1
10
5
-
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Title
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Danbury Miscellanea Collection, MS 038
Description
An account of the resource
Comprised of maps, photographs and miscellanea collected by the University Archives since the 1980s.
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<a href="https://archives.library.wcsu.edu/findingaids/ctdbn_ms038_danburyMiscellanea.xml">Link to finding aid.</a>
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UUID
01447826-60b9-40a5-a3d4-58961fef4c38
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Just for Fun
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<a href="http://archives.library.wcsu.edu/relatedObjects/MS002/Cartoon%20booklet/resize/#page/1/mode/1up">Page turner version</a>
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A series of cartoons as published in the Danbury News
Creator
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Danbury News
Description
An account of the resource
61 pgs, 5.5 x 10", illustrated book
Abstract
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A series of notable political and business leaders in Danbury in 1912.
Date
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1912
Subject
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Danbury (Conn.)--History.
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UUID
73c23452-e892-4544-81d8-afe9a1d17008
Art
Danbury News-Times
Mortimer Rundle
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Danbury Evening News Clipping, Old Main
Description
An account of the resource
1 clipping
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
Clipping from the Danbury Evening News microfilm of Sep 04, 1905 describes the first teachers to be employed, the subjects they were set to teach and the first students to enroll in classes for Danbury Normal School.
Date
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1905
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Danbury Evening News
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d8a3a635-ed96-4ac3-b2d9-0616b37dddec
Clippings
Danbury News-Times
Danbury Normal School
Old Main
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Danbury Evening News Clipping, Old Main Construction/Inspection
Description
An account of the resource
Microfilm image
Abstract
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This clipping from the April 22, 1905 Danbury Evening News describes the completion and turning over of Old Main for final inspection.
Date
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1905
IIIF Item Metadata
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11975c89-72ed-4b81-9f5d-06a68600ec79
Clippings
Danbury News-Times
Danbury Normal School
Old Main
-
https://archives.library.wcsu.edu/omeka/files/original/Danbury_Preservation_Trust_Records_MS_039/4257/ms039_os1_TheFutureOfThePast.pdf
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PDF Text
Text
--ll,lUSTitATION l y DAVID l'tlfi!IENNA
c ontents ·
Main Street, Building a Heritag e . .... • ...... 2-7
A Walk Throu gh His tory . . . ...... . . ... .... B-9
Planning for the Future
10-11
Re-us ing Historic Buildings . ........•.. . . 12-13
What is Good Design? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Blending the New and the Old . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Revitalization Means Partnership . . . . . . . . . . . 16
This publication was supported
by a grant from the Connecticut
Humanities Council. Significant
contributions were also made by
Citytrust, The News-Times Danbury Public Library, and' Western Connecticut State Coli~~' . fhe'
historical research was 'cimducted
as part of a Historic Resources Inventory funded by the United
States Department of the Interior
and administered by the Con necti- ·
cut Historical Commission.
---
_._ .•.
-. .•
Jn 1984
Danbury will be
three hundred years old . For almost
t hree c entunes r esidents h ave
worked with the land , with m a chines, and with each other to shape
a unique place. E very s tage . of
growth : frontier outpost, commercial village, hat city, and currently,
corporate base, bas left a stamp on
the community. The gradual blending of Yankees, Irish, Germans, Portugu~se, I!3lians, Blacks, Hispanics,
and I mmigrants f rom the Middle
East have produced a distinct human
c hemistry. What we i nherit is a
priceless civic asset, a slowly assembled set of traditions which define and give depth to our lives.
Main Street has always been the
focus of life in Danbury. The first
settlers built their houses and church
on the swampy south end of the
street. When the town became a regional supply center the stores and
craft shops were located in the same
area, and often in the same buildings. Later the railroad and the hat
industry's dependence on the Still
River pulled settlement northward.
Early m the 20th century a network
of roads funneled local and long distance a utomobile t raffic p ast t he
banks , s tores , and offices t hat
flanked the street. Main Street was
the s etting for m ajor and minor
events in the life cycle of most citizens. For generations people came to
Danbury to work and shop· to embark on ple.asure trips or to go off to
war ; to enJOY a concert or a restaurant meal; to watch parades or to
o~serve life as it pulsates in a busy
City ,
Today many share such memories as
doing business a t the John McLean
store where octopus-like tubes took
y our money and s ent i t r attling
across the ceiling to a distant cashier.
Even suburban residential patterns
and the lure of the d ecentr a lized
mall have not completely drained
the energy from downtown .
The purpose of this publication is
to m ake c onnections between the
p ast and future. In the foli'owing
pages you will see what makes Danbury different from all other cities.
I t is a distinct heritage that is not
locked in a book but is displayed in
the downtown buildings t hat we
enter each day, fol" Main Street architecture is a public visual record
of the accomplishments of our predecessors. The first s.ection of this supplement is designed to help readers
undersfilnd and appreciate how the
architectural fabric of the street, deSJ?Ite losses from neglect, natural
disasters, and mis~ided renovation
embodies Danbury s past.
'
But what of the future? Danbury
faces unprecedented challenges in
the 1980s . The recent economic revival enjoyed by the citr,. one national
magazine observed, 'has fractured
its tranquility, unsettled its institutions, and is forcing i t to grow up
m a hurry. " In these difficult c ircumstances history offers some guidance. The experience of the past suggests that a vital downtown is the
essential ingredient of a livable city.
Only the heart of the community offers a wide range of economic social, and cultural opportunities 'in a
physical setting that pon stantly en-
riches our lives by reminding us of
our roo ts.
The theme of this publi cation, that
it is wiser to preserve valua bl e resources than to destroy them , does
not rest on nostalgia. Economic r ealities and contemporary social needs
also support the conservation ethic.
The second part of this publi cation
outlines the economic advantages of
reusing Main Street buildings that
a re a ttractive in s tyle, · scaled to
human proportions , sound in construction, and energy efficient. Some
possible ways in which older struc-'
tures of quality can be adapted to
modern uses are illustrated. The experience of other cities with recycling of historic buildings enlarges
our vision.
The past and the future are separated bythe present. Today is the time of
choice: of decisions, made or unmade, which will determine the quality of life in Danbury in the years
ahead The Danbury Preservation
Trust hopes that the mformation contained i n these pages will stimulate
dealogue and ultimately lead to a
comprehensive plan of development
that will sensitively balance the need
to retain significant architecture of
the past with contemporary social
economic, and cultural objectives:
When this takes place Q.anburians
can celebrate their tercentenary by
echoing the boast made by the Danbury News editor James Montgom. ery Bailey in 1868 that " our growth
is not spasmodic . .. the movement
was begun by ourselves, has ·grown
s teadily and healthily under our
care, and strangers, instead of bringing life and enterprise, have been a ttracted to us by them ."
: ;,.-- -
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,.. ,,..,I I .,
. ,._v
F RONTIER O UTPOST T O
FLOt1 I
G Y-ILLAGE:
D anbury's E arly Years, 1684-185
In 1684 , a small band of Congregationalist f armers m ade the t rek
northward from Norwalk to a site
purchased from Indians some twenty
miles too the north, in search cif more
plentiful farm land for themselves
and their descendants. The General
Court of Connecticut, eager to provide a bulwark against Indian attacks for the settled coastal region,
and to make a political point by
planting an outpost near the recently
agreed on border with New York, encouraged this migration to what is
now Danbury. Because, the fields
the newcomers cultivated were
widely scattered and the threat of
Indian attack was real during the
early years, a central village was
quickly established. Located on the
swampy lowland between the rid~es
of Town and Deer Hills, its ftrst
street - the present Main Street was located on what may have been
a segment of a great Indian path
that connected Long Island Sound
with Canada. Deep homelots running
back to the Hills were laid out on
both sides of Town Street (the original name for Main Street,) between
South Street and what is now Elmwood P ark.
The lifestyle of the earliest settlers was p rimitive . Although the
outpost, which they wanted to name
" Swampfield ," w as c onstituted a
·_
by the General Court in 1687 , it
was not until nine years later that a
meetinghouse was erected and seven
more years elapsed before the town
had its own gristmill. While the first
i nhabitants s hared common goals
and values, they had no preconceived
plan for town organization like many
o ther New England communities .
There was no town common as such,
for example, until land for that purpose was donated in 1801 as an afterthought to the straightening of Main
Street. Roads simply meandered to a
gristmill in Beaver Brook or to farm
fields located up to five or six miles
from the village. No continuous eastwest thoroughfare has ever crossed
Main S treet u ntil Kennedy . Drive
came into being in the 1960s . The
f irst s ettlers , called p roprietors,
jointly owned the land acqutred from
the Indians.
Later arrivals, by marrying into the
proprietary families, gained a share
of town lands.
This kinship network - Benedicta,
Wildmans , Barnums, S tarrs , and
Hoyts among others - supplied both
the leadership and the bulk of the
population of early Danbury. Most
residents were farmers, but some
performed other essential tasks, like
blacksmithing and shoemaking. As
o ther towns were founded aroun~
Danbury, the geographic position of
the older town and the established
road system made it the natural center for exchange of goods, livestock,
and produce as well as for dispensing services. Gradually the number
of m erchants i ncreased . By 1977
Danbury had a number of shops and
stores, and a population of over 2,
500.
Due to its location a t the crossroads of major north-south and eastwest land routes, Danbury was a hotbed of p atriot a ctivity d uring the
American Revolution. Selected as a
major supply depot for Continental
forces on the Hudson , the town also
manufactured a variety of military
goods. An army hospital was located
here from 1776 until the British withdrew from New York in 1783 . Even
the raiding party of British troops
, that burned much of the older part of
the villagee on April 25 , 1777 could
not quell revolutionary activity. Continental forces later spennt wo winters in the area. The town gained as
a stopover point for important military officers a nd civilian political
leaders passing between New E ngland and the west. Colonel Joseph
P latt Cooke, commander of the local
militia, entertained s uch notables as
Lafayette, Alexa nde r Hamilton, and
perhaps George Washington, in his
home on the north end of Main
Street.
Following the Revolution the lifting
of British economic restraints gave a
f urth er boost to the local economy.
The region r emain ed p rimarily
agricultural with most farm produce
being shipped to New York City.
D anbury m erchants, a cting a s
farmers agents, keJ?t an eye on New
York m arket p rtces t hat were
published in the village newspaper.
The West Indies were another
lucrative market for farm products
transported by highway to coastal
Connecticut ports.
Post war prosperity was fueled by
m anufacturing t hat b uilt on
t raditional c raft s kills. L arge
quantities of hats, boots, and shoes,
saddles, and , later, combs were
. exported from Danbury, Enterprising
merchants opened retail outlets for
hats in New York and in southern port
cities like Charleston and Savannah.
By the middle of the 19th centu?:
h atting d ominated t he town s economy.
During this period the village was
physically reconstructed and the
scars of the war gradually faded . In
1780 Baron vonCiosen, who visited
the town with the French arm;v ,
reported that "Danbury may contam
80 houses. There a re many rich
persons . . . who have rebuilt some
I llUSTRATION By D AVID PREBENNA
Danbury In 1782, bas ed on a ma p by French en gineers
showing known locations of early building s.
Geography has played a pivotal role in Danbury's development . Main Street and much of
the present city lies in the narrow valley of the Still River, so named for its lack of current.
Ha rdly more tha n a creek , the stream, was able to power early mills and provide for the
dye ing , 1 insing , and sreaming requirements of the hat indu stry. It s surprisingl y exten sive
flood plain has also been an important factor in downtown 's appea F . Rising near the
ance
New York bor der the ri ver fl ows eastward from Lake Kenos ia, then makes a wide meander
through Danbury before bending to flow northeast to join the Housatonic at Lovers Leap .
Danbury is located on the flat land in the center of the valley on terrain ideally suited for
building the roads , turnpikes, and later railroads which made early Danbury the transportation hub for the more mountainous surrounding region.
An aquifer, a water bearing stratum of sand and gravel, lies below th.e surface of much of
downtown Danbury , as is the case with most of the valley . The water sand , sometimes
called quicksand , has made strong foundations a necessity for Danbury building s. It has
also helped insure a low downtown skyline, where even today no building exceeds five
stories in height.
fine houses there, however, you could
perceive the damage the English did
t here." S everal of these " fine
houses" still stand in the old village
area below Elmwood Park.
Da nbury's growth was rapid enough
to convince P re sident T imothy
Dwi ~ t of Yale, writi n ~ during the
1790 s, that it was Fairfteld County's
" most considerable town." I t had
become a thriving community of
m erchants, p rofessionals, a n d
artisans of all types working out of
their homes or in small shop,s . In 1785,
Danbury was made a 'half-shire
town", sharing judicial functions with
the old county seat in Fairfield. In the
same year the first courthouse and
As the threat of Indian attack eased and
population grew in the second half of the eightee]lth century, scattered farmhouses began to be
erected all along the length of the "Town Street,
" north of the original village. Some of these
houses may exist today, although they are diff icult to document conclusively because of the
destruction of the town's land records during the
Revolution. Like the Joshua Starr House, 410
Ma in Street and the Drake Hoyt House, 373 Main
Street, home of one of Danbury 's early physic ians , houses built before the Revolution, were
simple, two stories high clapboard structures
with a central doorway, hall and second story
window , with rooms grouped around a central
ch imney for heat.
P HO(OBy ROGER BALDWIN
j ail w ere e rected on the spots
occupied by their successors today.
Fairfield County's first newspaper,
the Farmers Journal, was printed
here in 1790. By the mid 19th century
the business center of the town had
pushed northward to the intersection
of Main, Liberty, and West Streets.
The first bank was established in this
vicinity in 1824'; a second in 1849.
Residents were forced to cope with
such urban problems as providing
sidewalks, water supply, and fire
protection. To enable the community
to deal more effectively with these
concerns the legislature conferred
Borough status on Main Street and its
environs.
�3-A
Comstock House . 42 Main Street. Built c.
1B32 . Federal detail al so appears in this
house . By the time it was constructed,
most houses had their gable ends facing
the street, in keeping with the Greek
Revival style popular at the time. Archaeological discoveries in the Aegean ,
sympathy for the Greek war for independ ence and Americans' identification with
the democracy of ancient Athens inspired
styles based on the Greek temple as its
ideal and basic form.
PHOTO By ltOGER BALDWIN
John Rider House. 43 Main Street. Built c. 17B5. A part of the Scott-Fanion Museum and
already on the National Register of Historic Places, the_Rider Hou se is typical of the
well-to-do mtddle class home built '" Danbury dunng the years following the
RevolutiOn. Indeed, several houses 1n the netghborhood may have been built by Rider , a
cabmetmaker and ;omer who IS Danbury's first known builder. Rider's father came
from Cape Cod, and construction of the house suggests a tradition of shipbuilding.
Danbury in 1836 . Fifteen years earlier, Pease and Niles had described the town as "a
large and interesting village. It is built principally upon one street, which for more
than a mile exh1b1ts an almost continued range of buildings, consisting of Dwelling
Houses , Mercantile Stores, Hat Factories, Mecha nics' Shops and churches . .. Within a
mile and a quarter, there .~ re more than 100 Dwelling houses , with a great proportion
of other buddmgs . . . In th1s woodcut from John Warner Barber's H
istorical
Collections o f Connecticut is the northward reaching center of the town . The
courthouse IS the .tall building facing us with the spirei to the left is the prese" t Gildea
n
home and the buddtng that now contains the New York Bake Shop.
•
I'HOTO By l fOOfl BALDWIN
Horace Cook House . 403 Mai n St reet. Built in
1Bll. One of the grandsons of Revolutionary
war leader Joseph Platt Cooke had this house
constructed for himself and his wife. The
Neo-Classic style introduced by Thomas Jefferson some years before is visib le in the
portico , with paired Doric columns, and in the
position of the house perpendicular to the
street, in imitation of Roman temples.
PHOTO l y 1 0011 BALDWIN
Timothy KHitr House. 336 Main Street. Built c. 1825 . This
is a si mple house made elegant. Main Street's best surviving house with Federal trim and detail.
Orrin ~unnlng House. 357 Main Street. Bu ilt c. 1837. An example of
a house type once popular in Danb ury. These square houses with Hip
roofs, cupo las and tiny windows on the attic level , like many
vernacular reSidences , do not belong to any single style. This house
once stood across the street, and was moved in 1876 when a hat
manufacturer wanted to build his new home next to that of his
partner.
Tw~ody's Finishing Shop 384 Main Street. Built c. 1790. The building
behmd the small commercial addtlion that houses Horn 's Var iety
store is one of Danbury 's most historic structures, the oldest
surviving building in the town used for the manufacture of hats.
Once a store, it was a finishing shop for hats in the earlyn nineteenth
centu_ry . Hats made here were shipped to a store in Charleston, South
Carolma .
PHOTO By ROGER BALDWIN
The appearance of the city was
s ubstantial if u nspectacular . An
early resident described Danbury. as
" one , long straggling s treet," lined
by Lombardy poplars, " no better for
shade than a lightning rod ," in the
opinion of a nother c itizen. These
thin, graceful trees were gradually
replaced by privately planted elms,
which by the 1890's formed a leafy
canopy over the street. The Pease
and Niles Gazetteer emphasized the
simplicity of Danbury architecture
when it reported in 1819 that "The
buildings are not elegant, but exh · ·
an appearance of plainness
ness
and convenience ." Ho • and other
buildings were c
i'ucted and designed by loc}' carpenters and joiners whose work reflected construction techniques handed down.. from
fa~~ese early builders
also received guidance from published pattern books that ins!l"ll,cted
self-taught craftsmen in the fine
points of reproducing neo-Classical
of Litchfield County. Pessimism rebuildings and details. Their creativity
placed optimism among many Danwas restricted, however, by depenbury merchants, who were advised by
dence on hand tools and a limited
paid not in cash but in hats that
range of building materials.
too large ." Until 1850 hatters were
D uring t he f irst h alf of t he
paid not in cashg but in hats that
19th c entury D anbury had made
could be redeemed for produce a t
steady progress. The population had
l ocal s tores. H ad D anbury r emained without a railroad link with
reached nearly 6,000 and its shops,
the c oast w here goods could be
helped by the construcjjon-of- privately owned tu1J!PikeS that opened
transferred to trains or boats to-New
up new
:J<ets;" were producing up "-~~ocl<: _i·t-...would -prollliDiy resemble
il'war
· a million hats a year. But
today interior centers like Woodbury
e same time the towns around
and Litchfield that were by-passed
by railroads and consequently were
Danbury enjoyed their greatest prosperity, even engaj1ing in manufacturnot touched by large scale industry.
mg. Even Brookfteld and Brid~ewaHowever, a small group of energetic
ter exported a significant quantity of
promoters were unrelenting in their
hats.
efforts to gain access to a railroad
In 1840 Danbury's position as the
line.
When the first train of the Danbury
center of regional trade was challenged when the first railroad built
and Norwalk Railroad rumbled into
in the area, the Housatonic, connectthe city on March 1, 1852 a new chaped Bridgeport, with New Milford and
ter in the history of Danbury had bethe agricultural and mJneral wealth
gun.
PHOTO By ROGER BALDWIN
Fairchilc{ Wildman Store. 36 Main Street. A
Federal era brick building of 1815-1820, it
combines a store and, liv,ing quarters, and is
typtcal of Danbury s oldest commercial
buildings. In style it resembles a house
around it although smaller in size-relation ship . rewersed withthe introduction of
the business blocks of the 1850's and after.
�4 -A
T HE N EWS-TIMES, S UNDAY, M AY 11, 1980
D ANBURY'S BOOM Y EARS
T he Cotning o f the Railroads: 1850-1885
The Danbury and Norwalk Railroad,
and the other lines that followed it in
the succeeding decades, eventually
criss-crossed the town providing fast
service in all directions . .Danbury, as
it had been in the turnpike e ra , was
a~ain the transportation hub of the region. The fmpact of steam on manufacturing in the town was immediate
and dramatic. The trains made it easier to import furs and other raw. materials, ·and to t ransport to m arket
greater quantities of hats. The railroad, b r hauling the steam boilers and
the coa to power them, introduced the
new energy source to the f actory .
Soon huge work places were built,
sometimes employing hundreds of
hands. Less apparent a t first was
the manner in which the railroad
shaped the downtown business district. Prior to 1850 the area between
Liberty and White streets on the east
side of Main was only sparsely developed with a few houses and stores
scattered among long stretches of
meadow.
.
The catalyst for change was the construction of the railroad depot in this
section on the site of the present
post office, an outcome made possi- •
ble by the fact that the owners of
real estate in the neighborhood controlled a majority of stock in the
railroad.
The stage was set for a small group '
of entrepreneurs to overturn the conservative b usiness s pirit t hat had
characterized Danbury. The most energetic promoter was Phineas Crosby , for whom Crosby Street is named.
A stubborn, shewd and farsighted individualist, Crosby was so successful
as a stage line operator that in 1841
the Housatonic Railway puchased his
Danbury to Bridgeport line to eliminate the competition. Later he made
considerable money providing sta:ge
coach service to the head of the Harlem Railroad in New York. More than
any other businessman Crosby realized the effect the railroad would
Buildings , The Benedict and Nichols Building. 191 -3 Main Street.
Danbury' s first grocery firm was also a pioneer in the early downtown. Partner David P. Nichols was one of several Danburians of the
time to achieve high state office. (This photograph of a parade in the
lB80s reveals the simple character of many early American buildings
complete with shutters' and unpainted brick walls.) An attractive
building when it was constructed in 1852, it could, if sensitively
restored, be a feature of this key intersection.
Th is photograph of stores just south of the railroad depot during the lB60 s shows the crude sidewalks, muddy streets and
crowded wooden buildings that characterized the early downtown environment. The tallest building shown is now the Landsman Furniture
store. At the time it was the home furnishing store of Joseph M. lves,
uncle of composer Charles lves. One ot the most successful businessmen of his day, Joseph lves opened a firm that supplied plumbing
fixtures and pressed tin ceilings for many downtown buildings. It
was built in lB57 and , despite interior remodeling over the years, is
one of the most tastefully preserved buildings on the street.
During the lBBOs North M;:in Street was becoming a
I
neighborhood for downtown merchants and manufacturers. The
lBB3 Queen Anne style home of Virgil Barnum with its irregular
shape and ornate woodwork is typical of the substantial homes
being cpnstructed in the neighborhood.
Pkoto by R .,. r loldwln
The so-ca ll ed Kinner Block 171-3 Main Street built by Danbury
pharmacist, Victoria Ha wle y, in lBB2 . A prototypical ltalianate
block, it has unusually delicate and fine detail . The photo brings
out one of the desigA qualities of the window heads and cornices
of the "Picturesdque" ltalianate they created attractive patterns
of shadow . The building was not originally white. In lBB7 it was
the scene of one of Danbury's most sensational crimes when
Victoria 's husband shot he r' bioth'e f, Virgil Barnum, during a
· family dispute.
have on the town, and bought up extensive parcels of land on the east
side of Main Street. Before a train a rrived he had constructed the first
business block in Danbury, still standing a t 225-229 Main Street. When he
began to build a second block of
stores· the following year near Wooster Square - the present 279-283 Main
Street - he was universally ridiculed
for erecting such a large structure
"way out of town."
Crosby was vindicated when he sold
his buildings a few years later a t an
enormous profit, after renting space
in them a t p reviously unheard of
rates.
Crosby's success inspired other entrepreneurs, touching off a building
boom that lasted through most of the
1850s, was slowed b r the Civil War,
and renewed again With vigor soon after. The times were marked by a belief in p rogress ; an unquestioning
faith in Danbury's future. "Danbury
has more handsome stores tha_ any
n
p lace of i ts s ize in C onnecticut."
Crowed the Danbury News in 1868 ,
and then added " We believe that we
a re to be a city of no small importance ." The b right new business
blocks covered most of their small
urban lots. Additional space was created by building upward to three and
four stories. These truly urban buildings accommodated multiple uses.
Stores were on the street revel while
rooms for small business like tailors,
and milliners, professional offices,
fraternal lodges, living quarters, '!nd
even, I n some cases, public nails
where dances, concerts and political
meetings were held, occupied the
upper floor s.
Not only were large business blocks
being constructed, older homes were
converted into stores as well. The
Danbury Times noted in 1B54 t hat
" a bout e verything c entral, in the
buildi~Ig line, which will not admit of
being modernized , m ust go by t he
boards . . . Not only dwellings have
been and will continue to be converted into places of business, but every
inch of land not otherwise or more
profitably employed , must, sooner or
later, be devoted to the same object.
"And who would have it otherwise?"
a dded the newspaper . D anbury's
f irst b usiness buildings resembled
those built in earlier years in large
cities like New York and Philadelphia . . Approximately the F ederal
style they were far simfler than the
" picturesque" style tha became the
rule between 1855 and 1885. Prevailing
taste of this period called for architecture that emphasized romantic associations with the past. Most Danbury buildings e rected in t his e ra
were inspired by the architecture of
. the Italian Renaissance.
By the 1880s buildings with decorative
cornices and window heads protruding
from their wall surfaces had become:
standardized on Main Street. Many of
them survived, in varying states of
preservation.
Another reason for the uniformity
of many of the buildings erected in
t hose y ears is t hat they were the
work of a few local builders, most of
them without fonrlal architectural
trninin_g . Carpenters like the Foster
· Brotlie t) -a nd William Sunderland
came to Danbuzy,[rom nearby towns,
attracted by the p~osi'!!ct of steady
employment a t $3.00 day. Ultimately they WJ!nt'into business for themselves a s builders and a rchitects ,
leaving an unmistakeable vernacular - stamp on the city environment. SurpriSi!J¥1Y, as they worked fast, many
of their commissions are still in good
copdition. The Foster. Br.others' .were
pecially speedy builders. The local
a
St. Peter 's Church, li ke St . James Eptscopal Church on West St., butlt
about the same time, is modeled on the cathedrals of medieval
Europe, another instance of the 19th century's penchant for romantic
association . The stone for the church was quarried on Brushy Hill.
Religion played a central role in the life of early Danbury, and almost
all of the major churches were located on or near Main Street.
�T HE N EWS-TIMES, S UNDAY, MAY 11, 1980
newspaper quipped in 1881 that the
firm "began work on a house this
morning for a German with an unpronounceable n ame on G reat P lain
Road, which they ex~t to have completed before dark .' Such companies
employed crews of up to 40 men and
operated their own sawmills. Other
town shops fabricated window heads
and cornices.
M arsh's b rick y ard, n ear White
Street, provided most of the brick for
early downtown construction.
Building movers also did a lively
business. In the 19th century buildings .
were moved far more frequently than
they were demolished. A sturdy structure was valued and re-used. A number of buildings currently standin~s
on or near Main Street a re not m
their original locations. Other parts
of the street were transformed during
the years after 1P50. Wooster SQuare,
with the train station as well as White
Street leading travelers into it, became the gateway to the downtown .
S everal l arge , e legant h otels w ere
built nearby. The old village on South
Main , distant from the railroad, became an enclave of old homes and old
families . In 1853 residents banded together to turn the Common into Elmwood .Park. Otherwise little building
took place on this part of the street.
Instead immigrant Irish began to
move into t he a rea . Mistrusted a t
first as illiterate and unruly, they increased in numbers and advanced in
social position especially after the
Civil War. A symbol of their upward
mobility was the construction of the
Gothic St. P eter's Church near the location of the original Congregational
Meeting House. While the Irish were
the major immi~ant group enough
Germans had arr1ved by the 1870s to
justify the construction of a Lutheran'
· church and school on Foster Street.
Several stores felt the need to bite
G erman s peaking c lerks. A s mall
community of Blacks had long roots
in. the community. The hat industry
was the dominant force in determining the life style of the community.
Because h at p roduction r equired
large quantities of water, hat shops
clustered around the Still River. Beglobing in 1860, when Kobanza Dam
was built, a reservoir system provided a steady water supply. The river
was used as a sewer to c arry off hat
dyes and other waste - much to the
displeasure of upriver villages who
complained as early as the 1870s
about pollution.
For the first time Danbury experienced genuine urban problems. Physi·
cians complained about the lack of
sanitary drainage. Main Street wa s
notoriously muddy or dusty , depending on the season. The Danbury News
r eported how a s pringtime v isitor
from Brookfield lost his false teeth in
the Main Street ooze a fter too hearty
a sneeze. The crowding of wood
frame buildings created the potential
for disastrous fires . Though fire companies existed, their equipment was
primitive and their performance un e·
ven. The newspaper account of a fire
in a !!roup of wooden stores in 1867
descnbed the way in which " the fire
companies seemed to disregard the
flames , and turned the full force of
their streams upon the people ." Th e
borough passed a fire district ordi·
nance which forbade construction of
any new wooden buildings in an enu·
merated part of downtown. Some of
the original wooden buildings that had
burned, such as the present Addessi
and Markoff stores, were subsequent·
ly rebuilt in brick.
IU.USTIATtoN
(c)
DAVID , .lllNNA
Crosby's Block . 225-9 Main Street. This artist's re-creation from old photographs shows
downtown 's olde st building 's original appearance. Much of its character has been lost
through application of a wall covering and neglect . During the 1860s when the bu ilding
was painted scarlet red , it housed the shoe store of the Benedict Brothers, the largest
shoe outlet in the state.
T he B orough Becotnes ·a City: 1885-1900
The decade of the 1880s left its
mark on Danbury and on Main S treet
as few other decades have done. A
wave of building of dimensions unknown in the past left in its wake
many of the present landmark structures. Bigness became the order of
the day as massive, heavy buildings
were constructed on Main Street and
in other locations, usually in architectural styles inspired by the buildings of medieval Europe. Civic
boosters often hired the leading architects of the time to design buildings which would enhance Danbury's
image as a dynamic city. The borough government set an example by
commissioning the Library: and the
now vanished City Hall, bulit in 1884.
A surge of activity in the hatting
i ndustry s timulated t his building
boom . By the mid-1890s the once regional trade had consolidated in Danbury. Thirty-five hat factories were
the mainstay of the cit>."s economy,
while dozens of satellite industries
produced hatting machinery, fur ,
sweatbands, and hatboxes. The borough's population, swelled by newcomers from Germany, Italy, and
the surrounding countryside, nearly
doubled between 1880 and 1890. In
1889 the state legislature acknowledged these changes by altering the
legal status of the borough to that of
a city.
·
F ar reaching public improvements
rapidly transformed Main Street's
appearance. Streets in the central
business district were sewered and
paved with granite blocks in 'the late
1880s. I n 1885 four large towers and a
maze of wires carried electric arc
for the first time to the heart. of
city. I n the late 1880s a horse
later
·roller
flavor.
s kating
t heaters, and a
beer garden provided recreation for
a growing 1!21!!!lation . F or a...,_time
pol~ -skates was a popular
sport. Danbury boasted a semi-professional baseball team that recruited p layers f rom as. f ar away a s
j>elll)syl~ania l!l111 Virginia.
'~
'..
.
...
.
·1
Trolleys led out to the Lake Kenosia amusement park. Prosperous Danburians established colonies of summer cottages on Belle Island off
Norwalk, and invested in Colorado silver mines and Florida orange
groves.
The last residential pertion of Main Street in the central city succumbed to commercial pressure. One by one the roY{ of fine old homesteads
on the west side of the street between Elm and West streets were moved
to make room for banks and sizable commercial buildings.
ILWSTIATtoN (c) DAVID N IIINNA
Trtadwtll Block. 266-268 Main Street. City Hall, built in 1884 and no longer
standing , was the first of Danbury 's many Romanesque Revival buildings . One year
later banker Levi Treadwell erected the first Romanesque commercial building . It
utilized _the round arch to divide the facade into three sections and highlight
structural elements. Stained glass and terra cotta tile trim added color and
ornamentation . Contemporaries marveled at its bulk, and even today it dominates
its neighbors .
I
Danbury National Bank . 248 Main Street. The
heavy masonry of this 1887 bank represents
another version of the Romanesque Revival style .
Bridgeport architect Warren Briggs , who also
designed the courthouse and several other Danbury buildings during these years , utilized stone
s labs shipped by rail -f rom Ma ssachusetts. The
magnificant floral carving wa s done on the construction s ite . With out it s distinctive gable , destroyed in a 1973 fire, the bu ilding is now
occupied by the Settle Insuran ce Company. The se
two drawings were taken fr om architect's elevation s which James Montgomery Bailey had published in the Danbury News while these buildings
were under construction .
!
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�6-A
T HE N EW S-TIM ES, SUNDAY, MAY 11, 1980
The Soldiers Monument, dedicated in 1879, together with construction of several business buildings
and the City Hall in what was soon to be called
City Hall Square, reversed the northward spread
of the business district. Some large buildings were
also constructed near Elmwood Park.
In this a~e of the self-made man, s trong and substantial buildings were the only ones deemed worthy of praise. Victorian architects mixed design
features from all eras, many symbolic associations, and varied materials to create striking effects . Such eclecticism was possible because building materials from dfstant parts of the country
could be imported by railroad. During this period
extensive use was made of granite from Mine Hill
in Roxb ury, pressed brick from North Haven,
brown-stone from central Massachusetts, and
molded terra cotta tile from Boston.
During these years a revival of Romanesque
architecture, inspired by the castles and churches.
of 11th and 12th century Europe, swept the nortlieast. Besides entire buildings in th1s style, Romanesque masonry and motifs, like the round
arch, appeared on many others in Danbury. Local
builders, such as Joel Foster and William Sunderland, vied with prestigious · New York and Connecticut a rchitects .in i nterrreting t his robus t
style. Each new monumenta building was celebrated as a civic accomplishment.
Expansiveness was the keynote of the era. Buildings with enormous interwr spaces, which were
used for carriage salesrooms; armories, and, in
one case, the high school, contrasted with the earlier anonymous three-story ltalianate blocks. The
p rolif era tion of side s tre e ts m e ant that Main
Street was no longer "one long, straggling s treet:·
but instead was the central corridor of an urban
street network. White and Elm became crowded
business streets, while commercial thoroughfares
like Keeler and Crosby streets, were opened during the 1890s . The construction of the library had
stimulated the prope rty owners of the hillside pasture behind it to open new streets. Tower, Terrace, and Chapel Place with their huge Victorian
double houses became, for a time, the city's most
prestigious address. Even workingmen's houses
were ample. Gingerbread woodwork made affordable by machine production appeared on most
buildings.
The building boom was brought to an abrupt halt
by · the Panic and ensuing Depression of 1893 . A
number of problems that had been simmering
below the surface, erupted to make the 1890s a
difficult time for Danbury. Largely the byproducts
of rapid growth they tended to undermine the
community's confidence. The new .sewer system,
for example, ·emptied untreated waste directl:,:
into the Still River, leading to a costly and em bar-rassing lawsuit brought by downstream property
owners. Increasing mechanization in the hatting
industry brought about tensions that resulted in
strikes, lockouts, and boycotts.
PHOTO 1 y l lOGII BAlDWIN
Wessells House . 12-14 Tower Place . The largest of these
restored and well-maintained houses was originally the
home of Eugene Wessells, who operated the New England
Bakery in the Treadwell Block for about twenty years after
the building ope ned . Built in 1890, it is typical of the
towered , shingled houses on the once fashionable streets
behind Main.
PHOTO By ROGER BALDWIN
Swift Brothers. Refrigerator. 1 lves Street. Since
its construction in 1892, this brick building has
been used as a wholesa le meat warehouse. Local
builder-architect William Sunderland designed
an unusual peaked gable, and used the classic
Romanesque repeating arches and rusticated
stone trim to add distinction to a utilitarian
structure.
COURTESY SCOTT-fANTON MUSEUM & HISTORICAL SOOfTY
I'HOTO By J OE V KCHIAIIHO
St . Pet~r's Rectory . Main Street. Built in 1891, the massive
round arch of the entry probably reflects the influence of
Henry Hob so n Richardson on architect Walter Stickels of New
York, who was also respons ibl e for the Marshall building on
the opposite side of the street. With its twin towers, balanced
arrangement of parts, and stained glass windows, the rectory
is a fine example of Romanesque Revival style. Many denominations built impressive church complexes in the Main Street
area.
The United Bank Building, isolated in the midst of a
tranqu il residential .neighborhood on the west side of Main
Street shortly after it was built in 1887 . A product of the
New York firm of Berg and Clark - Berg helped design
New York's original Metropolitan Opera House - it
housed both the Union Savings Bank , which occupies it
today , and the National Pahquioque Bank , now Citytrust.
Danbury News Building . 28B Main Street. The "Danbury
News Man " James Montgomery Ba iley proclaimed in 1868
that "we are to be a ci ty of no small importance ." · Five
years later he gave physical expression to his optimism by
hiring William Sunderland to build his newspaper's headquarters near Wooster Square. As Danbury expanded so
did Bailey's enthusiasm. In 1893 he hired Sunderland's son
Philip , fresh from architectural school, to remodel the
building in a style befitting the magnificence of the newer
buildings on the street. Th is marked the start of Sunderland 's forty year career as a Danbury architect.
COUITIESY SCOTT -FANTON MUSIUM & HISTOf:ICAL SOCIETY
By the time this parade was staged in the mid-1920s, the transformation of the west side of Main Street in the central _ _
business district had been completed. From left to right the buildings are, The old Savings Bank of Danbury , constructed in
1866 but at this time containing a store with offices above. It has been incorporated into )he Union Trust building; the then
Danbury National Bank which is now Union Trust; the Savings Bank of Danbury, built in1908; the Union Savings Bank ; the
original City National Bank , now Citytrust, as it looked before being enlarged and remodeled in 1929. "Bank Row " is still
a prominent and distincti.ve feature of Main Street.
·
�T HE N EWS -TI MES , S UNDAY, MAY 11, 1980
7- A
A CITY I N T HE COUNTRY :
T he T wentieth C entury
At the turn of the century Danbury reached the
zenith of its prestige a s the nation's hat capital. An
electric sign near the railroad station proudly proclaimed "Danbury Crowns Them All !" But despite
national prominence the city was an urban island a t
the center of a region of rural, agricultural towns
whose declininl! populations depended on i t for services like shoppmg and higher education. Outside the
. boundaries of the city Danbury itself was bucolic.
Country cousins of the Starrs, Benedicts and other
old propri~tary families still farmed the fields and
hillsides surrounding the city, and came each fall to
the great event, the Danbury F air . Farms abandoned by Yankee owners who drifted west or cityward were revived by Central European, Italian,
and Scandanavian immigrants with a strong peasant heritage.
Despite the bustle of Danbury, visible reminders
of the ruraf lingered in the city. Grain elevators
stood near the railroad tracks, Hardware and feed
stores catered to the region's farmers . Even the
music of composer Charles Ives documents the
rural influences on his native Danbury. Ives grew
up on Main Street and on Stevens Street during the
period of the most dramatic changes to old neighborhoods. Especially his early worlcs celebrate the
small town bands, parades, and barn dances in
nearby country towns that he experienced as a
youth.
Automobiles, that appeared on Main Street in the
early 20th century, altered the face of the city. The
trolley line folded, and highway routes 6, 7, and 202
funneled traffic through the central business district between White and West Streets. An information booth beneath the Soldiers Monument guided
motorists on their way to holidays in the New England countryside. Even though Main Street was widened, the p roliferation of cars made traffic congest ion a major problem from the 1920 's until I-84
reduced some of the volume in the 1960's.
Around the fringes of the central business area
comm erCial uses began to infringe on primarily
residential portions of Main Street. Old houses were
torn down in many cases to make way for gas
stations, auto dealerships, and service garages. 0 n·
the north part of Main Street especially small commercial additions were built in front of large, once
stylish hous es wh ich w ere t hen conve rt ed into
apartments. This type of commercial pressure has
resurfaced in recent decades, with the result that
no section of the street remains primarily residential. Main Street through the first six decades of
the century was the commercial core of the region.
Main Street merchants established branches in a rea
towns. Attractive commercial structures, often on a
large scale, like the Martha Apartment-Palace Theater ·and the present Howland's, continued to be
built downtown until the depression. Store openin~s
were hi!!hly publicized events while Ma in Street wmdows displays provided day to day entertainment
a nd enticement to ped estrians.
Danbury no longer held competitions or went out
of town to seek architects. With few exceptions
Philip Sunderland designed or was involved with
most major buildings prior to his appointment as
Federal Housing Authority architect m Connecticut
in 1933. His commissions included banks, lodge
halls, and large and small commercial buildings.
He supervised other projects like the Martha Apart-
Tho Post Off lco under
The just
comp le t ed bu il ding next
by Ph ilip
Sund erl and and now is
Jewel ers.
Afte r seve n
Bu sin essmen's
appearance of th at
section
was built on the site
of the dil ap idated
Railroad depot.
The organization ra1sed
the fe deral
appl1ljlfl af1 Dunng construction
on.
city's water sand
nec essi ta t ed stre ng then ing of the foundation . It was one of
th e first bui ld ings on the street to use a conc rete and steel
fra me .
mentS. His styles was influenced by both the Beaux
Arts and the Colonial Revival movements.
Through the efforts of a few far-sighted Individuals - the city had the first industrial development
corporation in the nation - Danbury's economy became more diversified so that when hatting went
into a precipitious decline in the 1940's , the economic transition was not a painful one . After World War
II a number of factors : the country setting, proximity to New York, the appeal of Candlewood Lake,
and the decline of local agriculture made the Danbury area ripe for suburbanization. The automobile
opened up the countryside, and tract developments
consumed farm and wasteland alike. The population
of the towns around Danbury, in decline for years,
began to leap forward. In response to this growth,
strip development and shoppmg centers grew up
along highways outside the center of the city. Today
in Danbury there is double the amount of available
commercial space off Main Street than there is on
it.
1
The city continues to a ttract immigrants from
many lands. In the early 2oth century significant
numbers of newcomers arrived from Italy, Lebanon
and Syria, Central and E astern Europe. Many of
them, like the descendants of the immigrants of
earlier times have become a part of the city's establishment. In more recent decades they have
been joined by Blacks, Portugese, Greeks, and hispanics. While racial tensions, erupted in the 1970's
among the city's youth, Danbury's ethnic diversity
is one of its greatest assets.
In this brief sketch of Main Street's history we can
recognize many of the economic and cultural forces
of work today. As p ropertr owners jockey for economi c advantage an mcreasmgly greater portion of the
street is given over to commercial purposes. Styles of living and architectural tastes change, r elegating significant numbers of buildi ngs to unpopularit y, eventually to neglect,and fr equently to destruction.
In the past as well a s the present, many are structurally undistinguished, and in some cases clash with
their surroundings.
But there a re sev~ral aspects of the past that can
serve as the basis for constructive planning. First,
Danburians have always been proud of the appearance of their town. This concern has been demonstrated in the construction of grand buildings, the
expansion of small and plain structures to approach
the standard of their surroundings, and in investment in tree planting and park development in the
downtown. Some stretches of streetscape are exceptionally attractive and harmonious, blending
buildings of diverse ages and architectural styles. A
second positive tradition is the tendency of the people of Danbury to re-use sound structures either by
renovation, or by moving buildings replaced by
new construction to an alternate site. Demolition on .
a large scale was unthinkable before the 1950's .
The plans and programs that have determined the
face of Main Street in recent years will be treated
in upcominl! articles, along with suggestions on how
the beneficial aspects of the past can be intensified
in the future.
I f Danbury is to become a more vibrant, livable
place it must begin where these pages have begun,
with the city's unique heritage.
City Notional Bonk . 234 Ma in Street. Built in 191 2
_along the lines of a Roman temple , the bank wa s
enlarged in 1929-30, when a t hird stor y and a
bronze relief and doors were added so that it would
blend with the larger, ne ighbor ing finan ci al insitutions .
C ourtfly Scott-Fanion Mu . .~o~m &. Hi1tori«<l Soct.ty
Savings Bank bf Danbury 224 Mai n Street Arc hitect
~hi lip Sunderland used the imp osi ng massing of the B ux
ea
Arts school to create a bui ld ing t ha t conv eys a feeling of
di gn ity and sol idity. It is set ba ck from t he street on a
li llie promo ntory to recal l its pred ec esso r on the site,
the Congregationa l Church whi ch had burne d. The relief
carv ing , heavy bronze doors , and well preserve d int eri or
are prominent features. of the building .
The automobile had not qu ite won out over ol der
forms of transportation in th is circa 1920 photograph of Wooster Square, the a!lractive gateway ~o
downtown .
Woolworth ' s. 24 1-25 1 Main Street. Duri ng the 1930's chain
store s, whic h ha d prev iou sl y leased space in downtown buildings,
began co nstructing their own stores in Da nbu ry. W
oolworth's is the
cit y' s most con spi cuous ex amp le of Art Deeo, a style of streamlined
deco rat io n in vogue in t he t wenti es and thirties. It replaced the
four story D
anbury Hard ware buil ding, whose passi ng was mourned
by many re si den ts. An interesting feat ur e is the mirror wi th inlay
work loc ate d. near t he ~ r e ar en t ran ce .
�8-A
A WALK THROU<J
Main Street has a rich architectural heritage. Here is a selection of often overlooked
buildings of historical and architectural interest.
411 Main Strttt (1860). When this ltalianate block was built for grocer James
Porter during the 1850s building boom,
some saw it as the beginning of a new
commercial district on the corner of
North Street.
384 Ma1n Strttt (circa 1780) . The age and relative intactness of this house make it a valuable
landmark . Unlike the exuberant shingle style
house next door , this house is a compact box, the
tiny windows tautly flush with the shingle sid·
ing.
265 Main Stroot (1915-1916). The Post Office . Architect
Oscar Wenderoth's design is a valuable specimen of Classical and Colonial architecture used by the Federal government through the 1930s. If not brilliant or strong , buildings like this provide a sense of dignity to their purpose .
.
St. Jostph's Church (1905) .
The facade of St . Joseph 's,
at right, draws on a com mon motif for religious architecture . A gam led element with a rose window
is flanked by two towers,
and the entrance is through
three arches. This formula
was developed by the famous 13th century French
Gothic cathedrals.
390-394 Main Strttt. These two ltalianate houses,
above, which once belonged to the Knapp family, are
the grandest residences left on this part of the street.
They were both once quite stately with their four
squ are solidity and · centra~ monitors . The Toby Jug no
longer resembles a house because of the add ition on its
front.
386 Main Strttt. Tht htart-shaptd lattice
work portico dtalgns, brackets, and other
woodwork art lnttrtltlng futures of this
Vlctorlanlztd Grttk Rtvlval houat.
238 and 240-242 Main Stroot ( 1891 ).
Daragan and laRue buildings, this
building trends of the period . The
adventurous design by Danbury's
complemented by the more
trimmed 240-242, the creation of leon
dean of New Haven architects .
352 Main Streat (circa 1880). The porch, octagonal bay, ornate trim and hip and gable roofs are
combined in this Victorian house. One of the last
grand houses on North Main, it is set back from
the sidewalk and is one of the street's pleasant
surprises.
3 77
Str11t (circa
1835-1840) .
The detailing
of this Greek
Revival house ,
at left, is intact but is in
need of restoration. It is
ssimple but di rect, down to
Greek mullion
patterns in the
attic windows .
�T HE N EWS-TIMES, S UNDAY, M AY 11, 1980
9-A
H M AIN STREET
). Originally the
pair illustrates
rra cotta trim and
I Foster in 238, is
ined, brownstone
n Robinson, later
155 Main Street (1859). The building boom of the
1850s reached a height of elegance in this ltalianate
block . Its windows have fine sills and surrounds, and
the facade is delicately capped by a wide , overhanging
cornice supported by distinctive brackets. The placement of the windows alternates with that of the
brackets to give the facade an undulating rhythm .
80 Mlln Strttt (1873) . The former County Jail designed and
constructed by the Foster Brothers in a fashionable mixture of
elements. The slate mansard roof was a feature of many
houses at the time . Restoration efforts are presently underway by
the city .
~lyle
59 Main Street (circa 1800). Typical of middle class
homes after the Revolution , possibly built by John Rider
for one of the town's early silversmiths. The semi-elliptical fanlight over the door and double chimneys give it a
Federal style.
•
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• Fairfield County Courthouse ( 189B-1899). The Classical elements
in architect Warren Briggs' design reflect his training at the Ecole
!
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:
•
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141 Main Stroot (1907).
The Brass Jail restaurant, at right. A plaque
set into the front of this
building in English and
Arabic commemorates
its original owner, grocer and confectioner
David Charles. Brickwo~k patterns are subtly
vaned.
des Beaux Arts in Paris .
15 Main Street (cirta 1B15). The pedimented
doorway with its stylized fanlight is the focus of
this Federal era house built originally for John
Mclean's son Alexander .
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65 M Stroot (circa 1B20) . At left, possibly
ain
built by John Rider for his son . The house is
typical of those of its time, three bays wide
and four deep, with a central chimney and
door to one side .
r
111·113 Main Street (1891).
The Marshall Bui lding, at left,
was designed by the same architect who designed St. Peter's Rectory across the street.
Like man y Victorian commercial buildings, it has rich detail and varied building !)1aterials. Window trim, in particular, is d ifferent on each
floor.
, designed by Phil ip
small windows give
also suggested by its
apitals.
DWIN
L
181-185 Mlin Strttt (1907) . The present Hull building stands on the site of several previous Hull
Hardware buildings at a long important commercial
location. Variegated color, textures and wind ows
give this block its richness.
1 · Main Strttt (circa 1785) . Home of John
Mclean, a well-to-do merchant , who · was
Chief Commissary of the military stores in
Danbury during the Revolution. Its builder
may have been John Rider.
�lO=A
T HE N EWS-TIMES, S UNDAY, MAY 11, 1980
PLANS C HART DANBURY'S F UTURE
The forces that have shaped American cities are complex, as the history of Danbu ry's Main Street makes
clear. Only in recent times have people realized that ttley ha ve the powe r
and the r es ponsibility to control
change. Ur ban pla nning was esta blished as a specialized profession in
this century to provide th e tools that
are required to bring the environment und er human c ontr ol. Many
cities drew up comprehensive plans
th at were des1gned to replace chaotic urban gr owth with rational order.
These plans sough t to id entify community goals and to s et down specific policies to cha nnel growth toward
these objec ti ves.
Danbury did not establish an institutionalized pr oc edure for directing
change until 1958 when the Technical
Planning Associates, a fi rm of urban
specialists in New Ha ven, prepared
a city plan. The P lanning Commission was assigned the duty of 'monitoring growth so that it wo uld be
c ompatible with the m l!ster p la n.
The in itial p lan has been revised
twice, once in 1967 and most recently
in 1978. With each update current attitudes towards cities, a nd down towns in particular, were incorporated
- into the document, shifting its focus .
Althoug h each version of the city
plan differed in e mphasis, several
ass ump tions a bout Danbury held by
the planners remained constant. The
axi om on which offi cial poli cy is still
based is that Danbury's future rests
on its dual role as ari industrial city
a nd a rejlional marketing center. Expansion m these areas is looked upon
as desirable. Another consistent goal
has been to develop the downtown as
a retail shopping a rea because planners believed th at adequate tax revenu es depended on a strong commercial base on Ma in Street. They insisted that Danbury should continue to
be a self-contained city with an identity of its own , rather than to b e subm erged into t he i ndistinguishable
suburban orbit of New Yorli City.
The initial 1958 plan established
traffic circulation and parking as the
keys to dow ntown Danbur y' s econo mic p r osperity. The c oncept of
urban blight emerged at this time,
and its eradication wa s felt to be
c rucial to t he future success of the
city. One of th e key items of the 1958
plan was the elimin at ion of the
threat of flood damage c reated by
the Still River. The master plan reco m mended the steps th at wou ld
late r be taken : channeling of the
ri ver and the clearance of the downtown a rea to the west of the river
also consider ed to be an unde sirable
slum.
The 1967 de velopment plan re-emphasized that th e downtown must be
preserved as a shopping and commercial area, although the plan advocated continuity of function and
not necessarily physical preservation.
I listoric R esource Su rvey
One of th e weaknesses of D nb ury's effo rts to order the future has been the limited
a
pe rspective of t he planners who have been concerned mainly with the engineering
details of life in the city. Traffi c, parking, and sewer s, while of great consequence,
do no t express t he totality of ur ban aspirations . In an effort to build a different data
base tha t wo uld ta ke int o acco unt such cu ltural factors as histo ric significance and
aesihetic qualit y, the Danbury Preservation Trust in the summer of 1979 co nducted a
com pr ehens ive invent ory of a ll buil d ings on Main St reet between Sout h an d North
stree ts as well as tho se on th e side streets immediately adj a ce nt (between liberty
and Wh ite street s. ) Totalin g a lm ost three hundred structures , this surve y was funded
by a grant fr om th e Uni ted States Department of Interior an d admin ist ered by the
Connec t icut Historica l Co mmiss ion .
The lengthy fin al report submitted to the Historical Commission al so will
be ava.!la bl e a t the Da nbu ry Preservation Trust office , Ci ty Hall, the Scott- Fanton Museum, Da nbury Public Library, and t he Western Conn ecticut
State Co ll ejle Li brary. Alo ng with detailed informati on and a photojlraph of
each buildmg , the report contains interpretive essays on the h1story of
Da nbury, a nd th e evolution of local building styles. A map on wh ich all
properties are identified, a nd a set of colored slides are also included . The
sur vey was carri ed ou t by William Devlin, Imogene Heireth and a team of
Trust volunteers.
Slums and blighted areas must b e
wiped out presumably through renewal, the document recommended.
The need for improved traffic c irculation was again stressed, and the
concept of arterial roads to remove
congestion from Main Street was introduced, an approach t hat ultimately was responsible for the construction of P atriot Drive. I t wa s Jl widely
a ccepted b elief a t t hat t i me t hat
_ traffic congestion could b e r elie ved
by building additional a lter native
routes. However recent studies have
indicated that traffic use will keep
pace with new highway capacity producing an overall increase in traffic
a t great public expense wi tho ut any
relief of crowding.
The 1978 plan adop ted a n altered
s tance towards the down town. P revious versions und erstood the commercial potential of down town a nd r ecommended tha t 'land use be r estricted to commercial and retail opera tio ns. All oth er compet in g fu nctions were to be disco uraged. Th e
most recent upd ate recogniz ed that
in o rder for downtown bus in.ess to b e
healthy, there must be a diversi ty of
activity. On e of the most important
comP.lemen tary uses to commercial
retailing is hou sing , and ther efore
the 1978 plan urged that the stock of
. ex isting housing in the central city
b e revitalized and increased to accommodate d iverse e conomic
groups. This is a significant departure from earlier plans.
No clear attitude towards preservation of the a ctual b uildings on
Main Street is expressed by even the
most recent plan, and there is an
unfortunate endorsement of facade
modernization , about which more
will be sa id l ater (see page 14. )
There is also a con ti nued e mphasis
on the value of providing alternate
roads to Ma in Street. Some attention
is given to improving traffic fl ow
through such devices as synchronization of signal lights.
Although Danbury's su ccession ·of
development plans have had a definite impact on the downtown , there
has been no effort to consid ef Main
Street as a whole in positive terms.
Planners have overemphasized t raffic and parking to the neglect of
housing a nd cultural amenities such
as restaurants and recreational opportunities. The pages ahead look a t
Ma in Sreet as a compl ete unit with a
distinct personality that exists, not
in isolation, but at the core of the
city and the region . Attention will be
given to the ways in wh ic h the manmade environment of down town can
satis fy the total needs, physical and
psychological, of city residents.
Mid·Town East Neighborhood
Development Plan
On e sp ecific de sig n pr oposal concerns the east si de of Ma in Street in the downtow n area .
Th e bl oc ks between liberty and Post Offi ce st reets go ing ba ck to what is now Pa triot Drive
were origina ll y slated fo r demo lition and were to have been replaced by a new comp lex of
shop s, pa rking ga rage s, an d large retai l sto res . Th is plan was begun with the le veling of the
block s imm ediatel y behin d Main Street, but insu ff ic ient funds hav e st all ed it th e re. Ha d the
plan been co mp let ed a fine block of 19th and earl y 20th ce nt ur y stores wo uld have bee n
forever lo st t o Danbur y, and would have been replaced by a row of non-descr ipt mod ern
building s.
Th e current plan , much mo re modes t in scope, wil l imp ro ve t he center ci ty if executed
properly. It propo ses to deve lop the vaca nt land tha t has al ready bee n cleared by sell ing
parce ls t o private develop ers. Al so suggested is a ne w, mo re s pa ci ous po st off ic e on liberty
Street that would repla ce the ex is t ing Main St reet faci lity. An addit io nal pr opos al is a
rea lignment of liber ty Street t o coincide better wi th We st Stree t. Page 16 of th is su pplement
sets down so me principles t hat sh ou ld guide devel opment of th is area.
I"HOTO COURTISY Of TECH NICAL ltlA NN ING ASSOCI ATE S
Thi s ae r ial ph otograph of do wntown shows the appearance of t he Mid-Town East a rea bef or e
any redevel opment had occu r red .
COURTESY Of TKHNICAt
~"LANNING ; '
'SSOCIATIS
�T HE N EWS-TIMES, S UNDAY, M AY 11, 1980
THE FUTURE
In the pr~eding pages _ have seen
we
what a lively place Main Street was.
Life in Danbury has changed and it
is neither possible nor desirable to
return to the past. Yet in the present
much of the physical legacy of ihe
past remains.
assets that can be the raw materials
of a revitalized city.
If we t urn our backs on this potential, Main Street may become neglected and empty , an unfortunate
path followed by other cities similar
in size to Danbury. I f we work with
the grain of the city and intensify its
strengths the future is bright. The
articles in the· following pages will
demonstrate what a dynamic urban
place Main Street could be, how this
We must be concerned with the
way in which that physical heritage,
the buildings and streetscape of the
downdown , can best be put to use in
the future . The structures, streets,
and open spaces that constitute the
Main Street environment are unique
11-A
has happened in other fa r sighted cities, and what specific strengths Danbury has that can trigger this renaissance.
The pages ahead are intended to
raise the issues we must address
when contemplating the revitalization of our Main Street. I t is not the
intention of this publication to suggest policies or solutions, but simply
to highlight the problems and possibilities which must be considered by
the planning process.
T he I mportance o f a n U rban P lace
The city, where many people's separate lives and
a ctivities coalesce, is the cr own jewel of modern
civilization. When people congregate in cities they
can enjoy benefits far beyond what are available to
individuals who live isolated from society. The in terdependence and division of labor that a re nec essary conditions of urban living make poss ibl e an
abundant supply of material goods , sophisticated
communicabons and transportation systems, a nd
diverse cultural institutions. Cities offer a broad
range of options in housing, shopping, entertainment, work, and education.
inn er city neigh borhoods attractive places to live.
Browns to ne tow n houses a nd Vic to rian mansions
are taking on new life. E verrthose whose homes
remain in the suburbs are loo kin g mo re often to the
city for the stimulation , a nd sense of continuity that
enhances life. Cities mirror the values of their residences. The follow ing pages are designed to help
Danburians consider wha t ty pe of city they desire ;
what valu~s a re important to them. The first step
in making Main Street a pl ace of choices and possibilities is the recognition that diversity is a desirable goal.
·
Yet Americans have always been ambiva lent
about cities. While acknowledging the economi c and
cultural opportunities presented by urban pl aces,
they have been repulsed by the anonymity, crowd ing , dirt, and danger that tarnish the appeal of ci ty
life. In ever increasing numbers Am erica ns have
abandoned the city in favor of less congested suburban havens. Shopping and industry ha ve joined th e
flight to the suburbs.
A counter movement is now in eviden ce . Am eri cans are rediscovering the city. The ener gy shortage, and soaring land and building cos ts ha ve made
Cities Like Danbury Turn t o Revitalization
Coming, New York
South Norwalk, Connecticut
The Market Street Resto ration was a respon se to
a flood similar to the D bury expe rien ced in
an
1955 . A combined progra m of fac ade restora tion
and new construction, both funded gene rous ly by
the Corning Glass Company, have transformed
the once decaying downtown into a show place.
Modernized metal facades that hid the ch ar m of
older bui ldings ha ve been removed, reveali ng
the tasteful original su rfaces . Merchants in these
refurbished buildings were surprised when their
business increased substantially. An effort has
also been made to desig n new buildings that
contribute to the historic environment of this
small city rather than compete with it . Re vita lization has not resulted in the displace men t of
local merchants that often accompanies other
forms of urban renewal . Commu nity pride and a
sense of local identity have been enh anced.
An exci ting program that wi ll br in g ne w life to this neglected neighborhood has been
drawn up by the Boston a rc hitectural fir m of Anderson , Notter , Finegold and Associates.
The stud y, fin an ced by a Com mu nity D elopment grant, recommends a package of publi c
ev
and pr ivate imp rov emen ts to t he wa terfr ont a nd t he stretch of historic iron-front store s
on W hington St reet. Fede ral money will be expended on street improvements and
as
parki ng fac ilities , as well as provid ing fina ncial incentives , through grants and tax relief,
for pri vate owne rs to improve the ir prope rty . Funds from developers will be used to
ren ova te existing bu ildi ngs and to add supplementary new construction. A key
co mp one nt of th is app roac h is a desire to strengthen the local ch a ract er of Soout Norwalk
by giving the neighborhood merchant s and residents a voice in the planning process .
Below is proposed Haviland Street Par king Deck with " back door " edestrian im
me nts for Washington Street bu ild:
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COURTESY MARKET ST. RE STOIA TtON
instituti on committed to public service.
A base for downtown renewal is the
continued presence on or near Main
Street of city government, merchants,
and many residents. Most public buildings are within a block of the street.
The demand for office space is growing . A downtown council has been o rganized by merchants of locally owned
business who have consistently demonstrated their faith in the town . There
are already many people living in the
center city who patronize the shops
and bring activity to the streets, a
number t hat could be expanded by
a dapting the upper floors of some
downtown buildings for use as rental
apartments.
Danbury is fortunate in being the
home of many l arge c orpo rations
which contribute 1Q the city in important ways. Danbury can also help
them. A revitalized Main Street with
attractive shops, restaurants, and cultural facilities would appeal to their
employees. A co rporate image is determined in p art by the character of
the community in which it is located.
An attractive and exciting city reflects
favorably on the companies that have
chosen it as th eir home. Clearly Danbury and its corporate citizens are dependent on each other and must work
in partnership to plan th e fu ture of th e
ci ty.
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D anbury H as I ngredients
F or R evitalization
What does Danbury have in common
with tho se places that have revitalized
their downtowns? Did they have financial resources and technical expertise
that Danbury does not possess? Did
they have a more significant heritage?
A m ore e xciting p.bysical environment? Were their residents more committed to progress? None of these are
t rue. A c ombination of f actors a re
present in Danbury which make the
potential of Main Street very great.
While many towns of c omparable •
size had their downtowns decimated ·
by ur ban renewal in the 1960s Danbury
wa s spared this disaster . .The scars
fr om highway construction and the
number of weed strewn vacant lots are
few. In fact the flood control work on
the Still River made downto wn land
more usable. Main Street and m uch of
the surrounding real estate remains intact, a collection of sound buildings of
outs tanding architectural and historical merit wai ting for appropriate new
uses.
Danbury's size in itself is an encouraging factor , Compared to a large metropolis it still remains a place where
traditions a re revered, where the scale
is more human, and where problems
a re l ess i ntractable . Unlike o ther
" gritty cities" of the northeast i t is not
an economic backwater but boasts an
expanding economy. I t is the home of
one of Connecticut's state colleges, an
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COURT!SY ANDERSON , NOTTER , R NEGOLD & ASSOC.
Newburyport, Massachusetts
Newburypo rt has long been known for its larg e num ber of outstanding Georgi an and Federal
sty le re si den ces , but un til recen tly, its busi ness district was dilapidated . The revitalization
efforts her e were s pear headed by a local ban k with the expert planning as sis tance of
Anderson , Notter , Finego ld and Assoc iates. The ir ma ster plan included a_syste m of access to
the Main Street bu ildings from the par ki ng lot on th ei r backsides wh ich opened up areas for
shops and restaurants on many levels. Thi s made it attracti.ve for peop le to come to the
downtown once again . Ind ividual bu ild ings on t he Mai n St reet have been rehabilitated and
improvements have been made to the paving and plan t ing of the streets.
·
�T HE N EWS-TIMES, S UNDAY, MAY 11, 1980
12-A
Recycling Historic Buildings
Recycling of historic buildings is a national trend that is pumping new energy
into bred downtowns. Federal tax incentives, the prohibitive costs of new construction, the lingering effects of the bicentennial, and community activism all
have played a part in this phenomena. But even more significant is the growing
awareness that those proud structures that have been designed for one purpose
can be altered to provide amenities that many downtowns lack, such as restaurants, performing arts centers, and housing. In 1977 the National League of Cities
published a study made by the Rand Corporation that indicated quality and mix of
cultural outlets was directly related to the economic health of the city.
Danbury is fortunate to have many historic buildings, both public arid private, of
excellent structural and architectural quality that are ideally suited to a spectrum
of exciting new uses. Since many of the buildings described on these pages are
currently underutilized or face imminent abandonment it is important that we
consider how they can continue to make a contribution to community needs.
Palace Theater
The Palace Theater, built as a glamorous movie house in 1928 , has already
served other than its original use. In the 1960s impressario Julian Olney brought
traveling Broadway shows to the theater. With the increasing popularity of
stage, concerts, and ballet the Palace could again be put to successful use as a
performing arts center. Proximity to New York City would make it possible to
bring varied arts groups based in the metropolitan area to Danbury audiences.
The proliferation of local theater and arts groups, many of whom have adapted
older buildings in the downtown as, practice and work spaces, need a more
suitable arena for performance.
The present movie house was itself a later audition to the then fashionable
Martha Apartments. The lobby was inserted into one of the original storefronts
and the space required by the theater was added to the back of the building. In
1979 the once spectacular hall which seated over 2,000 people was divided by bare
partitions to create three smaller auditoriums. Fortunately little structural damage was done and much of the original splendor is still present in the lobby and
balcony. Restoration of the Palace for use as a performing a rts center would
involve only minor changes which would be cheaper than construction o f a new
theater of these porportions.
The presence of a thriving performing arts center on Main Street, in addition
to the cultural benefits it would offer the region, would be a boost to the
economy of downtown . Researchers are finding that in our consumer oriented
society jobs follow people. A major theater would broaden the kinds of activities
which take place in the downtown bringing people there after normal business
hours. This would create an expanded clientele for restaurants and specialty
shops. I t could be a magnet for professional people who want an urban alternatiV e ~· !.. - ~ !.!!.. !" d ng F ;v : n .. a Peli&LPfd::fQr_ ing Arts Center would help
m
stimulate a fresh atmosphere or vitality on Mam : oT
eet.
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Oaklands Paramount Theater Restored to Great Acclaim
Th is ornate 1931 movie theater, above right, was restored as a performing arts center in
1973 . Acquisition and conversion of ·the theater cost $2 million and took only nine months to
complete, compared with an estimated $13 million construction cost and four year
construction period for a new arts center. Above left and below are present-day photos of
Danbury's Palace Theater.
..
Ives Street Firehouse
Downtown Danbury needs more good restaurants, a s anyone who has tried to get a
table a t lunch knows . An increase in evening activities generated by the Palace
Performing Arts Center would create a market for high quality restaprants serv·
ing dinner .
The former Fire Department headquarters on Ives Street a t the end of Post
Office Street, still owned by the city, IS currently underutilized as storage space
for Civil Defense equipment. Built in 1878 to meet the needs of a burgeoning urban
population, the buildmg boasts brickwork and detailing that is exceptional. I t
would be a prime candidate for conversion to a restaurant. High ceilings make it
possible to add a mezzanine balcony over part of the interior without sacrificing
the sense of generous space, and the area in front of the building lends itself to
summer use as a sidewalk cafe. The building, adjacent to muniCipal parking and
Patriot Drive access is located near all parts of downtown. Adaptive reuse makes
financial sense. The building could be sold for a favorable price to a private
developer who would be required to preserve the character of the building. In its
new use the firehouse , rather than being a drain on the public purse, would
generate tax revenues.
PHOTO 1 y RANDOLPH LANGINIACH
Charthouse Chain Rehabilitates Boston Warehouse
Once a dingy warehouse on Boston 's Long Wharf, this handsome brick building has been
transformed into a popular restaurant by the Boston architectural firm of Anderson, Notter ,
Finegold Associates . A multi-level restaurant was inserted into a shell that was refurbished
and faithfully restored to it s original condition .
'
�I H t: Nt:YY::>· I I Mt:::> , ::> UNUA T, M AT I I , IYIJU
13-A
Former Public Library's
Potential U nrealized
One of Main Street's finest buildings, this High Victorian Brownstone structure
served a s Danbury's library for almost 100 years until replaced in 1970. For the
past decade the city has used it for municipal offices. With the exception of
serious leaks in the roof which are now damaging walls, it has been fairly well
maintained. However, its present use does not realize its rich potential. In particular the generous proportions, and elegant wood details of the former reading room
on the second floor a re marred by the presence of partitions and lighting fixtures
needed by the Health Department offices. The present post office, soon to be
replaced, might be a more fitting space for those government agencies that cannot
be accommodated in City Hall.
One use, for which this landmark is ideally suited, is a creative arts workshop
gallery. The open space and light airiness of the second floor could provide the
exhibition space so sorely needed in the community. There is abundant space on
the street floor and even in the basement for studios, workshops and offices. All
age groups could be accommodated. If the library were rehabilitated in this
manner it would d•·aw more people downtown and would have a beneficial impact
on the Main Street economy.
Because the library building is of historic significance and architectural merit it
would certainly quality for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places
making it eligible for federal and state restoration and maintenanc. grants. Come
munity development funds would also be eligible for this purpose.
One of Main Street's finest buildings this masterpiece of Victorian Gothic architecture with
a vaulted ceiling , stained glass windows, and a variety of shapes, colors, and textures
could become a magnificent art center.
PHOTO By STEPHEN HARIY
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
This building of similar vintage to Danbury's former Public library has been recently
restored as the home of the art school which originally built it in downtown Philadelphia .
F uture O f C ounty C ourthouse I n Q uestion
I f the State of Connecticut carries
out i ts p resent p lans t he F airfield
County Courthouse on South Main will
be replaced by a modern legal building
on White Street. Should the judicial
system vacate the present courthouse
it would be difficult to imagine a more
appropriate use for the neo-classical
monument. Certainly the best use for
the building is the one for which i t was
built and has served admirably since
1899. The domed main court room, pictured, exquisite in scale and detail, is a
symbol of dignity that befits a hall of
justice.
I t is clear that the building should
continue to be used as a courthouse.
Room for expansion and modernization
is available on the present site. Cost
estimates and state financial difficulties indicate that the new courthouse
will be inadequate to meet the needs of
the region. A feasibility study to determine how the Main Street courthouse
can best meet the supplementary needs
of the judicial system should be undertaken a t once.
I'HOTO l y IRIAN GAUMER
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T HE N EWS-TIMES, S UNDAY, ·M AY 11, 1980
N ew Buildings: Keeping
Danbury's older buildings of vari ed styles and periods fit together because they
are compatible in scale, proportion, detail , and materials. New buildings must
not be copies of old structures, rather they should make contemporary statements attuned to advances in technology and shifts in taste. However, in order to
fit comfortable into the character of the street, as generations of structures have
done, .new construction must respect the existing scale, proportion, detail , and
materials. I f a new bui@ng is insensitive to its neighbors in anr, one of these,
categories the fabric of the street is irreparably damaged . Bmldings can be
modern without violating the slowly assembled conventions of the s treetscape. I t
is risky to merely hope that new construction in the downtown will not be too
tall, or too bulky , or mtroduce inappropriate materials or decorations. The city
should establish and enforce design guidelines that guarantee that innovation will
blend with tradition.
Woolworths and Martins are in keepi ng w ith each other. Although they were built in
different periods (1870s and 1930s) represent different styles (ltalianate and A rt Deco,)
and are even of different sizes, the two facades have similar levels of detail, window size,
and hierarchical organi zation which make i t clear that they serve the same purpose. I t is
possible for buildings· to be divergent, yet still have essential elements in common. .
A t right, height of new building dominates its neighbors. lack of definition of window
prevents i t from having the same scale reading as adjacent buildings. Surface detailing of
new building is not the sam e level of intricacy as others on the street. M irror glass cl ad ding
is an alien material tha t makes new building unduly conspicuous.
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IUUSTRATION By STEPHEN HAR BY.
New buildi ng maintai ns t he prevai li ng height on the street.
Cle arly de fi ned windows and other com ponents give i t recogniza b le and co mpat i bl e scal e. The detailing is of the same level of
richness as the older st ru ctures. The brick construction mater ia l is
consistent t hrou gho ut the block.
Streets are
for P eople
F or years we have yielded our downtown s treets to the
automobile. Only recently have we begun to realize that
the needs of pedestrians for safe, a ttractive walkways ,
punctuated wiib places t o pause and rest, and fla uked by
buildings whose s treet face js scaled and designed to perk - - - - : . .
their interest, should have equal consideration.
Danbury can accommodate both c ars and people. Main
Street is wide enough to be used for traffic and parking
with little inconvenience. Traffic circulation in the down town needs improvement and should be part of any comprehensive revitalization scheme. P ar king can be made
available in the a rea between Ma in Street a nd Patriot
Drive in a way that can strengthen the vitality of the
entire downtown, especially if pedestrian pa ~sageways
through the long, solid blocks on east Main a re integrated
into the plan. Much needs to be done to make the sidewa lks more inviting places. Careful attention must be
g iven to pavement, curbs , signs , signals , plantings ,
benches, trash receptacles, and other items of street furniture in order to provide an orderly, understandable, and
pleasant street environment. The following are some examples of poor designs in the elements of Danbury's Main
Street with some suggestions for improvement.
V isual
Design
Guidelines
Main Street is a living organism whose parts
have a definite relationship to each other. This
pattern must be understood before attempting
to make any alterations, or we run the risk of
destroying t he coherence of the street. The
order that has evolved over the years, and in
fact is still changing, is both visual and functional. The buildings and the segments of the
street, while not uniform, do have compatible
special arrangements. The look that they present is harmonious. There is also an unwritten
but real hierarchy of activities that traditionally have been carried out on certain zones of the
street. Some uses, either for modernization of
e xisti ng b uildings o r for new construction,
should not be encouraged in all parts of the
street. I f the quality of the physical environment is to be- enhanced and not violated we
must honor the delicate visual and functional
unity of the street.
I'HO T By STIPH I N HARBY
O
As we work with older buildings we must
understand and value their strong points. As we
consider new construction we must comprehend the architectural language spoken by the
existing buildings in that part of the Main
Street a rea and enter into conversation with
them . We must be conscious of the character
of each part of the downtown so that restoration and new buildings will reinforce and not
destroy the qualities we admire. As we modify
the pavement, signs, and street furniture we
must appreciate how each of these elements
contributes to the streetscape.
PHOTO By STEPHEN HARBY
PHOTO By STEPHEN HARBY
�Facade Restoration o f C ommercial Buildings
The s tretches of l ate 19th and
early 20th century commercial buildings are Main S treet's most stunning
resource. Some simple, others elaborate, t hese u tilitarian s tructures
manifest the optimism and prosperity
of Danbury's boom years. Collectively they determine the texture of the
street.
These commercial blocks can be
divided into two groups each making
a differen t statement to and about
the commun ity. Most common on the
east side of the street in the central
business district are smaller buildings with a lower profile that contain
stores or restaurants on the ground
floor with several stories of offices,
originally apartments, above. Buildings are continuous and of delicate
styles, predominately l talianate .
More imposing are the brick edifices
which house Danbury's major financial and cultural institutions on the
west side of Main S treet. T hese
buildings of more robust styles such
as Romanesque and of g reater bulk ,
usually have a grand public room on
the ground floor and sometimes offices on the upper floors . All of the
business buildmgs have facades that
are divided both vertically and horizontally into parts that express the .
varied functions . Such articulation of
scale helps relate the buildings to
each other and to their human occupants.
Unfortunately many of Danbury's
prize c ommercial blocks a re rundown and .cry for a facelift. Owners
of similar " old-fashioned" buildings
all over the country have chosen to
" modernize " t hem w ith s leek
screens of metal or stone. While promising to be a cheap and easy sohition these curtains actually destroy
the good qualities of the building.
Obliterated are the rich stylistic details. The sense of scale that was an
essential part of the original building
is lost and the end result is more like
a carefully wrapped g ift pac kage
than a container of human activity.
Since the windows above the street
level are blocked certain uses of the
upper floors , housing for example,
a re p recluded and the s treet becomes a more arid place.
The most persuasive argument in
favor of coverin~ the exterior surface with veneer 1s that a low initial
investment can bring about a dramatic change in the appearance of a
bu ilding. Owners beheve t hat the
cost of restoring the building in a
manner that respects its integrity is
ex trem ely expensive and will not
bring a substantial return on their
investment. This reasonin~ is specious. Covering a building s des1gn
features is unwise for many reasons.
Although store rents may be slightly
P r. R__ T 5 O F A F ACADE
IUUSTRATtoN l y STEPHEN HAlBY
This diagram identifies the parts of a traditional commercial facade. The facade has two
parts. The lower part contains the store and is immediately related to the scale of
pedestrians on the sidewalk. The upper part with its smaller regular windows contains
either apartments or offi ces , and it relates to the scale of the entire street, conta ining it like
a room .
increased after such cosmetic treatment the usable space on the upper
floors is decreased by shutting out
air and light. Such an approach may
hasten the structural deterioration of •
the building. Moisture trapped between the screen and the original fa cade can cause wood trim and window frames to rot, necessitating extensive rehabilitation. I t has been discovered t hat t hese blank facades
constitute a considerable fire hazard,
blocking access to the interior by the
fire department. A sound investment
should always be judged in terms of
long range benefits as well as apparent immediate returns.
Correct restoration of commercial
buildings is not difficult. The advice
of an architect versed in restoration
work should be sought to determine
what changes and improvements will
be compatible with th'.! b uilding's
style and the fabric of the street.
Craftsmen are available who can fabricate elements to replace damaged
parts, and, althou gh such work is not
cheap, the extent of it required on
any one building may not be great.
The intangible contribution to the
co mmunity must be considered as
well. A streetscape of attractive, and
distinct but visually un ified structures is f ar s upe rior to a bland
stretch of featureless facades .
Even if a store owner can afford
only modest improvements in the exterior of hi s building the original
lines, proportions; and texture of the
building should be r espected. Removal of trim that conceals the ori~
inal form , cleaning and painting m
appropriate colors, and addition of
tasteful signs geared to the needs of
p edestrians c an bring back many
buildings to t heir o riginal l ustre .
When several merchants agree on a
cooperative effort an even greater
·
impact can be made.
a nd Character Zones
Over a two mile stretch, Danbury's
Maih Street contains a wide range
of settlement patterns. This varied
character is one of the street's most
significant assets. The nature of each
segment of the street should determine the type of uses that are encouraged in them in the future . Let us
stroll the length of Main Street and
observe the way in which the street
unfolds.
From the north we pass under I-84
and enter an area that was residential until very recently. This neighborhood was characterized by large
houses set far apart and well back
from the s treet behind generous
lawns. Traffic now is so heavy that
most residences have been converted
to shops or restaurants, or have been
torn down to make room for commercial s tructures t hat c ater to
patrons in automobiles rather than
to pedestrians. Yet the large oak
trees and grass strips between sidewalks and road still remain in some
places lending an air of graciousness
to the street. As commercial penetration continues adaption of existing
buildings r ather t han destruction
should be encouraged. Parking lots
and driveways should be made as un •
obtrusive as possible. New construction should r espect the setbacks
from the street, and the scale and
generous spacing of the older buildings.
Continuing our jouney southward
we notice that the residential atmosphere fades, signaling the approach
of down town. The section between
the railroad and Cros by S~reet has
given way in recent times to almost
exclusively commercial use. -There
are outsized blocks of new stores
fronting directly on the street mixed
with l arge c ommercial e stablishments like The News-Times building.
Only the maple trees serve as reminders of an earlier era.
'. ~h_e : !>~ n. •spa~e between Crosby
and White streets is the former bed-of the Still River, now confined to a
concrete culvert. This area serves as
a symbolic gateway to the downtown. Sadly the landscape consisting
of a vast parking lot on the east and
a forlorn park to the west does not
m ake a favorable impression. A
strong , m emorable g ateway with
features like a monument, an inviting park, or a handsome public building could give to downtown a postive
image. Elmwood P ark serves as a
much more suitable entryway a t the
south end of the street.
The heart of Main Street consists
of two rows of business blocks facing
each other across a wide street. On
t he e ast a re p redomina te ly r etail
stores with offices and much vacant
space on the upper floor s. Opposit ~
are most of the city's private and
public institutions. B;mk row, five
banks or former banks in the middle
of the block, makes an impressive
statement. The land and buildings
one block removed from Main on
both sides of the street are the keys
to future development.
Th~ intersection of West , Liberty
and Main is the fulcrum between the
north and south ends. Although City
Hall has moved to Deer Hill Avenue
another public building, the library,
serves as the anchor of this crucial
i nters ection . The t hree p rivately
owned buildings on the other corners
(H ull , Pershing, Benedict and Nicbols buildings) , have great his tori• ' cal and architectural merit. They
should be given hig)l priority for rehabilitation. Th e Soldiers Monument
should remain in this area.
Immediately south of this intersection we encounter a semi-commercial semi-public stretch whose beauty is enhanced by Elmwood Park.
The spire of St. P eter's Church and •
the dome of the Courthouse visible
for a long distance, encourages a
feeling of anticipation tha~ ! s <e-
warded when we glimpse the build ings themselves. The Courthouse and
the old jail, facing each other across
the park, mark the limits of the old
town. I t would be hard to fi nd two
more attractive public buildings in
Connecticut. State and city have an
opportunity through careful maintenance in one case, and sensitive restoration in the other, to make major
contributions to the beauty of the
downtown.
Our journey ends in an area that is
similar to the one in which it began,
a dignified residential area in the
process of commercial exploitation.
Supermarkets, gas stations, and a
mammoth office building that overpowers the neighborhood , infringe on
the oldest houses in Danbury. Su ch
continued cannibalism of South Ma in
should be Discouraged.
Our stroll down Main Street has
shown us t hat each part of the street
has i ts own unique a tmosphere .
Planning for the future must take
into account the hi storic patterns of
use in order to avoid homogenizing
the street into a banal sameness.
Concern for the aesthetic and c ultural needs of the community will limit
commercial encroachment in to portions of the center city that should
be earmarked for other purpose s. A
zoning policy that respects the hi storic configurations o r u ses and
building types is necessary.
ILLUSTU.TION By DAVID PREBENNA
This map show s the different sectors of Main Street as defined by use and building types .
From left (north) to right (south) they are , residential, strip commercial, downtown
bu siness, in s titutiona~ and -cultural,_and residential.
·
�16-A
T HE N EWS-TIMES, SUNDAY, MAY 11, 1980
Main Street Revitalization
Means Partnership
How can the ideas advanced in the
previous pages be translated into reality? The necessary ingredient is investment . All who a re c oncerned
with the welfare of the city must
make a substantial investment. The
citizens of Danbury must invest serious thought about the type of city
:md downtown they desire. Once this
vision is clarified they must make a
commitment of energy to bring it
about. We hope this supplement has
made a contribution to this decision
making process.
Some must be prepared to rriake a
financial investment. Merchants and
property owners must become members of the revitalization partnership
by "investing money in the restorat ion of their property. I f the experience of other communities where
buildings have gained in m arket
value because of their age and character, is a valid guide, it will be a
wise investment. Institutions, partie-
ularly banks, must demonstrate their
confidence by loaning funds for facade restoration and for more extensive renovation. In other places a
c onsortium of b anks h ave m ade
pools of money available a t lower interest rates for restoration projects.
Developers must be willing to work
within the guidelines of a master
plan. Such direction will guarantee
that downtown real estate will be
utilized to the maximum.
The public sector must make an
sevinvestment in the downtown
eral ways. The city can set the pace
by restoring such landmarks as the
jail and the old library. I t can facilitate private development of surplus
municipal property such· a s the lves
Street firehouse. Necessary incentives in the form of tax abatement
programs or grants can stimulate private activity. ·A prog'rani of s treetscape improvement and maintenance
can be undertaken by the city. Most
m
important, political · leadership can
make possible a comprehensive redevelopment plan.
The state of Connecticut can join
the partnership by bringing its buildings p lans f or f acilities l ike t he
courthouse into compatibility with
the goals of Main Street. I t can contribute needed funding to a rts and
cultural organizations which wish to
make use of rehabilitated downtown
buildings.
The f ederal g overnment h as already expressed willingness to make
an investment in Main Street. President Carter's Community Conservation Guidelines require that all federal agencies give top priority to
s trengthening o lder c ommercial
a reas in cities. At present federal
aid for urban revitalization comes
from the · Departments of Interior,
H ealth and U rban D evelopment,
Commerce and Transportation, in
addition to the National Endowments
for the Arts and Humanities. Another key incentive provided by
Congress is the Tax Act of 1976
which allows tax savings for those
who refurbish older buildings. Structures listed on the National Register
of Historic Places are eligible for
restoration and maintenance grants
as well as rapid depreciation on the
money invested in preservation. The
Danbury Preservation Trust has already taken the first steps toward
c reating a downtown h istoric district.
Revitalization on Main Street will
r equire t he cooperation of many
groups. Vigorous and imaginative political leadership is essential. A plan
that integrates both the private and
public s ector m ust be devised . A
mechanism that permits citizen participation in the setting of goals and
the monitoring of progres~ toward
those objectives is necessary. Expert
professional guidance must be obtained .
Redevelopment of Vacant Land Is Catalyst For Revitalizati on
r~
The contrast jn downtown Danbury between the
classic older buildings yearning for new uses and
the pockets of vacant land is striking. Voids in the
streeetscpe are unprofitable for the city and give
the downtown a desolate appearance confirming
people's worst suspicions about urban life.
Currently the largest expanse of vacant land is a
p arcel c leared by the Redevelopment Agency
some years ago between Patriot Drive and Delay
Street, and bordered by White and Liberty streets.
The buildings in this area were leveled to allow
for the channeling of the Still River and t he contru~t-io~ ot Drive, a portion of a proposed
Main Street by-pass. Currently used for parki ng,
the land is administered by the Redevelopment
Agency which plans to seek investors to purchase
and develop the land in such a way that much
needed downtown parking will be provided. The
Agency is aware that the development of this parcel must complement the existing appearance and
uses on Main Street.
In 1979 t he Redevelopment Agency c ommissioned a market analysis of this property to determine the best economic uses of the land. The
consultants, the Gladstone Associates of Washington , D.C. recommended that a combination of
mixed income housing, offices, and small retail
and specialty shops be encouraged. These uses ,
particularly the additional housing, are sound and
would enhance the vitality of downtown. Provision
for parking must be included in any scheme of
development in an unobtrusive way that does not
destroy the ambience of the downtown. Because
the shape of this expanse of land in the center of
DesignerI Art DirectorDavid Prebenna
The Past (Pages ~to 7)- Written by
Wi lli am Devlin
The Future (Pag es 10 to 16)- Writ te n by
Stephen Harby
Project CoordinatorsOr. Truman Warne r
D He rbert Janick
r.
Mic hel Mic helsen
Advisory Board-
Stephen Collins
Jerome Fo ster
Robert Lolstau
Peter Molinaro
Special thanks to the Da nbury ScoH- F
anton
Museum and Hi storical Soc letr for its assistance
and use of its arch iva collection
Copyright 1980 Danbury Preservat ion Trust
the city can have such a profound affect on the
character of the community it must be sensitively
developed in accord with the following principles:
1. The development must be an integral part of
the downtown, not a separate enclave in competition with it.
Z. Land use must respect traditional patterns of
growth in the downtown. Component parts of new
development should be emphasized. Massive scale
should be avoided. Variety in style of new buildings should be encouraged to create the sense of
small scale, and human proportion.
- ......
I'HOTO
.
The bounded area shows the land owned by the R
edevelopment Agency and available for development .
Mayor James E Dyer of Danbury is demonstratin g his com mitment to the preservation of the city's histo ric assets
.
by sponsoring a conference devoted to the to pic : "Main St reet Revitalization: Building on a Shared Heritage." The
conference , open to all citizens, will be held on Friday, May 16 at the Palace Theater. Registration fee is $5 .00 and
includes the cost of lunch. Advanced registration is required . Information may be obtained by calling City HaiL
The conference has three main goals . First to acquaint participants with the unique historical and architectural
assets of Main Street. Second, to show how oth er communities have devel oped their physical environment in a
manner that has promoted economic vit ality and enhanced the quality of life . Finally, the economic , social, and
cultural benefits of downtown revita liz ation ba sed on utilization of existing man-made resources will be explored .
An outstanding group of guest speakers hi gh lights the conference . In the morning session W yne Linker, the
a
Executive Director of the Connecticut Trust for Histo ric Prreseva \ion, will spea k on " Why Sa ve Main Street?"" His
comments , illustrated by slides of what co~munities all ove r t he co unt _y _are do i~g, will present the advantages of
r
adaptive re-use of ex1stmg buildmgs . He will be followed by Mayor William C llins of Norwalk who will descnbe,
o
and illustrate with slides, the way in which his city is attempting to pump new life into South Norwalk by utilizing
such strengths as a waterfront and a block of cast-iron front buildings. Audience questions will fol low the
prepared remarks. The luncheon speaker will be A. Tappan Wilder, Staff Director of Partners for Livable Places , a
Washington-based non-prof it corporation that is on the cutting edge of many novel environmental programs . He
will speak on tbe economic advantages of cultural planning .
The afternoon session features John Bullard, the Director of the Waterfront Historic District of New Bedford,
Massachusetts who will present a slide-lecture on "learning from New Bedford : A Public-Priv ate Partnership ." He
will concentrate on how to bring together the components in a revitalization project . William Devlin, of the
Danbury Preservation Trust will present a visual essay on " Danbury 's Main Street." The National Trust film " Main
Street " will also be shown .
�
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Danbury Preservation Trust Records, MS 039
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
summary: The Danbury Preservation Trust had its beginnings in 1978 during a faculty developed summer course entitled Living History, Reading the Connecticut Landscape, taught by Dr. Herbert F. Janick, Professor of History at Western Connecticut State College. After formal incorporation in January 1979, he became the Trust’s first president. The records of the Danbury Preservation Trust span the years 1978-1997. The collection includes surveys to identify structures that might be included on the National Register. The bulk of this collection consists of Architectural and Historic Resources Inventories that were conducted by the Trust between 1979 and 1986. The majority of the surveys contain a small black and white photograph of the structure.
Has Version
A related resource that is a version, edition, or adaptation of the described resource.
<a href="https://archives.library.wcsu.edu/findingaids/ctdbn_ms039_dpt.xml">Link to finding aid.</a>
IIIF Collection Metadata
UUID
cbbc59b4-ab23-48c2-8fed-30100c2e4b06
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Future of the Past
Subject
The topic of the resource
Danbury (Conn.)--History
Description
An account of the resource
12 x 15" news print, 16 pages
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
A special supplement to the Danbury News-Times regarding architecture and historic buildings in Danbury.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Devlin, William
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
News-Times
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1980-05-11
Has Version
A related resource that is a version, edition, or adaptation of the described resource.
<iframe src="http://archives.library.wcsu.edu/relatedObjects/MS039/futureOfThePast/#page/1/mode/2up" frameborder="0" width="560" height="315"></iframe>
<div><a href="http://archives.library.wcsu.edu/relatedObjects/MS039/futureOfThePast/#page/1/mode/2up" target="_blank">Link to page turner version</a></div>
IIIF Item Metadata
UUID
b54d6bb7-3c48-4f3d-b060-56ee68a1aa57
Architecture
Danbury
Danbury News-Times
-
https://archives.library.wcsu.edu/omeka/files/original/Warner_Postcards/2742/MS026_44_postcards_014.jpg
9d5f1e3db8a8789734677fe77e83682d
https://archives.library.wcsu.edu/omeka/files/original/Warner_Postcards/2742/MS026_44_postcards_014_back.jpg
8ba77ae562ae7c141b9318511b5aaaff
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Warner Postcards
Relation
A related resource
<a href="http://archives.library.wcsu.edu/findingaids/warner.xml#subseries36_1" target="_blank">Link to finding aid</a>
IIIF Collection Metadata
UUID
81acf2b0-9036-43e9-861c-a159afe97371
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Wooster Square, Danbury News Building
Subject
The topic of the resource
Postcards
Description
An account of the resource
3.5" x 5.5"
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
View of Wooster Square in Danbury, CT
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1915
IIIF Item Metadata
UUID
6e31e25e-795e-4ef0-951e-36f9258e707a
Danbury
Danbury News-Times
Danbury postcards
Main Street - Danbury
Postcards
Walking Tour
Wooster Square