The Basilica of the Immaculate Conception (1928)

 

 

We conclude Waterbury Week with the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. The first Roman Catholic church in Waterbury was St. Peter’s Chapel, purchased in 1847 from Episcopalians, who were at the time moving to a larger building. The Chapel was moved to the site on East Main Street where St. Patrick’s Hall would later be built. In 1857, across the street from the Chapel, the first church in Waterbury specifically built to be a Catholic Church, the Church of the Immaculate Conception, was dedicated. In 1925 to 1928, a new Immaculate Conception Church was built on Waterbury Green, on the site where the William B. Merriman House once stood. Designed by the firm of McGinnis and Walsh, the church was modeled on the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, one of the four major Catholic basilicas. A Vatican decree in 2008 conferred on Immaculate Conception Church the status of a minor basilica.

Chase Brass & Copper Company Headquarters (1919)

Designed in 1916 by Cass Gilbert and constructed between 1917 and 1919, the former headquarters building of the Chase Brass & Copper Company is located on Grand Street in Waterbury, opposite the city hall, which was also designed by Gilbert. Both buildings were part of a plan of development for Waterbury by the Chase Company’s president, Henry S. Chase, who died in 1918, a year before his company’s office building was completed. He was succeeded as president by his brother, Frederick. The Chase brothers had rejected the use of brick for the new building, so that it would contrast with the colonial style of the nearby city hall. The company left Waterbury in the 1960s, selling the building to preservationists in 1963 for one dollar. In 1966, it was purchased by the city for use as offices and is now known as the Chase Municipal Building.

Elton Hotel (1904)

The Elton Hotel, at Prospect and West Main Streets on the Green (Video link) in Waterbury, was for many years the city’s grandest hotel and a social and businesses center. Built in 1904 and designed by Wilfred Griggs in the style of the French Renaissance, the Elton Hotel featured luxurious amenities, including several restaurants and ballrooms. The hotel was constructed on the site of the colonial-era Scoville Homestead, which was torn down to make way for the new building. The Elton Hotel‘s first manager, Almon C. Judd, developed what became known as the “Ideal Tour,” an automobile route through New England, starting at the Elton and stopping at various hotels and resorts. Over the years, many celebrated people stopped by or stayed at the Hotel Elton. John F. Kennedy made a campaign speech in 1960 from the hotel balcony and the humorist, James Thurber, wrote the story, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” (pdf) which features a Waterbury hotel lobby, at the Elton. Today the building serves as an assisted-living facility.

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.

Apothecaries Hall Building (1894)

Another Waterbury landmark is the Apothecaries Hall Company building, a “flatiron” structure, located at Exchange Place, where several important city thoroughfares intersect. In 1849, Dr. Gideon L. Pratt opened a drugstore at Exchange Place in a Greek Revival-style building that had been built in 1829 by by Benedict and Coe as a general store. Called Apothecaries Hall, the business continued and grew under various owners for many years. In 1892, the original building was torn down and replaced, at the same spot, by the current structure in 1894. Designed by Theodore Peck, the Renaissance Revival building is constructed of marble, granite and Roman brick.

Waterbury Union Station (1909)

This week we look at buildings in Waterbury. Opened in 1909, Waterbury‘s old Union Station building, famous for its striking clock tower, was built by the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad and was designed by McKim, Mead and White. The 245 foot campanile, or tower, was added to the building at the request of a railroad executive who wanted a copy of the Torre del Mangia, built in 1325-1344 in Sienna, Italy. The tower’s clock, the largest in New England, was made by the Seth Thomas Company and the bell was installed in 1916. The tower features eight she-wolf gargoyles, reminders of the story of Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome. The former station now houses the offices of the Republican-American newspaper.