On December 31, 1894, a fire in Southport destroyed the commercial/tenement building at the corner of Main Street and Harbor Road in Southport. Known as the Hall Block (possibly built in 1874), it was soon rebuilt in the Italianate style, with shops on the first floor and apartments above. The building, located at 252 Main Street with a flatiron form, was later altered converted in the Colonial Revival style into condominiums.
At 87 Post Road East (at the intersection of Church Lane) in Westport is a flatiron-type building built in 1924 to house the Westport Bank and Trust Company. The bank was founded in 1852 by Horace Staples (1801-1897) as the Saugatuck Bank. Soon renamed the First National Bank of Westport, it long occupied offices in National Hall in Westport, which it shared with the Westport Savings Bank, founded by Staples in 1863. The two banks merged in 1913 and eleven years later moved into the new building, designed by Charles E. Cutler (1881-1962), in the developing downtown east of the Saugatuck River. The building, later home to Hudson United Bank, has two large (10’x12′) murals that are reminiscent of works of the WPA-era. The murals were painted in 1965 by Robert L. Lambdin (1886-1981), a local artist, and depict scenes from Westport’s history. They are entitled Shipping on the Saugatuck and Hotel Square. In 2005 the building was restored as mixed-use retail space by David Adam Realty, which saved and refurbished the original exterior, terrazzo flooring, murals and four of the five bank vaults.
This is my 200th Hartford Post! To celebrate this milestone, I’m announcing that I have a book coming out later this summer called A Guide to Historic Hartford, Connecticut, published by The History Press.
Please watch this site for more announcements soon and “like” the Facebook page for the book:
http://www.facebook.com/AGuideToHistoricHartfordConnecticut
Also visit the site I’ve created for the book at
http://guidetohistorichartford.historicbuildingsct.com/.
The Flatiron Building in the above picture (called flatiron for its distinctive shape, resembling the famous Flatiron Building in New York City) is at 529-543 Ann Uccello Street in Hartford, between Ann and High Streets. The Neoclassical Revival commercial structure was designed by Frederick R. Comstock and was built in 1896. It has been vacant since a fire in 2004.
The Rockwell Building is a distinctive flatiron-type structure at 97 Main Street, with storefronts facing Main and Market streets in downtown Norwich. Associated with John A. Rockwell, a lawyer who lived with his family in the Wauregan Hotel, the Rockwell Building was built around 1860 in the Romanesque Revival style. It has an impressive cast iron addition, designed by C. H. Preston in 1895. In 1890, when the building was home to the Snell Business College, it was described in The Leading Business Men of Norwich and Vicinity, Embracing Greeneville and Preston as follows: “This is a handsome building, made of Philadelphia pressed brick, with white granite casings, situated in the very heart of the city, commanding a perfect view of the harbor and the city’s principal thoroughfare.” (more…)
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.
Lucius W. Carroll was a leading Norwich merchant and businessman who had a store on Water Street. In 1887, as a real estate venture, he constructed a commercial building to be leased to a variety of businesses. Located at the intersection of Main and Water Streets in Norwich, the Carroll Building is also known as the Flat Iron Building, because its floor plan, accommodating the triangular area where it was built, resembled an iron, like that of the famous Flatiron Building in New York, built in 1902. The building‘s display windows are separated by cast iron columns by A. H. Vaughn & Sons, proprietors of the Norwich Iron Foundry. Below are additional images of the building, which show how the Worcester architect, Stephen C. Earle, had to contend with the site’s uneven ground. (more…)
Deep River‘s distinctive Town Hall was built in 1893 in a “flatiron” shape to conform to its location, where Elm and Main Streets intersect diagonally. The building originally had businesses and a post office (which moved out in the 1960s) on the first floor, with town offices being on the second floor. The third floor has an auditorium. The building’s granite foundation and the 1905 granite fountain outside were both donated by Samuel F. Snow in memory of his wife.
