Building Waterbury: The Art Of Architecture

WATERBURY — “Building Waterbury: The Art of Architecture” is on exhibit at the Mattatuck Museum through May 22. The exhibit tells the story of how Waterbury was built through blueprints, drawings, photographs and renderings from some of the most prominent architects in the state and country.

The exhibit concentrates on the Waterbury green, its commercial buildings and the Grand Street municipal center during the city’s industrial flowering at the turn of the 20th Century.

The exhibit traces the story of Waterbury from its first days as a colonial settlement, when the green was the town center in 1676. It was the site of private homes and the town’s meeting house. By the end of the 19th Century, the green had become an extension of the Bank Street commercial center. During that period, churches, which were landmarks on the green, were built and rebuilt at various eras.

The history of these churches, along with information about St John’s Episcopal (designed by New York architect Henry Dudley, with Tiffany windows), the Romanesque Revival church of the Second Congregational Parish and Immaculate Conception Church, designed by Maginnis & Walsh of Boston, in an Italian Renaissance Revival style, are included, along with other Waterbury churches built near the green.

Perhaps one of the most significant periods in Waterbury’s architectural history came at the height of the brass industry when companies like Scovill Manufacturing quadrupled their work force between 1915 and 1917.

Housing developments included Brookdale Park, or White City, along the Mad River, Scovill Manor, two-story brick row houses and the construction of a number of Sears, Roebuck ready-cut houses.

Union Station was designed by the firm of McKim, Mead and White, with a tower based on the early 14th Century Torre del Mangia in Siena, Italy. Buckingham Building, on the corner of Bank and Grand Streets, was commissioned by J.H. Whittemore and given to Waterbury Hospital to provide a steady source of revenue for the hospital. It was also designed by McKim, Mead and White architects William Kendall and Teunis Van der Brent.

Cass Gilbert, famous for his New York City Woolworth Building, was selected to design Waterbury’s City Hall following a national competition. As more prominent buildings appeared between the green, Meadow, Bank and Grand streets, Library Park was envisioned as a way to complete the setting and welcome visitors to the city. The Olmstead brothers, in consultation with Cass Gilbert, worked to make this space impressive, but inviting and in their words, “one of the most attractive parks in the country.”

The Mattatuck Museum is at 144 West Main Street. For more information, visit www.MattatuckMuseum.org or call 203-753-0381.