Seaside Institute (1887)

The Seaside Institute is a Richardsonian Romanesque building, erected in 1887 at the corner of Lafayette and Atlantic Avenues in Bridgeport. Designed by Warren R. Briggs, it was built by the brothers, Drs. I. D. Warner and Lucien C. Warner, across Atlantic Street from their corset factory. With seven eighths of their 1,200 employees being women, the Seaside Institute was built to provide the female workers with various amenities. As described in Volume II of Rev. Samuel Orcutt’s A History of the Old Town of Stratford and the City of Bridgeport (1886),

It comprises a Restaurant, Free Reading Room, Library, Bath Rooms, a large Public Hall, and Rooms for Evening Classes. It is a very elegant and substantial building of granite, brownstone and pressed brick, costing $60,000

The Seaside Institute‘s dedication ceremony was attended by Frances Folsom Cleveland, wife of President Grover Cleveland. Much lauded at the time for its role in remedying what was called “the problem of the working-girl,” the Institute continued to serve its original purpose until changing times led to its dissolution in 1929. The building was next owned by the Bridgeport Herald and, since 2007, has been home to Bridgeport International Academy, a private high school.