nineteenth century for Chauncey Gleason, a dry goods merchant. It was then owned by Cyprian Nichols, whose daughter Catherine married Isaac Toucey in 1827. Toucey (1792-1868) would serve as governor of Connecticut, attorney general of the United States in the administration of James K. Polk and secretary of the navy in the administration of James Buchanan. Both of these buildings were demolished in 1868 to make way for the new building of the Charter Oak Life Insurance Company.

Constructing the Charter Oak Life Insurance Building

The new six-story building, designed by the prominent Boston architectural firm of Bryant & Rogers, was erected in 1869-1870. A number of articles in the Hartford Courant discussed the proposed building in 1868:

The design for the new building which is to be erected next spring by the Charter Oak Life Insurance Company upon the old Toucey estate, corner of Main street and Wadsworth avenue, comes from the studio of the celebrated Boston architects, Bryant & Rodgers [sic], the latter now being in the city on business appertaining to the erection of the building. The position of the Atheneum, standing upon the opposite side of Wadsworth avenue, renders the site for the insurance building doubly valuable, and enables the company to secure fine offices on Wadsworth avenue, which they propose to occupy themselves, while the Main street portion will be rented for banking or similar purposes.

“The New Charter Oak Life Building.” (Hartford Courant, August 17, 1868)

The street facades are to be faced with the elegant material of which the Boston City Hall and Horticultural Hall are constructed, the same being obtained from the quarry of the Granite Railway company in Concord, N.H. [. . . .]

Both elevations are designed in the French Renaissance style, with details believed to be more ornate than heretofore introduced into the street edifices of our principal cities.

“Charter Oak Life Building. A Magnificent Structure–Detailed Description of It.” (Hartford Courant, November 18, 1868)

There are photographs from the collections of the Connecticut Historical Society, available through their online Digital Catalog, that show the building in 1869 at early stages of its construction: http://hdl.handle.net/11134/40002:16991 and http://hdl.handle.net/11134/40002:16986.

Becomes the Aetna Life Insurance Company Building

The Charter Oak Life Insurance Company ceased operations in 1888 and the building became the home of the Aetna Life Insurance Company (the Aetna Fire Insurance Company was located in a building adjacent to the north). For many years, the Aetna National Bank also had quarters in the building. Their offices underwent major alterations in 1899-1900 and the results were described in the Courant:

The new and enlarged quarters take in the two south offices in the Aetna building, on the corner of Main and Atheneum streets, the frontage being 40 feet on Main street and 80 on Atheneum. The entrance is on Main street, through large doors of solid mahogany. The Interior is a great room. 70 feet in length by 35 feet in width, and this is only broken by the directors’ room in the rear at the southeast corner.

“Fine Bank Offices. Reconstructed Home of Aetna National Bank.” (Hartford Courant, July 27, 1900)

The following year there was a similar remodeling of the offices on the north side of the building on behalf of Aetna Life to accommodate the company’s increasing business. The Hartford Courant admired the building’s new Main Street entryway, observing

Just now a revolving floor has been hung for the winter season, and this is to work by power, a small electric motor being tuned in such a way that the door will be continually moving, making the entrance to the building in a way automatic. In case the person entering should by any means make a mistake and become an obstruction, the door will stop until he has freed himself and then will start again on its revolutions.

“Aetna Life’s Door. Entrance Hall and Stairways Greatly Improved.” (Hartford Courant, January 22, 1902)

Major Alterations

A decade later the company required even more space and in 1913-1914 dramatically altered the building (see image above) by adding four stories and replacing the original mansard roof with a much flatter roof. The project, to plans by architect Donn Barber, required a significant feat of engineering:

The construction of the additional floors above the original building is of such a nature that no weight rests upon the foundation of the original building, the weight of the addition resting upon eight concrete and steel piers.

“Removing Staging at Aetna Building.” (Hartford Courant, October 29, 1914)

During the work the structure was enclosed in wooden scaffolding. As the Courant reported on November 21, 1914:

The Aetna Life Insurance Company building will be unveiled next week. The event will be marked by little or no ceremony, although it is near unique in the annals of architecture. Statues, tablets and monuments usually are the only things so honored, and few buildings, especially of the size of the Aetna life, are able in later years to include such an occasion in their history. But the Aetna Life will. For months it has been shrouded in a veil or scaffolding that has clouded, even if it has not hidden, the work of erecting four wore stories on the top of the old edifice. All this will disappear within a few days, and this is the unveiling.

“Ready to Unveil Aetna Building.” (Hartford Courant, November 21, 1914)

The completed building continued to serve Aetna until the company built its massive new home office on Farmington Avenue in 1931. The old building on Main Street was then rented out until it was purchased by the neighboring Aetna Fire Insurance Company in 1939. The Aetna property was acquired by Travelers Insurance in 1957 and old building was demolished in 1963 to make way for Travelers Plaza, the grand entrance to the Travelers Tower.

• Period in Existence: 1906 to 1923
• Location: 803 Main Street, opposite the Old State House

In 1905, the Phoenix National Bank began an extensive expansion and remodeling of its 1874 building on Main Street (Phoenix Bank II), across from the Old State House. The bank would be creating its third facade on Main Street since its first building (Phoenix Bank I) was erected in 1817. As the Hartford Courant reported at the time:

The plan of alterations calls for practically a new building. The Main Street front of the present structure will be entirely changed. The present granite front will be taken out and will be replaced with a front of Nova Scotia granite. The granite on the first story front will be rubbed to a dull finish and above the first story the granite will be treated with what is known as eight-cut work. When the job is completed, the Phoenix National bank and the American National Bank, which has quarters on the second floor of the old building, will be located on the first story, entrance to them being gained by a step six inches above the sidewalk.

“Alterations in Phoenix Building.” (Hartford Courant, August 2, 1905)

This last alteration was a significant change. As explained in another article from the Courant, the 1874 building,

though a comparatively modern bank structure, possesses the disadvantage of being so built that the best business portion must be reached by a flight of steep steps. Modern banking methods require that the bank shall be closer to the people, on a grade with the street, so that people can do business quickly and get out, So, the directors of the bank, which owns the building, propose remodeling it by bringing the business offices of the Phoenix and the American National banks down on the ground floor. The two stores now occupied by Smith & McDonough and E. Habenstein, the approach to which is by descending two steps, will be vacated so as to give the banks direct entrance from the sidewalk.

“State Bank to Remodel Building.” (Hartford Courant, January 14, 1905)

On August 2, 1905, the Courant reported:

Hoggson Brothers, designing contractors of No. 7 East Forty-Fourth street, New York. who got the contract for making alterations in the Phoenix National Bank Building, have sub-let the job to Hartford contractors. The work, which will ho done under the supervision of Hoggsnn Brothers, will be begun tomorrow. A. L. Hills will do the mason and iron work, Stoddard & Caulkins the carpenter work, George Mahl the plumbing and gas fitting, and Edward S. Francis the electric wiring.

“Alterations in Phoenix Building.” (Hartford Courant, August 2, 1905)

As a history of the bank relates:

While the work was being done the bank rented offices on Pearl street opposite the entrance to Lewis street. It returned to its practically new building on September 27, 1906, and the minutes read briefly that “the compliments were many”.

Charles W. Burpee, First Century of the Phoenix National Bank of Hartford (1914), p. 97

In describing the interior of the new building, the author writes that

Standing by the officers’ desks and looking down through the main office, 145 feet to the rear wall, one is impressed both by the classic beauty and by the principle of accessibility—everything for the bank’s business brought well together and yet with ample space. Over the discount clerk’s section there is light from a light shaft while farther along daylight streams through six glass domes, a remarkable feature for the first floor of a large office building and made possible by the one-story addition in the rear built in 1905. [. . .]

As the observer notices at once, the rooms for patrons are located with a view to accessability [sic] and convenience. Almost directly opposite the tellers’ section for the ladies is the ladies’ room, dainty in furnishings yet businesslike. Here, at an individual desk, a lady may look over her papers, do what writing she wishes to do and then deposit her cash or checks, make her collection or return her securities to the vault, taking only a few steps.

A short distance farther down the lobby, under two of the glass domes, one enters the safe-deposit department. The main feature here, of course, is the vault itself, a marvel of steel and mechanism. Its ten-ton circular door, proof against force or artifice, swings at a touch. Within the outer walls of Caen stone is concealed a mesh of wires, any fibre of which, on being touched by the implements of an intruder, would give an electrical alarm for the watchman and for the men at the neighboring district service office.

Charles W. Burpee, First Century of the Phoenix National Bank of Hartford (1914), p. 98

The stone phoenix that sat atop the 1874 building had been carefully taken down and was reused on the new structure. Two stone lions, originally placed atop the wings of the original bank building and moved to the sidewalk when the 1874 building was constructed, retained their places facing the Old State House. They were beloved local landmarks, as the Courant described:

Many of the youth of Hartford have been entertained by fond papas with stories about the lions and the things they did when everybody was asleep and nobody was around to keep tabs on them. It has been many times related and never denied that on New year’s Eve, when the lions heard the City Hall [Old State House] clock strike the hour of midnight, they regularly got up and changed places.

“Phoenix Bank Lions for City Building.” (Hartford Courant, July 16, 1912)

In 1912, city authorities decided that the lions encroached too much on the sidewalk and ordered their removal:

Making no contest as to rights, the bank complied, though loud were the protests from lovers of art and from citizens who as boys had patted, bestraddled and helped polish those lions, even as the street urchins of the twentieth century were wont to do. “Let the Phoenix lions be preserved”, said everybody. Accordingly the bank presented them to the city for use at the new Municipal Building, on condition that if at any time the city should neglect to accord the lions the respect they deserved, they should revert to the bank. They are to be placed on either side of the Arch street entrance to the building.

Charles W. Burpee, First Century of the Phoenix National Bank of Hartford (1914), p. 96

The lions remain there today. The 1906 Phoenix Bank building was again enlarged in 1913-1914 and a decade later was replaced by an entirely new building (Phoenix Bank IV) that was demolished in 1964 to make way for the Hartford National Bank Building at 777 Main Street.

• Period in Existence: 1874 to 1905
• Architect: George Keller
• Location: 303 (later 803) Main Street, opposite the Old State House

In 1873-1874, the Phoenix National Bank of Hartford replaced its original Main Street building of 1817 with a new structure at the same site. The stone phoenix from atop the previous building retained its place on the new one and the two lions, which had sat atop that earlier building’s side wings, were now brought down to street level, facing the Old State House. The new building was designed by George Keller, the architect of Hartford’s Soldiers and Sailors Arch and many other buildings in the city. As explained in a history of the bank:

The original sum appropriated for the second building was $100,000, but original appropriations are not always sufficient. James G. Batterson, who also built some of the best known structures in New York and the Connecticut Capitol, was the builder. During the period of construction the bank had its offices in the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company’s building.

Charles W. Burpee, First Century of the Phoenix National Bank of Hartford (1914), p. 97

In 1873, the Hartford Courant described the marble building soon to be under construction:

The plan of the building wad made chiefly with a view to meet the growing requirements of the bank, and with reference to future improvement of the property, which extends eighty feet in the rear, and is owned by the company. The building is divided by a wide central hall, passing through and communicating directly with the rear, so that it may be extended at any time to connect with future additions. The hall enlarges at the lower end to a commodious, brightly lighted staircase, twenty feet square, which extends through the upper stories and gives easy access to the rooms above. Adjoining the staircase provision is made for an elevator.

[. . .]

The exterior Is designed in the Neo Grec style—or to speak plainer, the style in which the principal modern buildings of Paris have been designed. It depends for effect more on a proper management and a correct use of material, than on a useless profusion of columns, capitals and other architectural properties. The entrance is approached by a short flight of granite steps and is boldly projected from the face of the building[.]

“The Phoenix Bank Building. The Old and the New” (Hartford Courant, May 24, 1873)

When the building was completed near the end of the following year, the Courant reported:

The basement is of grey Westerly granite, treated in a simple, quiet manner, and opposed to the brilliant white marble of the stories above. A porch leading to the principal story projects boldly from the face of the building, on each side of which are polished columns of Maine granite, with elegantly carved caps, supporting a pediment overhead. A polished granite gilt-lettered sign is inserted in the center, resting on these columns, and a spirited head of Mercury, carved by [Carl] Conrads, the sculptor, starts from the panel of the pediment. An important and striking feature of the front is the large plate glass windows, effectively grouped and designed so as to secure the largest amount of light to the interior. The dormer windows above the cornice, on each side of the central projection, that extends above the roof, give variety to the sky line, and the whole design culminates beautifully and appropriately in a boldly carved marble phoenix, the time-honored emblem of the Phoenix bank.

“The Phoenix Bank. A Fine Building for Banking and Other Business.” (Hartford Courant, December 4, 1874)

Moving on to the interior, the author admires the abundance of light provided by the plate glass windows and describes the interior decoration:

The questionable outlay of money usually bestowed on plaster enrichments of cornices, etc., has been studiously avoided, and the money thus saved has been devoted to color and to appropriate graphic decorations in outline, the plaster serving as a foundation for the color and not to simulate constructive contrivances as in customary “stucco” abominations. The ceilings and wall surfaces were purposely arranged to receive the color decorations, which are elegant and artistic in a high degree and show a mastery of conventional design and a refinement of color that are unusual. It is Greek in feeling though eclectic in character.

“The Phoenix Bank. A Fine Building for Banking and Other Business.” (Hartford Courant, December 4, 1874)

The Phoenix Bank would enlarge and completely remodel its 1874 building in 1905-1906, resulting in what was effectively a new building [Phoenix Bank (III)]. This would be followed by a fourth and final version that was demolished in 1964 to make way for the Hartford National Bank Building at 777 Main Street.

• Period in existence: 1817 to 1873
• Location: Main Street, opposite the Old State house

The Phoenix Bank was incorporated in 1814 and reorganized as the Phoenix National Bank in 1865. As the first bank in Hartford not controlled by members of the Congregational church, it was originally thought of as the “Episcopal Bank.” Its initial home was in the Main Street house of Michael Olcott, an original director of the bank, on land that had been in the Olcott family since 1639. As described in the Hartford Courant:

After the bank was started it took possession, as stated above, of the Olcott mansion, but that was soon after destroyed by fire, occasioned by the burning of the corner building–on Asylum street–which, it was supposed, was incendiary work [. . .] In 1815 three of the directors–Messrs. Olcott, Tudor and Russ—were appointed a committee to see to the erection of the new building, and Amos Ransom was selected as “a steady overseer and inspector of the laborers.” The main part of the building now standing is the one which came out of the ashes, and has to this day had the fabled Phoenix–bird with spreading wings exposed from its top.

“The Phoenix Bank. Some Interesting Reminiscences” (Hartford Courant, May 16, 1873)

Completed by 1817, the bank’s new home was the first marble building in Hartford. According to a history of the bank:

The office floor was above a basement and was reached by flights of iron-railed steps at each end of a spacious platform, itself, by its location and accessibility, to be one of the features of Hartford. A figure of the phoenix bird, carved in wood, surmounted the [façade]. It was on this platform that Commodore McDonough, the hero of the recent war [of 1812], stood in February, 1817, when he received the beautiful sword given by Hartford citizens and now preserved by the Connecticut Historical Society. Also it was from this platform that some of the dignitaries witnessed the parade on the occasion of Lafayette’s visit, September 3, 1824, the general himself standing under an arch which spanned the street at this point.

Charles W. Burpee, First Century of the Phoenix National Bank of Hartford (1914), p. 94-95

Additions were soon made to the building:

June 6, 1827, Directors Tudor, Woodbridge and Averill were appointed a committee to add wings on each side of the main building—not at all inappropriate for a phoenix. The wings rented for from $200 to $300 a year. The wooden phoenix was replaced at this time by one of exquisite model, carved out of stone and still in place today. Then above the curtain wall of each ell was placed a life-size marble lion. Antiquarians and lovers of art deeply regret that the name of the sculptor of these lions is unknown. They were destined to win a warm place in the hearts of Hartford citizens and of the children in particular, to be a landmark for many years and finally to become literally a part of the city’s official history.

Charles W. Burpee, First Century of the Phoenix National Bank of Hartford (1914) , p. 95

The lions survive today, now located on the south side of Hartford’s Municipal Building, guarding its Arch Street entrance. The Phoenix Bank replaced its 1817 building with a new one in 1873-1874 [Phoenix Bank (II)]. Two other versions would follow until the last was demolished in 1964 to make way for the Hartford National Bank Building at 777 Main Street.