Phoenix Bank (III) (1906)

• 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.