Downtown Waterbury Historic District
Encyclopedia
The Downtown Waterbury Historic District is the core of the city of Waterbury
, Connecticut, United States. It is a roughly rectangular area centered around West Main Street and Waterbury Green, the remnant of the original town commons, which has been called "one of the most attractive downtown parks in New England
."
The Green was the city's first center, with the buildings around it representing all types of uses, from residences to churches to public buildings. Many early buildings were cleared as the city grew and industrialized. Nearby Exchange Place, the junction of the city's streetcar lines, later emerged as a center for retailing
. A devastating 1902 fire in that area led to more clearing and rebuilding. In its wake the city's government buildings were moved to a new municipal complex
on Grand Street designed by Cass Gilbert
, in accordance with the principles of the City Beautiful movement
.
Most of its buildings, large commercial blocks, date to the peak years of the city's industrial prosperity, the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A few earlier buildings survived a devastating 1902 fire. Among them works by locally and nationally prominent architects, the latter group including Henry Bacon
and Henry Dudley
in addition to Gilbert. They include a variety of contemporary architectural style
s, particularly the Second Renaissance Revival
, Georgian Revival and Romanesque Revival modes.
In 1983 the area was recognized as a historic district
and listed on the National Register of Historic Places
. At that time, there were three listings on the Register within the district, including the municipal complex and a pair of houses listed together. Another old hotel has since been listed as well as a contributing property
.
and the Waterbury branch campus of the University of Connecticut. It is an intensively developed urban area, with many multi-story mixed-use
buildings. There are 130 in total, with six objects and one structure counted among the contributing resources
. Seventeen of the buildings are considered non-contributing, either due to construction outside the period of significance or later alterations. The oldest date to the 1805s; there is some modern infill.
Among the buildings are large parking lots, and two small parks, Waterbury Green and Library Park, provide open space
. The terrain is generally flat, the former flood plain of the river valley. To the south Interstate 84
crosses the city and valley on an elevated viaduct
, affording a panoramic view of the skyline to eastbound traffic on the upper level.
The northwestern corner is the intersection of State and West Main streets. The district boundary follows the middle of West Main for two blocks to Park Place, where it turns north, excluding the Mattatuck Museum Arts and History Center
and including Immaculate Conception Church and other properties on the north side of West Main. At North Main Street it turns south again, then east along East Main to the eastern corner of the district, the open square at the junction of that street and North and South Elm streets.
From there it follows a diagonal course along property lines, crossing Scovill and South Main streets to the junction of Bank and Grand streets. There it follows Grand westward, including the properties on the south side west of Cottage Place. It detours down Field Street in order to include the armory, then all of Library Park and the former American Brass Company
headquarters. After following Meadow Street back to Grand, it follows State Street back to the northwest corner.
Leavenworth Street, in the middle of the district, divides the two major uses
of the district. To its east are more commercial blocks, with buildings packed densely, covering most of their lots, centered around Exchange Place, the blocks between East Main, Leavenworth, Bank and Grand. West, the buildings are primarily institutional, dominated by the row of buildings forming part of the Waterbury Municipal Center Complex
, with large setbacks
from the street and each other. There are some commercial buildings among them, and one major institutional building, the post office, is located in the eastern half.
, its population was not much larger than it had been a century earlier.
Industrialization began in the early 1820s, with makers of carriages, buttons and clocks attracted to the water power offered by the many streams draining into the Naugatuck in the area, the feature which had given the town its name. To serve them, some local businessmen went into the brass
making business. They established mills of their own which drew on British expertise in the area to make the alloy in sheets, beginning the industry the city was to become known for.
The industrialists began to change the city. Their first suggestion to the community was the creation of a town green. On Independence Day
in 1825, the townspeople gathered to blast some stubborn boulders from the swampy, neglected two-acre (8,000 m²) remnant of the town common around which many of the original settlers had built their homes. In the following years the town drained and graded the area, realigned streets around it and moved the meeting house
off the land. In 1842 it was fenced off, ending its use as pasture
, and seven years later it was officially named Center Square, although the original name of Waterbury Green has prevailed over the years.
Few buildings remain anywhere in Waterbury from the city's early years, due to the extensive rebuilding that followed. The dearth, in a region where many communities have 18th- and sometimes 17th-century buildings extant, is such that the local historical society has printed a brochure explaining the lack of such structure in Waterbury to visitors, and the city's daily newspaper once ran a contest to find its oldest house. Within the district, the oldest structure is an 1835 Greek Revival
building at 67–73 South Main Street. Its layout and dimensions remain intact; its exterior has been so extensively altered that it is not considered a contributing property
despite its advanced age.
as a city in 1853. By 1860 its population had doubled to over 10,000. During this period Exchange Place, at the junction of the main east-west and north-south routes of the city, established itself as the central business hub of the city. The Greek Revival
buildings on those blocks reflect that era.
Waterbury Green continued to develop, surrounded by a mix of public and private buildings, including City Hall, the library, and some private houses. The first monument, a flagpole, was added in 1851, joined by rectilinear dirt pathways later in the decade (themselves replaces witrh the current curved concrete paths in 1873). In 1884, to honor local veterans of the Civil War
the Soldiers' Monument by George Edwin Bissell
, was added. Four years later, the Welton Fountain, memorializing its donor's favorite horse, joined it at the opposite end of the park.
Industry, at first located in that core, began moving to larger spaces further away from it as the city expanded and grew with them. Merchants moved into bigger buildings, such as the 1888 Romanesque Revival Platt Block and 1890 Queen Anne
Hanlon Block on East Main Street. The 1894 Apothecaries' Hall, a seven-story flatiron
-shaped building at Bank and South Main, has remained the focal point of Exchange Place ever since.
Local architects who would make their mark on the district began to do at this time. Wilfred E. Griggs' first building of note, the Odd Fellows Hall on North Main, with its rare American use of the Venetian Gothic
mode, went up in 1893. It was the first of two buildings he would design for local chapters of international fraternal organizations, reflecting their growing role in the city's social and political life. The 1889 Richardsonian Romanesque
St. Patrick's Hall on East Main marked the rise of Irish Americans, not only in its social-service function but in the person of its architect, Joseph Jackson, himself the son of an Irish immigrant builder.
Wealthier residents built grand homes on West Main Street, like the John Kendrick House
, as the expansion of the commercial district began pushing residential use out of that area. Houses of worship such as Henry C. Dudley's 1873 St. John's Episcopal Church, and Henry Congden's Trinity Episcopal
Church, ten years later, followed them. In 1894 the Silas Bronson library moved from the Green to its current location on Grand Street, the first such move of a major public building.
The strength of the city's industries, many of whom were building newer and larger facilities anyway, left it in a good position to recover from the 1902 fire which destroyed 42 buildings on three acres (3 acres (1.2 ha)) downtown, many newer construction in the Italianate
style, such as the surviving 1854 Reynolds Block on North Main. After the flames were extinguished, the city set about restoring itself, giving the future district many of its distinctive buildings. The first, the Second Renaissance Revival Howland Hughes department store
building on Bank Street, was opened the following year, the first such enterprise in Waterbury; and architect William Griggs followed it with the similarly styled Elton Hotel
on West Main across from the Green the next year and the Masonic Temple further down the street in 1912. Such large-scale buildings ensured downtown remained the city's economic center, at the cost of driving all remaining residential use out. Residential buildings that remained were converted to institutional use; large apartment blocks like the 1910 Jacobethan
Hitchock and Northrop, two buildings next to the Masonic temple that shared a common elevator tower, were also built on the periphery of downtown.
As it had when creating Waterbury Green, an early urban renewal
program was undertaken to create the new Library Park at the intersection of Grand and Meadow streets. Old commercial buildings and tenement
s in the area were demolished, and the streets realigned and straightened to create an appropriate neighborhood for the new Waterbury Union Station, which opened in 1909. Although outside the district, its 240 feet (73.2 m) clock tower
, modeled on the Torre del Mangia
in Siena
, Italy, has since become the city's distinguishing landmark owing to its dominance of the skyline.
Within the future district, American Brass, the city's largest employer, built its Renaissance Revival headquarters in 1913 at the Grand and Meadow corner, facing the station. The It was complemented by the Georgian Revival Waterbury City Hall to the east designed by Cass Gilbert
and completed in 1917, five years after the original building at Leavenworth and West Main was destroyed by an arson
ist. Gilbert complemented it at the same time with the Chase Headquarters Building
, for another one of the city's brassmakers. Other large buildings, mainly the headquarters of local banks, filled out Grand Street. These were all part of a conscious attempt, following the contemporary City Beautiful movement
, to provide impressive vistas both approaching and leaving the commercial center at Exchange Place, now the hub of the city's trolley lines.
During World War I
the city's brass mills were in constant operation for military contracts, first from the Allies
and later the federal government when the United States joined them. Afterward, the prosperity continued into the Roaring Twenties
, introducing more significant new buildings to the city. Some were in styles that had already been used downtown, like the Georgian Revival YMCA
building on West Main, Gilbert's 1921 Waterbury Savings Bank next to the municipal complex, and the Second Renaissance Revival Waterbury Savings Bank on North Main. Henry Bacon
contributed the Citizen's and Manufacturer's Bank on Leavenworth Street in that style, in 1921, and the following year a third one, the Palace Theater on West Main, gave the city what was to be its premier theater for many years. The later years of the decade brought in newer styles like the Baroque Revival Immaculate Conception Church, a 1928 edifice reflecting the progress of Waterbury's Catholic immigrant communities.
The last significant architectural style downtown, the Art Deco
and modernist buildings, came at the end of this period, just before the Great Depression
put a halt to most new private construction. The most prominent examples of these styles in the district are the 1930 Brown Building at the corner of East and South Main, and the 1931 Art Deco post office
on Grand Street. Further down the street the same year's Telephone Building, by Douglas Orr, uses modernistic brick detailing on a Georgian Revival design.
drove the brass mills into round-the-clock production again. This time it did not continue after the war, as plastics begain to displace brass in manufacturing. Downtown also suffered as returning veterans, who were honored with a new, star-shaped monument on the Green, sought to live in more suburban neighborhoods, with a single-family house and a yard, a living option that no longer existed in the center of the city. This created a demand for newer and bigger roads to accommodate the automobile traffic that came to the city from those suburbs, and buildings were demolished to build them.
The effect on the district was mixed. While the bus routes that replaced the trolley lines continued to meet at Exchange Place, urban renewal
programs later in the 20th century eliminated some major properties, most notably the McKim, Mead and White Buckingham Block at the corner of Bank and Grand and the neighboring Democrat Building. At West Main and Bank, Baubee's Corner, a brick building inspired by Federal style rowhouses of the early 19th century, also met the wrecking ball
. Other historic buildings, such as the 1908 Rietner Building on North Main, home to the city's Chamber of Commerce
, were modernized to an extent that their historic character was lost.
Newer construction continued in the district, with the new UConn campus taking up much of the cleared land in the east, obliterating Spring and School streets in the process. A new Bronson Library was built in 1963, followed by a new state courthouse
nine years later, in 1974. Downtown has remained the economic center of the city and its surrounding region of the Naugatuck Valley, with many local banks still clustering their offices around the Green.
In the early 2000s neglect of City Hall led to the city's own building department citing it as unsafe. In 2006 a $48 million bond issue for renovations was rejected by voters in a referendum
. The next year the city's Board of Aldermen put together a $36 million plan for which no referendum was sought. The rebuilt building opened in early 2011.
notable within the context of the district. Some have been nominated to the Register in the past, and may be listed themselves in the future.
during wartime, demonstration
s against those wars and economic hardship during the Panic of 1893
and Great Depression
, and speeches by John
, Robert
and Ted Kennedy
.
It has four monuments, all but one of which are contributing objects to the district:
code recognizes the downtown area as its Central Business District
(CBD). Its purpose is "to encourage intensive development of a diversity of land uses within the area." The only provision unique to it is that any residential use must have a side or rear setback
of at least 15 feet (4.6 m). There are no special provisions for historic preservation
.
In 1998 the city established an Information Technology Zone over a 42-block
area including the historic district. The state spent $2.2 million installing fiber optic, and set aside money for incentives to encourage businesses to locate in the zone. These include tax abatements and financing for eligible businesses, those which use modern technology to conduct their business.
Private businesses, landowners, residents and city officials have also joined to create Main Street Waterbury. Its goal is "to increase the political, physical, and economic value of Downtown Waterbury [through cooperative efforts]." It promotes the cultural and business opportunities available downtown for residents and visitors alike.
Waterbury, Connecticut
Waterbury is a city in New Haven County, Connecticut, on the Naugatuck River, 33 miles southwest of Hartford and 77 miles northeast of New York City...
, Connecticut, United States. It is a roughly rectangular area centered around West Main Street and Waterbury Green, the remnant of the original town commons, which has been called "one of the most attractive downtown parks in New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
."
The Green was the city's first center, with the buildings around it representing all types of uses, from residences to churches to public buildings. Many early buildings were cleared as the city grew and industrialized. Nearby Exchange Place, the junction of the city's streetcar lines, later emerged as a center for retailing
Retailing
Retail consists of the sale of physical goods or merchandise from a fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser. Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be...
. A devastating 1902 fire in that area led to more clearing and rebuilding. In its wake the city's government buildings were moved to a new municipal complex
Waterbury Municipal Center Complex
The Waterbury Municipal Center Complex, also known as the Cass Gilbert National Register District, is a group of five buildings, including City Hall, on Field and Grand streets in Waterbury, Connecticut, United States...
on Grand Street designed by Cass Gilbert
Cass Gilbert
- Historical impact :Gilbert is considered a skyscraper pioneer; when designing the Woolworth Building he moved into unproven ground — though he certainly was aware of the ground-breaking work done by Chicago architects on skyscrapers and once discussed merging firms with the legendary Daniel...
, in accordance with the principles of the City Beautiful movement
City Beautiful movement
The City Beautiful Movement was a reform philosophy concerning North American architecture and urban planning that flourished during the 1890s and 1900s with the intent of using beautification and monumental grandeur in cities. The movement, which was originally associated mainly with Chicago,...
.
Most of its buildings, large commercial blocks, date to the peak years of the city's industrial prosperity, the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A few earlier buildings survived a devastating 1902 fire. Among them works by locally and nationally prominent architects, the latter group including Henry Bacon
Henry Bacon
Henry Bacon was an American Beaux-Arts architect who is best remembered for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. , which was his final project.- Education and early career :...
and Henry Dudley
Henry Dudley
Henry C. Dudley , known also as Henry Dudley, was an English-born North American architect, known for his Gothic Revival churches...
in addition to Gilbert. They include a variety of contemporary architectural style
Architectural style
Architectural styles classify architecture in terms of the use of form, techniques, materials, time period, region and other stylistic influences. It overlaps with, and emerges from the study of the evolution and history of architecture...
s, particularly the Second Renaissance Revival
Second Renaissance Revival architecture
Second Renaissance Revival architecture is a category of architecture used in classifying buildings listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. It has been applied by the National Register for hundreds of places.-See also:...
, Georgian Revival and Romanesque Revival modes.
In 1983 the area was recognized as a historic district
Historic district (United States)
In the United States, a historic district is a group of buildings, properties, or sites that have been designated by one of several entities on different levels as historically or architecturally significant. Buildings, structures, objects and sites within a historic district are normally divided...
and listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
. At that time, there were three listings on the Register within the district, including the municipal complex and a pair of houses listed together. Another old hotel has since been listed as well as a contributing property
Contributing property
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing resource or contributing property is any building, structure, or object which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic district, listed locally or federally, significant...
.
Geography
The district is a 75 acres (30.4 ha) area between the railroad tracks along the Naugatuck RiverNaugatuck River
The Naugatuck River is a river in the US state of Connecticut. It carves out the Naugatuck River Valley. The river flows from northwest Connecticut southward into the Housatonic River in Derby, Connecticut. One of the river's main uses is hydropower, which is used to power industrial plants...
and the Waterbury branch campus of the University of Connecticut. It is an intensively developed urban area, with many multi-story mixed-use
Mixed-use development
Mixed-use development is the use of a building, set of buildings, or neighborhood for more than one purpose. Since the 1920s, zoning in some countries has required uses to be separated. However, when jobs, housing, and commercial activities are located close together, a community's transportation...
buildings. There are 130 in total, with six objects and one structure counted among the contributing resources
Contributing property
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing resource or contributing property is any building, structure, or object which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic district, listed locally or federally, significant...
. Seventeen of the buildings are considered non-contributing, either due to construction outside the period of significance or later alterations. The oldest date to the 1805s; there is some modern infill.
Among the buildings are large parking lots, and two small parks, Waterbury Green and Library Park, provide open space
Open space
Open space may refer to:In urban planning and conservation ethics* Landscape, areas of land without human-built structures*Open space reserve, areas of protected or conserved land on which development is indefinitely set aside...
. The terrain is generally flat, the former flood plain of the river valley. To the south Interstate 84
Interstate 84 in Connecticut
Interstate 84 is an East–West Interstate highway across the state of Connecticut into Danbury, Waterbury, Hartford and Union.-Route description:...
crosses the city and valley on an elevated viaduct
Viaduct
A viaduct is a bridge composed of several small spans. The term viaduct is derived from the Latin via for road and ducere to lead something. However, the Ancient Romans did not use that term per se; it is a modern derivation from an analogy with aqueduct. Like the Roman aqueducts, many early...
, affording a panoramic view of the skyline to eastbound traffic on the upper level.
The northwestern corner is the intersection of State and West Main streets. The district boundary follows the middle of West Main for two blocks to Park Place, where it turns north, excluding the Mattatuck Museum Arts and History Center
Mattatuck Museum Arts and History Center
The Mattatuck Museum Arts and History Center is a cultural institution based in Waterbury, Connecticut.-Collection:The Mattatuck Museum is unique because it focuses on the work of painters and sculptors who were born and/or based in Connecticut...
and including Immaculate Conception Church and other properties on the north side of West Main. At North Main Street it turns south again, then east along East Main to the eastern corner of the district, the open square at the junction of that street and North and South Elm streets.
From there it follows a diagonal course along property lines, crossing Scovill and South Main streets to the junction of Bank and Grand streets. There it follows Grand westward, including the properties on the south side west of Cottage Place. It detours down Field Street in order to include the armory, then all of Library Park and the former American Brass Company
American Brass Company
The American Brass Company was an American brass manufacturing company based in Connecticut and active from 1893 to 1960. The company's predecessors were the Wolcottville Brass Company and the Ansonia Brass and Battery Company. It was the first large brass manufacturing firm in the United States,...
headquarters. After following Meadow Street back to Grand, it follows State Street back to the northwest corner.
Leavenworth Street, in the middle of the district, divides the two major uses
Land use
Land use is the human use of land. Land use involves the management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as fields, pastures, and settlements. It has also been defined as "the arrangements, activities and inputs people undertake in a certain land cover...
of the district. To its east are more commercial blocks, with buildings packed densely, covering most of their lots, centered around Exchange Place, the blocks between East Main, Leavenworth, Bank and Grand. West, the buildings are primarily institutional, dominated by the row of buildings forming part of the Waterbury Municipal Center Complex
Waterbury Municipal Center Complex
The Waterbury Municipal Center Complex, also known as the Cass Gilbert National Register District, is a group of five buildings, including City Hall, on Field and Grand streets in Waterbury, Connecticut, United States...
, with large setbacks
Setback (land use)
In land use, a setback is the distance which a building or other structure is set back from a street or road, a river or other stream, a shore or flood plain, or any other place which needs protection. Depending on the jurisdiction, other things like fences, landscaping, septic tanks, and various...
from the street and each other. There are some commercial buildings among them, and one major institutional building, the post office, is located in the eastern half.
History
Downtown Waterbury's history has four distinct eras, the same as the city as a whole: the period from settlement in the late 17th century to the beginning of industrialization, the industrial era of the rest of the century, the planned development after the 1902 fire, and the years of industrial decline since World War II.1677–1820: Pre-industrial era
From the time of its settlement in the 1670s, Waterbury had been a lightly populated agricultural community. Its growth was hampered in the early years by flood and plague, and later the difficulty of farming the land. Several decades after the RevolutionAmerican Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
, its population was not much larger than it had been a century earlier.
Industrialization began in the early 1820s, with makers of carriages, buttons and clocks attracted to the water power offered by the many streams draining into the Naugatuck in the area, the feature which had given the town its name. To serve them, some local businessmen went into the brass
Brass
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties.In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin...
making business. They established mills of their own which drew on British expertise in the area to make the alloy in sheets, beginning the industry the city was to become known for.
The industrialists began to change the city. Their first suggestion to the community was the creation of a town green. On Independence Day
Independence Day (United States)
Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain...
in 1825, the townspeople gathered to blast some stubborn boulders from the swampy, neglected two-acre (8,000 m²) remnant of the town common around which many of the original settlers had built their homes. In the following years the town drained and graded the area, realigned streets around it and moved the meeting house
Meeting house
A meeting house describes a building where a public meeting takes place. This includes secular buildings which function like a town or city hall, and buildings used for religious meetings, particularly of some non-conformist Christian denominations....
off the land. In 1842 it was fenced off, ending its use as pasture
Pasture
Pasture is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep or swine. The vegetation of tended pasture, forage, consists mainly of grasses, with an interspersion of legumes and other forbs...
, and seven years later it was officially named Center Square, although the original name of Waterbury Green has prevailed over the years.
Few buildings remain anywhere in Waterbury from the city's early years, due to the extensive rebuilding that followed. The dearth, in a region where many communities have 18th- and sometimes 17th-century buildings extant, is such that the local historical society has printed a brochure explaining the lack of such structure in Waterbury to visitors, and the city's daily newspaper once ran a contest to find its oldest house. Within the district, the oldest structure is an 1835 Greek Revival
Greek Revival architecture
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture...
building at 67–73 South Main Street. Its layout and dimensions remain intact; its exterior has been so extensively altered that it is not considered a contributing property
Contributing property
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing resource or contributing property is any building, structure, or object which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic district, listed locally or federally, significant...
despite its advanced age.
1825–1902: Industrialization
Waterbury's growth continued to be steady but slow until it incorporatedMunicipal corporation
A municipal corporation is the legal term for a local governing body, including cities, counties, towns, townships, charter townships, villages, and boroughs. Municipal incorporation occurs when such municipalities become self-governing entities under the laws of the state or province in which...
as a city in 1853. By 1860 its population had doubled to over 10,000. During this period Exchange Place, at the junction of the main east-west and north-south routes of the city, established itself as the central business hub of the city. The Greek Revival
Greek Revival architecture
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture...
buildings on those blocks reflect that era.
Waterbury Green continued to develop, surrounded by a mix of public and private buildings, including City Hall, the library, and some private houses. The first monument, a flagpole, was added in 1851, joined by rectilinear dirt pathways later in the decade (themselves replaces witrh the current curved concrete paths in 1873). In 1884, to honor local veterans of the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
the Soldiers' Monument by George Edwin Bissell
George Edwin Bissell
George Edwin Bissell was an American sculptor.-Biography:Bissell was born New Preston, Connecticut, the son of a quarryman and marble-cutter...
, was added. Four years later, the Welton Fountain, memorializing its donor's favorite horse, joined it at the opposite end of the park.
Industry, at first located in that core, began moving to larger spaces further away from it as the city expanded and grew with them. Merchants moved into bigger buildings, such as the 1888 Romanesque Revival Platt Block and 1890 Queen Anne
Queen Anne Style architecture
The Queen Anne Style in Britain means either the English Baroque architectural style roughly of the reign of Queen Anne , or a revived form that was popular in the last quarter of the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century...
Hanlon Block on East Main Street. The 1894 Apothecaries' Hall, a seven-story flatiron
Flatiron
Flatiron or flat iron can mean several things:*An old term for a clothes iron*A wedge-shaped building:**The Flatiron Building in New York City, for which the surrounding Flatiron District is named...
-shaped building at Bank and South Main, has remained the focal point of Exchange Place ever since.
Local architects who would make their mark on the district began to do at this time. Wilfred E. Griggs' first building of note, the Odd Fellows Hall on North Main, with its rare American use of the Venetian Gothic
Venetian Gothic architecture
Venetian Gothic is a term given to an architectural style combining use of the Gothic lancet arch with Byzantine and Moorish architecture influences. The style originated in 14th century Venice with the confluence of Byzantine styles from Constantinople, Arab influences from Moorish Spain and early...
mode, went up in 1893. It was the first of two buildings he would design for local chapters of international fraternal organizations, reflecting their growing role in the city's social and political life. The 1889 Richardsonian Romanesque
Richardsonian Romanesque
Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after architect Henry Hobson Richardson, whose masterpiece is Trinity Church, Boston , designated a National Historic Landmark...
St. Patrick's Hall on East Main marked the rise of Irish Americans, not only in its social-service function but in the person of its architect, Joseph Jackson, himself the son of an Irish immigrant builder.
Wealthier residents built grand homes on West Main Street, like the John Kendrick House
John Kendrick House
The John Kendrick House is located on West Main Street in Waterbury, Connecticut, United States. It is a brick Tuscan villa house in the Italianate architectural style built in the 1860s, one of the last remaining on Waterbury Green from that period, after which many of the older houses were...
, as the expansion of the commercial district began pushing residential use out of that area. Houses of worship such as Henry C. Dudley's 1873 St. John's Episcopal Church, and Henry Congden's Trinity Episcopal
Episcopal Church (United States)
The Episcopal Church is a mainline Anglican Christian church found mainly in the United States , but also in Honduras, Taiwan, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, the British Virgin Islands and parts of Europe...
Church, ten years later, followed them. In 1894 the Silas Bronson library moved from the Green to its current location on Grand Street, the first such move of a major public building.
1902–1945: Planning era
By the turn of the century Waterbury was producing 48 percent of all American brass.The strength of the city's industries, many of whom were building newer and larger facilities anyway, left it in a good position to recover from the 1902 fire which destroyed 42 buildings on three acres (3 acres (1.2 ha)) downtown, many newer construction in the Italianate
Italianate architecture
The Italianate style of architecture was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. In the Italianate style, the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture, which had served as inspiration for both Palladianism and...
style, such as the surviving 1854 Reynolds Block on North Main. After the flames were extinguished, the city set about restoring itself, giving the future district many of its distinctive buildings. The first, the Second Renaissance Revival Howland Hughes department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
building on Bank Street, was opened the following year, the first such enterprise in Waterbury; and architect William Griggs followed it with the similarly styled Elton Hotel
Elton Hotel
The Elton Hotel is located on West Main Street in downtown Waterbury, Connecticut, United States. It is an early 20th century building by local architect Wilfred E. Griggs in the Second Renaissance Revival architectural style....
on West Main across from the Green the next year and the Masonic Temple further down the street in 1912. Such large-scale buildings ensured downtown remained the city's economic center, at the cost of driving all remaining residential use out. Residential buildings that remained were converted to institutional use; large apartment blocks like the 1910 Jacobethan
Jacobethan
Jacobethan is the style designation coined in 1933 by John Betjeman to describe the mixed national Renaissance revival style that was made popular in England from the late 1820s, which derived most of its inspiration and its repertory from the English Renaissance , with elements of Elizabethan and...
Hitchock and Northrop, two buildings next to the Masonic temple that shared a common elevator tower, were also built on the periphery of downtown.
As it had when creating Waterbury Green, an early urban renewal
Urban renewal
Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Renewal has had both successes and failures. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of...
program was undertaken to create the new Library Park at the intersection of Grand and Meadow streets. Old commercial buildings and tenement
Tenement
A tenement is, in most English-speaking areas, a substandard multi-family dwelling, usually old, occupied by the poor.-History:Originally the term tenement referred to tenancy and therefore to any rented accommodation...
s in the area were demolished, and the streets realigned and straightened to create an appropriate neighborhood for the new Waterbury Union Station, which opened in 1909. Although outside the district, its 240 feet (73.2 m) clock tower
Clock tower
A clock tower is a tower specifically built with one or more clock faces. Clock towers can be either freestanding or part of a church or municipal building such as a town hall. Some clock towers are not true clock towers having had their clock faces added to an already existing building...
, modeled on the Torre del Mangia
Torre del Mangia
The Torre del Mangia is a tower in Siena, in the Tuscany region of Italy. Built in 1338-1348, it is located in the Piazza del Campo, Siena's premier square, adjacent to the Palazzo Pubblico . When built it was one of the tallest secular towers in mediaeval Italy...
in Siena
Siena
Siena is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.The historic centre of Siena has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. It is one of the nation's most visited tourist attractions, with over 163,000 international arrivals in 2008...
, Italy, has since become the city's distinguishing landmark owing to its dominance of the skyline.
Within the future district, American Brass, the city's largest employer, built its Renaissance Revival headquarters in 1913 at the Grand and Meadow corner, facing the station. The It was complemented by the Georgian Revival Waterbury City Hall to the east designed by Cass Gilbert
Cass Gilbert
- Historical impact :Gilbert is considered a skyscraper pioneer; when designing the Woolworth Building he moved into unproven ground — though he certainly was aware of the ground-breaking work done by Chicago architects on skyscrapers and once discussed merging firms with the legendary Daniel...
and completed in 1917, five years after the original building at Leavenworth and West Main was destroyed by an arson
Arson
Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...
ist. Gilbert complemented it at the same time with the Chase Headquarters Building
Chase Headquarters Building
The Chase Headquarters Building is a building in Waterbury, Connecticut on Grand Street across from the city hall. It is now occupied by the city of Waterbury’s offices.-Architecture:...
, for another one of the city's brassmakers. Other large buildings, mainly the headquarters of local banks, filled out Grand Street. These were all part of a conscious attempt, following the contemporary City Beautiful movement
City Beautiful movement
The City Beautiful Movement was a reform philosophy concerning North American architecture and urban planning that flourished during the 1890s and 1900s with the intent of using beautification and monumental grandeur in cities. The movement, which was originally associated mainly with Chicago,...
, to provide impressive vistas both approaching and leaving the commercial center at Exchange Place, now the hub of the city's trolley lines.
During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
the city's brass mills were in constant operation for military contracts, first from the Allies
Allies of World War I
The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...
and later the federal government when the United States joined them. Afterward, the prosperity continued into the Roaring Twenties
Roaring Twenties
The Roaring Twenties is a phrase used to describe the 1920s, principally in North America, but also in London, Berlin and Paris for a period of sustained economic prosperity. The phrase was meant to emphasize the period's social, artistic, and cultural dynamism...
, introducing more significant new buildings to the city. Some were in styles that had already been used downtown, like the Georgian Revival YMCA
YMCA
The Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organization of more than 45 million members from 125 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs...
building on West Main, Gilbert's 1921 Waterbury Savings Bank next to the municipal complex, and the Second Renaissance Revival Waterbury Savings Bank on North Main. Henry Bacon
Henry Bacon
Henry Bacon was an American Beaux-Arts architect who is best remembered for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. , which was his final project.- Education and early career :...
contributed the Citizen's and Manufacturer's Bank on Leavenworth Street in that style, in 1921, and the following year a third one, the Palace Theater on West Main, gave the city what was to be its premier theater for many years. The later years of the decade brought in newer styles like the Baroque Revival Immaculate Conception Church, a 1928 edifice reflecting the progress of Waterbury's Catholic immigrant communities.
The last significant architectural style downtown, the Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
and modernist buildings, came at the end of this period, just before the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
put a halt to most new private construction. The most prominent examples of these styles in the district are the 1930 Brown Building at the corner of East and South Main, and the 1931 Art Deco post office
Post office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
on Grand Street. Further down the street the same year's Telephone Building, by Douglas Orr, uses modernistic brick detailing on a Georgian Revival design.
1946–present: Decline and renewal
A decade later, prosperity returned as World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
drove the brass mills into round-the-clock production again. This time it did not continue after the war, as plastics begain to displace brass in manufacturing. Downtown also suffered as returning veterans, who were honored with a new, star-shaped monument on the Green, sought to live in more suburban neighborhoods, with a single-family house and a yard, a living option that no longer existed in the center of the city. This created a demand for newer and bigger roads to accommodate the automobile traffic that came to the city from those suburbs, and buildings were demolished to build them.
The effect on the district was mixed. While the bus routes that replaced the trolley lines continued to meet at Exchange Place, urban renewal
Urban renewal
Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Renewal has had both successes and failures. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of...
programs later in the 20th century eliminated some major properties, most notably the McKim, Mead and White Buckingham Block at the corner of Bank and Grand and the neighboring Democrat Building. At West Main and Bank, Baubee's Corner, a brick building inspired by Federal style rowhouses of the early 19th century, also met the wrecking ball
Wrecking ball
A wrecking ball is a heavy steel ball, usually hung from a crane, that is used for demolishing large buildings. It was most common during the 1950s and 1960s. Several wrecking companies claim to have invented the wrecking ball...
. Other historic buildings, such as the 1908 Rietner Building on North Main, home to the city's Chamber of Commerce
Chamber of commerce
A chamber of commerce is a form of business network, e.g., a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to advocate on behalf of the business community...
, were modernized to an extent that their historic character was lost.
Newer construction continued in the district, with the new UConn campus taking up much of the cleared land in the east, obliterating Spring and School streets in the process. A new Bronson Library was built in 1963, followed by a new state courthouse
Connecticut Superior Court
The Connecticut Superior Court is the Connecticut state trial court of general jurisdiction. It hears all matters other than those heard by the Connecticut Probate Courts...
nine years later, in 1974. Downtown has remained the economic center of the city and its surrounding region of the Naugatuck Valley, with many local banks still clustering their offices around the Green.
In the early 2000s neglect of City Hall led to the city's own building department citing it as unsafe. In 2006 a $48 million bond issue for renovations was rejected by voters in a referendum
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
. The next year the city's Board of Aldermen put together a $36 million plan for which no referendum was sought. The rebuilt building opened in early 2011.
Significant contributing properties
At the time the district was listed on the Register, there were three properties within it that had previously been listed. Another one has been added since. In addition, there are many other contributing propertiesContributing property
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing resource or contributing property is any building, structure, or object which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic district, listed locally or federally, significant...
notable within the context of the district. Some have been nominated to the Register in the past, and may be listed themselves in the future.
National Register of Historic Places
- Elton HotelElton HotelThe Elton Hotel is located on West Main Street in downtown Waterbury, Connecticut, United States. It is an early 20th century building by local architect Wilfred E. Griggs in the Second Renaissance Revival architectural style....
, 16–30 West Main Street. This six-story Second Renaissance Revival brick structure with limestone trim, designed by Wilbert E. Griggs, has dominated the Green ever since its construction in 1904. Today it is a senior living facility. - Enoch Hubbard and George Granniss Houses, 33 and 41 Church Street. These two wood frame houses, in the ItalianateItalianate architectureThe Italianate style of architecture was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. In the Italianate style, the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture, which had served as inspiration for both Palladianism and...
and Stick styles respectively, date to the 1860s. They are among the few single-family residences remaining downtown, both since converted to commercial use. - John Kendrick HouseJohn Kendrick HouseThe John Kendrick House is located on West Main Street in Waterbury, Connecticut, United States. It is a brick Tuscan villa house in the Italianate architectural style built in the 1860s, one of the last remaining on Waterbury Green from that period, after which many of the older houses were...
, 119 West Main Street. The Mattatuck Museum operates this brick Italianate house on the Green, also built in the 1860s. - Waterbury Municipal Center ComplexWaterbury Municipal Center ComplexThe Waterbury Municipal Center Complex, also known as the Cass Gilbert National Register District, is a group of five buildings, including City Hall, on Field and Grand streets in Waterbury, Connecticut, United States...
, Grand and Field streets. Waterbury's City Hall is surrounded by other large buildings in the City BeautifulCity Beautiful movementThe City Beautiful Movement was a reform philosophy concerning North American architecture and urban planning that flourished during the 1890s and 1900s with the intent of using beautification and monumental grandeur in cities. The movement, which was originally associated mainly with Chicago,...
monumental style, not all of them originally public in function. Cass GilbertCass Gilbert- Historical impact :Gilbert is considered a skyscraper pioneer; when designing the Woolworth Building he moved into unproven ground — though he certainly was aware of the ground-breaking work done by Chicago architects on skyscrapers and once discussed merging firms with the legendary Daniel...
's designs were built between 1914 and 1922.
Other notable contributing properties
- American Brass Company Building, 414–436 Meadow Street. The brick Second Renaissance Revival headquarters of the largest company in the city's most important industry was opened in 1913.
- Apothecaries' Hall, 63 Bank Street. Built in 1894 from a Second Renaissance Revival design by local architect Theodore Peck, this seven-story flatironFlatironFlatiron or flat iron can mean several things:*An old term for a clothes iron*A wedge-shaped building:**The Flatiron Building in New York City, for which the surrounding Flatiron District is named...
-shaped building has long been the focal point of Exchange Place. Recently remodeled into luxury apartments. - Brown Building, 20 East Main Street. One of the last large commercial buildings erected during the district's period of significance, this three-story corner modernist structure from 1930 has intricate Art DecoArt DecoArt deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
detailing. - Catholic Family Services, 56 Church Street. Dating to 1856, this wood frame Italianate house with flutedFluting (architecture)Fluting in architecture refers to the shallow grooves running vertically along a surface.It typically refers to the grooves running on a column shaft or a pilaster, but need not necessarily be restricted to those two applications...
Tower of the WindsTower of the WindsThe Tower of the Winds, also called horologion , is an octagonal Pentelic marble clocktower on the Roman agora in Athens. The structure features a combination of sundials, a water clock and a wind vane...
-style columns is one of the oldest residential buildings in the district. Like so many of the other houses, it has been adaptedAdaptive reuseAdaptive reuse refers to the process of reusing an old site or building for a purpose other than which it was built or designed for. Along with brownfield reclamation, adaptive reuse is seen by many as a key factor in land conservation and the reduction of urban sprawl...
for institutional use. - Citizens' National Bank, 18 Leavenworth Street. This stone 1922 Second Renaissance Revival structure was designed by Lincoln MemorialLincoln MemorialThe Lincoln Memorial is an American memorial built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The architect was Henry Bacon, the sculptor of the main statue was Daniel Chester French, and the painter of the interior...
architect Henry BaconHenry BaconHenry Bacon was an American Beaux-Arts architect who is best remembered for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. , which was his final project.- Education and early career :...
. Its interior has since mostly been modernized. - Benjamin FranklinBenjamin FranklinDr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
Statue, Library Park. This 1918 bronze rendering of a seated Franklin by Paul Wayland BartlettPaul Wayland BartlettPaul Wayland Bartlett was an American sculptor working in the Beaux-Arts tradition of heroic realism. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut, the son of Truman Howe Bartlett, an art critic and sculptor....
is the only contributing object in the district outside of Waterbury Green. - The Grand Apartments, 180–182 Grand Street. Two 1910 joined four-story brick structures are the only Beaux-Arts buildings in the district.
- Hanlon Block, 181–187 East Main Street. This four-story brick structure, built around 1890, is one of the rare commercial uses of the Queen Anne StyleQueen Anne Style architectureThe Queen Anne Style in Britain means either the English Baroque architectural style roughly of the reign of Queen Anne , or a revived form that was popular in the last quarter of the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century...
. - The Hitchcock and The Northrop, 164–184 West Main Street. Griggs designed one of these two 1910 Jacobethan apartment buildings. The five-story brick structures, with yellow brick and limestone detailing, are joined by a common elevator tower.
- Howland-Hughes Company Building, 114–138 Bank Street. Griggs and Hunt built this five-story Second Renaissance Revival home to Waterbury's first true department storeDepartment storeA department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
within a year of the 1902 fire. Today it is home to The Connecticut Store, which sells only items made in the state. - Immaculate Conception Church, West Main Street. This 1928 limestone Baroque Revival Roman Catholic church was based on a 17th-century Roman basilicaBasilicaThe Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...
. - Johnson Building, 111–115 Bank Street. A 4-story concrete structure from 1925, it is the only Late Gothic Revival building in the district. It has been slightly remodeled with a modern storefront.
- Masonic Temple, 160 West Main Street. The later of Griggs' two buildings for a local chapter of an international fraternal organization is a four-story stone Second Renaissance Revival structure finished in 1912. It consists of two distinct sections joined at right angles along the corner of West Main and Park Place.
- New Haven County Courthouse Building, 15–17 Kendrick Street. This stone Second Renaissance Revival courthouse was another of the monumental public buildings envisioned for the Grand Street corridor. It has since been replaced with a newer building nearby, reflecting Connecticut's abolition of county government.
- Odd Fellows Hall, 36 North Main Street. This 1893 building for the fraternal organization marked their growing importance within the city. Local architect Wilfred Griggs made rare use of the Venetian GothicVenetian Gothic architectureVenetian Gothic is a term given to an architectural style combining use of the Gothic lancet arch with Byzantine and Moorish architecture influences. The style originated in 14th century Venice with the confluence of Byzantine styles from Constantinople, Arab influences from Moorish Spain and early...
mode in one of his earliest buildings. - Palace Theatre, 86–110 East Main Street. For years after its 1922 opening, this Second Renaissance Revival building was the city's premier theater. Hotel rooms were also included.
- Palomba Building, 150 Bank Street. An 1845 ItalianateItalianate architectureThe Italianate style of architecture was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. In the Italianate style, the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture, which had served as inspiration for both Palladianism and...
commercial structure that is one of the few intact buildings from that era remaining. Originally built as a house, with modern storefronts attached. - Platt Block, 43 East Main Street. A four-story stone brick building with limestoneLimestoneLimestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
trim, it was one of the first large commercial buildings in the district when built in 1888. - Reynolds Block, 26–28 North Main Street. Half of an otherwise intact 1854 Italianate building facing the Welton Fountain, it is typical of the buildings that characterized downtown Waterbury before the 1902 fire.
- Rose Building, 77–85 South Main Street. This modernist brick commercial building with the Art DecoArt DecoArt deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
letters spelling out "Rose" on the facade dates to 1950, making it the district's youngest contributing property. - St. John's Episcopal Church Complex, 16 Church Street. Henry DudleyHenry DudleyHenry C. Dudley , known also as Henry Dudley, was an English-born North American architect, known for his Gothic Revival churches...
's 1873 granite Gothic Revival church is complemented with an 1890 Romanesque center by local architect R.W. Hill and 1922 Richard Henry DanaRichard Henry DanaRichard Henry Dana may refer to:*Richard Henry Dana, Sr. , American poet and author, father of Richard Henry Dana Jr. and grandfather of Richard Henry Dana III...
stone JacobethanJacobethanJacobethan is the style designation coined in 1933 by John Betjeman to describe the mixed national Renaissance revival style that was made popular in England from the late 1820s, which derived most of its inspiration and its repertory from the English Renaissance , with elements of Elizabethan and...
parish house. - St. Patrick's Hall, 112–118 East Main Street. Joseph Jacskon, the son of an Irish immigrantIrish AmericanIrish Americans are citizens of the United States who can trace their ancestry to Ireland. A total of 36,278,332 Americans—estimated at 11.9% of the total population—reported Irish ancestry in the 2008 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau...
builder, designed this 1889 brick Romanesque structure with a brownstoneBrownstoneBrownstone is a brown Triassic or Jurassic sandstone which was once a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States to refer to a terraced house clad in this material.-Types:-Apostle Island brownstone:...
front facadeFacadeA facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
. His credit as architect, and the building's use, marked the social arrival of Waterbury's Irish American community. - Telephone Building, 348 Grand Street. On its 1930 brick Georgian Revival facade is Art Deco detailing and brickworkBrickworkBrickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar to build up brick structures such as walls. Brickwork is also used to finish corners, door, and window openings, etc...
. - Trinity Episcopal Church, 21 Prospect Street. The smallest church in the district is Henry Congden's 1883 stone structure in the Early English Gothic Revival style. A parish house was added to the rear in 1900.
- U.S. Post Office, Grand Street. The most significant modern public building in the district is this 1931 white marble Art Deco edifice. George Totten, under Treasury Department Supervising ArchitectOffice of the Supervising ArchitectThe Office of the Supervising Architect was an agency of the United States Treasury Department that designed federal government buildings from 1852 to 1939....
James Wetmore, was credited with the design. - Waterbury Armory, Field Street. Its use of the Romanesque style in 1922 was one of the last in the district. It complements the adjacent public and private structures in the Gilbert municipal complex.
- Waterbury YMCA, 122–130 West Main Street. One of the last large Georgian Revival buildings in the city when it was erected in 1924.
Waterbury Green
The two-acre (8,000 m²) park between North, East and West Main and Leavenworth streets, the symbolic center of the city, links Waterbury to its early years, as a renovated fragment of the original town common. Over the course of the 19th century it assumed its current configuration with curved concrete walkways. Since its creation it has been the venue for many public events such as troop mustersMuster (military)
The term muster designates the process or event for the of accounting for members in a military unit. Within the United States Army Reserve, it is an annual event used for screening purposes.-Historical:...
during wartime, demonstration
Demonstration (people)
A demonstration or street protest is action by a mass group or collection of groups of people in favor of a political or other cause; it normally consists of walking in a mass march formation and either beginning with or meeting at a designated endpoint, or rally, to hear speakers.Actions such as...
s against those wars and economic hardship during the Panic of 1893
Panic of 1893
The Panic of 1893 was a serious economic depression in the United States that began in 1893. Similar to the Panic of 1873, this panic was marked by the collapse of railroad overbuilding and shaky railroad financing which set off a series of bank failures...
and Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, and speeches by John
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
, Robert
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also referred to by his initials RFK, was an American politician, a Democratic senator from New York, and a noted civil rights activist. An icon of modern American liberalism and member of the Kennedy family, he was a younger brother of President John F...
and Ted Kennedy
Edward Kennedy
Edward Kennedy may refer to:*Ted Kennedy, Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy , United States Senator from Massachusetts*Edward Kennedy , journalist who first reported the German surrender in World War II*Edward Kennedy, Jr., son of U.S...
.
It has four monuments, all but one of which are contributing objects to the district:
- The Soldiers' Monument, at the west end. George Edwin BissellGeorge Edwin BissellGeorge Edwin Bissell was an American sculptor.-Biography:Bissell was born New Preston, Connecticut, the son of a quarryman and marble-cutter...
sculpted this bronze "Winged VictoryNike (mythology)In Greek mythology, Nike was a goddess who personified victory, also known as the Winged Goddess of Victory. The Roman equivalent was Victoria. Depending upon the time of various myths, she was described as the daughter of Pallas and Styx and the sister of Kratos , Bia , and Zelus...
" atop a 48 feet (14.6 m) granite base with smaller figures in its niches. It was installed in 1884 to honor and memorialize local veterans of the Civil WarAmerican Civil WarThe American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. - Veterans' Monument, near the east end. The city commissioned this modernist 1958 monument to all local veterans. It is non-contributing.
- The Waterbury Clock, center. The head of the local Chamber of CommerceChamber of commerceA chamber of commerce is a form of business network, e.g., a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to advocate on behalf of the business community...
fought to have this tall granite Seth ThomasSeth Thomas (clockmaker)Seth Thomas was an American clock maker and a pioneer of mass production at his Seth Thomas Clock Company.-Biography:Thomas was born in Wolcott, Connecticut, in 1785. He started in the clock business in 1807, working for clockmaker Eli Terry...
clock towerClock towerA clock tower is a tower specifically built with one or more clock faces. Clock towers can be either freestanding or part of a church or municipal building such as a town hall. Some clock towers are not true clock towers having had their clock faces added to an already existing building...
, commemorating another important local business, placed on the Green in 1915. It is still sometimes referred to as the Colley Clock, after him. - Welton Fountain, east end. This 1888 Karl GerhardtKarl GerhardtKarl Gerhardt was a United States sculptor.-Biography:He attended Phillips School in Boston. By 1870 he was apprenticed to a house painter in Chicopee, Massachusetts, where he later became a machinist at Ames Foundry...
statue of donor Caroline Welton's favorite horse, "Knight", is atop a fountain.
Preservation and redevelopment
Waterbury's zoningZoning in the United States
Zoning in the United States comprise land use state laws falling under the police power rights that State governments and local governments have the authority to exercise over privately owned real property.-Origins and history:...
code recognizes the downtown area as its Central Business District
Central business district
A central business district is the commercial and often geographic heart of a city. In North America this part of a city is commonly referred to as "downtown" or "city center"...
(CBD). Its purpose is "to encourage intensive development of a diversity of land uses within the area." The only provision unique to it is that any residential use must have a side or rear setback
Setback (land use)
In land use, a setback is the distance which a building or other structure is set back from a street or road, a river or other stream, a shore or flood plain, or any other place which needs protection. Depending on the jurisdiction, other things like fences, landscaping, septic tanks, and various...
of at least 15 feet (4.6 m). There are no special provisions for historic preservation
Historic preservation
Historic preservation is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance...
.
In 1998 the city established an Information Technology Zone over a 42-block
City block
A city block, urban block or simply block is a central element of urban planning and urban design. A city block is the smallest area that is surrounded by streets. City blocks are the space for buildings within the street pattern of a city, they form the basic unit of a city's urban fabric...
area including the historic district. The state spent $2.2 million installing fiber optic, and set aside money for incentives to encourage businesses to locate in the zone. These include tax abatements and financing for eligible businesses, those which use modern technology to conduct their business.
Private businesses, landowners, residents and city officials have also joined to create Main Street Waterbury. Its goal is "to increase the political, physical, and economic value of Downtown Waterbury [through cooperative efforts]." It promotes the cultural and business opportunities available downtown for residents and visitors alike.
External links
- Main Street Waterbury, with downloadable audio walking tours