The Main Street Historic District in
Danbury
Danbury is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, located approximately northeast of New York City. Danbury's population as of 2022 was 87,642. It is the seventh largest city in Connecticut.
Danbury is nicknamed the "Hat City ...
, Connecticut, United States, is the oldest section of that city, at its geographical center. It has long been the city's commercial core and downtown. Its 132 buildings, 97 of which are considered
contributing properties
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distri ...
, include government buildings, churches, commercial establishments and residences, all in a variety of
architectural style
An architectural style is a set of characteristics and features that make a building or other structure notable or historically identifiable. It is a sub-class of style in the visual arts generally, and most styles in architecture relate closely ...
s from the late 18th century to the early 20th. It is the only major industrial downtown of its size in Connecticut not to have developed around either port facilities or a water power site.
It was called Town Street when Danbury was first settled in the late 17th century. For over a century afterwards the "long, straggling street" was synonymous with Danbury, to the point that farmers in the area referred to it as Danbury Street. The
Revolutionary War in that area of Connecticut began in the future district, where a marker indicates the first shot fired at the British.
As the city began growing toward the mid-19th century, its development was shaped by the arrival of the railroads, which helped the city's hatmakers dominate their industry.
In the mid-20th century the area began to decline. Hats became less popular after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, causing the hat factories to close. The floods of 1955 took a toll, with some businesses choosing not to rebuild. Other businesses left later for a new
shopping mall
A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...
elsewhere in the city. Main Street was largely spared the demolition that accompanied
urban renewal
Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...
elsewhere in the country, and it was recognized as the city's only
historic district and listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
in 1983. Its
contributing properties
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distri ...
, ranging from the 1780s to the 1930s, reflects a diversity of uses and
styles with a heavy concentration of the
Italianate
The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian ...
commercial architecture of the late 19th century.
Today, downtown Danbury is once again thriving due to a variety of factors. Businesses formed a special taxing district to raise money for infrastructure maintenance and improvement, and the city used state grants to build popular attractions near downtown like a
rail museum and
ice arena. Danbury's population has also increased in the late 20th century as it became a popular
exurb
An exurb (or alternately: exurban area) is an area outside the typically denser inner suburban area, at the edge of a metropolitan area, which has some economic and commuting connection to the metro area, low housing density, and growth. It sh ...
an enclave for
New York metropolitan area
The New York metropolitan area, also commonly referred to as the Tri-State area, is the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass, at , and one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. The vast metropolitan area ...
commuters, and Latin American
immigrants
Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, a ...
have settled in and established businesses along Main Street despite tensions with the city's mayor.
Geography
The district follows a three-quarter–mile () section of Main Street (
state highway CT 53) from 34 and 43 Main (the
John Rider House, now the city's historical museum) at the south end to White Street at the north. At both ends there are distinct changes—a shift to more modern construction at the south end and the
flood control
Flood control methods are used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters."Flood Control", MSN Encarta, 2008 (see below: Further reading). Flood relief methods are used to reduce the effects of flood waters or high water level ...
measures along the
Still River at the north—that distinguish the district from adjacent areas. Portions of nine side streets are included, varying from most of the adjacent blocks of Elm, Keeler, West and White streets and Library Place to single properties on Boughton Street and Post Office Place. The entire Wooster Street Cemetery is within the district as well. At the northeast corner, Ives Street is also included to Delay Place and Railroad Street. The geographic center of Danbury is close to 238 Main Street. The terrain slopes slightly from south to north along the Still's
flood plain, but appears level.
To the north Main Street continues to be predominantly commercial, all the way to
Interstate 84 (also, at that point,
US 6
U.S. Route 6 (US 6), also called the Grand Army of the Republic Highway, honoring the American Civil War veterans association, is a main route of the U.S. Highway system. While it currently runs east-northeast from Bishop, California, to ...
/
7/
202
Year 202 ( CCII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Severus and Antoninus (or, less frequently, year 955 '' Ab urbe condi ...
) a mile (1.6 km) north. Large-scale residential development mixes with the commercial development south of the district, to where Route 53 leaves to follow South Street towards
Bethel. East downtown continues a few blocks to the railroad tracks and the
train station
A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing s ...
), with a small residential neighborhood intervening between downtown and
Western Connecticut State University
Western Connecticut State University (WCSU and WestConn) is a public university in Danbury, Connecticut. It was founded in 1903 as a teacher's college and is part of the Connecticut State University System.
WCSU consists of four schools: the An ...
. Residential neighborhoods are to the west.
The district is a heavily developed urban core with mostly commercial buildings, predominantly two-story structures fronting on Main Street, some
mixed use
Mixed-use is a kind of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning type that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions are to som ...
with apartments on the upper stories. Among them are some government buildings such as the post office and courthouse and churches such as St. Peter's, whose spire dominates the city's skyline. Single- and multiple-unit residential properties are generally on the side streets. In addition to the parking lots, there is some
open space, most significantly Elmwood Park, in the center of from roughly north of Park Place to south of Center Street. From there to the district's north end it continues as a narrow planted median strip.
![John Rider House](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/John_Rider_House.jpg)
Within the district's area are 132 properties, 97 of which are
contributing to the district's historic character. One, the
John Rider House, currently used as a local historical museum, is also listed on the Register individually. The
architectural style
An architectural style is a set of characteristics and features that make a building or other structure notable or historically identifiable. It is a sub-class of style in the visual arts generally, and most styles in architecture relate closely ...
s represented run from the
Georgian
Georgian may refer to:
Common meanings
* Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country)
** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group
** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians
**Georgian scripts, three scrip ...
houses contemporary with the Riders near the south end of the district, its oldest area, to
Colonial Revival
The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture.
The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the archit ...
and
Modernist
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
buildings near its north end, reflecting the business district's expansion in that direction over the course of that time. There are also several historical monuments considered contributing.
History
For the first century and a half of its existence, Danbury and Main Street were one and the same. The arrival of the railroads in the mid-19th century and the growth of the city's hatmaking industry began to expand it beyond Main's immediate neighborhood, and by the end of the century what had been a small village was a city with Main Street as its civic and commercial core.
Another mode of transportation, the automobile, began having an adverse effect on Main Street in the 20th century, routing traffic away from it and making outlying areas more commercially viable and accessible. Revitalization measures by the city have offset this effect somewhat, as has the area's attractiveness to immigrants from Latin America.
1684–1800: Settlement
Danbury began with Main Street. The first eight families who moved up from
Norwalk to start an agricultural community on the frontier in 1684 called it Town Street. Their success led to the subsequent establishment of smaller communities like
New Milford,
Newtown and
Ridgefield on the periphery of the new community. Danbury's location at the junction of the main north–south route up the
Housatonic valley and the east–west route coming into Connecticut from New York's
Hudson Valley
The Hudson Valley (also known as the Hudson River Valley) comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in the U.S. state of New York. The region stretches from the Capital District including Albany and Troy south to ...
to the west helped it prosper further. For these early settlers, the center of community life was the
Congregationalist church they built on what is now the site of the Wooster Street cemetery.
Most of the early buildings were destroyed in a British raid during 1777. During the
Revolutionary War Danbury was a supply depot for the
Continental Army due to its location. An army hospital was also established, and local artificers manufactured nails, wagons, shoes and harnesses for military use.
Shortly after
independence
Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...
, in 1784, Danbury was designated a half-shire town, essentially sharing
county seat
A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...
functions with
Fairfield. The Congregationalist church that had been the village's first center moved north a few blocks to the West Street corner in 1785, spurring some development there as it remained the center of community life. In 1792, the first courthouse and jail were built on the sites occupied by the modern buildings today.
1801–1851: Early industrialization
Postwar rebuilding led to the establishment of the industries that made Danbury prosperous for over a century. Hatmaking had existed there even before the Revolution, but in the decades afterwards the village led the country in the field. By 1800 its hatters were producing 20,000 annually. They established retail outlets in the
Southern states, and were followed by local makers of boots, shoes, saddles and horn combs. Some buildings from this period remain, such as the 1790 John Dodd shop now on the Rider House museum property, the oldest extant commercial building in the city.
In 1801 the land that is now Elmwood Park was donated to the village for use as a
town common
Common land is land owned by a person or collectively by a number of persons, over which other persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect wood, or to cut turf for fuel.
A person who has a ...
. It would be used as a drilling area for the local
militia
A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...
and the early fairs of the
Fairfield County Fairfield County is the name of three counties in the United States:
* Fairfield County, Connecticut
* Fairfield County, Ohio
Fairfield County is a county located in the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 158,921. ...
Agricultural Society, which later became
Danbury Fair. Today's side streets had existed since the late 18th century, but Danbury during this period was still seen by outsiders as "...built principally upon one street, which for more than a mile exhibits an almost continued range of buildings, consisting of dwelling houses, mercantile stores, hat factories, mechanic shops and churches." Farmers who came into town referred to it as Danbury Street.
In 1822, the state granted
borough
A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely.
History
In the Middle A ...
status to Main Street and the area around it. That allowed it to form fire companies and develop a
water supply system
A water supply network or water supply system is a system of engineered hydrologic and hydraulic components that provide water supply. A water supply system typically includes the following:
# A drainage basin (see water purification – sourc ...
. Growth continued, and a branch of the Fairfield County Bank was opened in 1826. Two years later a new jail was built on the same site as the current former jail building. In 1829 the last parcel belonging to the Congregational church, a large lot on the west side of the common, was sold and
subdivided to pay a departing minister. Large double houses, such as 101–103 and 105–107 Main, were built on the land in the following decade. A
Universalist church was built on the common in 1833. The Fry & Gregory saddle factory, built in 1836 at 68 Main Street, is one of the extant buildings exemplifying commercial activity during this period.
The first local bank, the Savings Bank of Danbury, was established by local businessmen in the home of treasurer George Ives, grandfather of composer
Charles Ives, on Main Street. Soon after, downtown would reach its modern extent in 1852 with the coming of the
Danbury and Norwalk Railroad. The landowners of northern Main Street, also stockholders in the railroad, had its passenger depot built at the present location of the post office, helping to increase the value of their land and businesses. A promised secondary depot at the common was never built, and the northern Main Street landowners also defeated a proposal to expand the common into a "central park". The landowners and businessmen of southern Main Street spent their own money to remake the common into Elmwood Park, planting it with elm trees and a hay crop.
1851–1945: Industrial peak
The railroads brought significant change to downtown. During the 1850s the first multi-story brick commercial blocks were erected downtown, starting with Phineas Crosby's Block at 225–229 Main Street. In 1852 it was followed by the Benedict and Nichols Building at 191–193 Main. Its cofounder David Nichols had already built the borough's first grocery 1838, and later served as a
state legislator
A state legislature is a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system.
Two federations literally use the term "state legislature":
* The legislative branches of each of the fifty state governments of the United S ...
and
state treasurer. Large steam-powered hat factories were built, bringing new workers to Danbury. In addition to internal migrants from the rural towns in the area, they were
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
,
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
and
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
immigrants
Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, a ...
. The combined town and borough population nearly doubled between
1850
Events
January–June
* April
** Pope Pius IX returns from exile to Rome.
** Stephen Foster's parlor ballad "Ah! May the Red Rose Live Alway" is published in the United States.
* April 4 – Los Angeles is incorporated as a city ...
and
1860
Events
January–March
* January 2 – The discovery of a hypothetical planet Vulcan is announced at a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences in Paris, France.
* January 10 – The Pemberton Mill in Lawrence, Massachusett ...
, even though Bethel became a separate town during that time. In 1851 the Irish immigrants bought the Universalist Church on the common for their growing St. Peter's church;
moving to a newer structure when it was
consecrated in 1876.
As a result, Main Street became more commercial. The hatters were skilled workers who could afford to buy or even build their own homes rather than live in crowded
tenement
A tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access. They are common on the British Isles, particularly in Scotland. In the medieval Old Town, i ...
s, and found the side streets to the west ideal for this purpose. To the east of Main commercial development continued, with the hat factories concentrated in the north, near the river.
Wooster Square
Wooster Square is a neighborhood in the city of New Haven, Connecticut to the east of downtown. The name refers to a park square (named for the American Revolutionary War hero, David Wooster) located between Greene Street, Wooster Place, Chapel S ...
, the intersection of Main, Elm and White, became a focal point of northern downtown due to the train station's presence. Lumberyards and frame stores opened along White. In 1856 Isaac Ives, Charles's uncle, opened the street that bears the family name.
![1875 Danbury picture map](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/1875_Danbury_picture_map.jpg)
After the
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
, another new bank, Union Savings, was founded by hatmakers and merchants. In the 1870s more new public buildings were erected. In 1873, the current jail building replaced the one built in 1828, by then inadequate, and a High Victorian Gothic library was donated to the borough five years later by Alexander White, one of the leading hat industry executives. That same year, the new ''Danbury News'' building went up at 288 Main Street, home to editor
James Montgomery Bailey
James Montgomery Bailey (September 25, 1841 – March 4, 1894) was an American journalist who won an ephemeral popularity as the "''Danbury News'' Man."
Biography
He was born at Albany, New York, and after receiving a common school education, le ...
, whose humorous pieces as "The Danbury News Man" brought him national renown. A Soldier's Monument commemorating the local war dead was built at Main and West in 1880. Three years later the city built a new firehouse on Ives Street, and a new City Hall at Main and West where the library now stands.
The Main and West intersection, now called City Hall Square, became the new center of the district, finally displacing the old Congregational church site to the south. The private sector responded with architectural statements of their own. New commercial blocks began to reach three and four stories, and in 1887 the Union Savings Bank moved into its current building at 226–228 Main Street. Commercial development pushed eastward, leading Isaac Ives to open Keeler Street for development that same year.
The 1880s culminated with the borough of Danbury becoming a city, and the merger of the three railroads that had served the city (the
Housatonic and
New York and New England, in addition to the Danbury and Norwalk) becoming part of the
New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad
The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad , commonly known as The Consolidated, or simply as the New Haven, was a railroad that operated in the New England region of the United States from 1872 to December 31, 1968. Founded by the merger of ...
, referred to locally as the Consolidated due to this absorption. These changes had a profound effect on the community. Main Street was paved with
granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...
blocks between Elmwood Park and White Street.
Flagstone
Flagstone (flag) is a generic flat stone, sometimes cut in regular rectangular or square shape and usually used for paving slabs or walkways, patios, flooring, fences and roofing. It may be used for memorials, headstones, facades and other co ...
sidewalks, sewers, electric
arc lights and a horse railway were installed.
At the end of the 1890s Danbury's 35 hat factories led the nation in production, employing 5,000 directly and indirectly. A
neon sign
In the signage industry, neon signs are electric signs lighted by long luminous gas-discharge tubes that contain rarefied neon or other gases. They are the most common use for neon lighting, which was first demonstrated in a modern form in D ...
with a
derby hat
The bowler hat, also known as a billycock, bob hat, bombín (Spanish) or derby (United States), is a hard felt hat with a rounded crown, originally created by the London hat-makers Thomas and William Bowler in 1849. It has traditionally been worn ...
on a crown and the legend "Danbury Crowns Them All" greeted arrivals at the new train station (now the
Danbury Railway Museum
The Danbury Railway Museum RailincSearch MARKs accessed September 2009 is a railway museum housed in the former Union Station on the east end of downtown Danbury, Connecticut, United States. It was established in the mid-1990s following the clos ...
) just east of downtown. The city overcame opposition from
Bridgeport
Bridgeport is the most populous city and a major port in the U.S. state of Connecticut. With a population of 148,654 in 2020, it is also the fifth-most populous in New England. Located in eastern Fairfield County at the mouth of the Pequonnoc ...
and persuaded the county legislature to appropriate funds for the current courthouse. Downtown also became an educational center for the region, as
Danbury High School
Danbury High School is a public high school in Danbury, Connecticut, with approximately 3000 students. It is part of the Danbury Public Schools district. Despite Danbury's population of 86,518 (as of 2020), there is only one public high school, ...
was housed on the third floor of the Union Savings Bank building, joining St. Peter's School at 98 Main Street, the first
parochial school in Danbury when it was built in 1885.
![PostcardMainStFromWhiteStDanburyCT1907](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/PostcardMainStFromWhiteStDanburyCT1907.jpg)
As the 20th century began the city was at its industrial peak. Newly designated U.S. highways
6,
7 and
202
Year 202 ( CCII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Severus and Antoninus (or, less frequently, year 955 '' Ab urbe condi ...
followed Main, West and White streets through downtown, bringing in automobile traffic. Main Street became a local
retailing center, with
Woolworth's,
McCrory and
Sears
Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...
opening
department store
A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...
s in the new century's early decades, drawing customers from the smaller nearby towns in Connecticut and the adjacent towns across the New York state line in
Dutchess and
Putnam counties. Car traffic also led to the establishment of
dealerships
A car dealership, or car dealer, is a business that sells new or used cars, at the retail level, based on a dealership contract with an automaker or its sales subsidiary. Car dealerships also often sell spare parts and automotive mainten ...
on Main Street, primarily in the areas south of Elmwood Park. The demolition of older buildings to make way for them shaped the future historic district.
1946–1995: Decline
Danbury's fortunes changed after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. Americans, particularly men, began wearing hats less frequently, forcing cutbacks or closings at the hat factories. In 1955, the flooding of the Still that followed hurricanes
Connie
Connie is a given name. It is often a pet form (hypocorism) of Concetta, Constance, Cornelia, or Cornelius.
Given name or nickname
Women
* Connie Achurra, Chilean chef
* Connie Binsfeld (1924–2014), American politician
* Connie Booth ...
,
Diane and
Ione badly damaged many businesses, particularly in the Wooster Square and White Street areas. In their wake some of the first
preservation efforts began. The Dodd Shop was saved from demolition by a move to its current location in 1958, and the Blackman House at 59 Main Street was
converted into office space.
The next year, 1959, the city and town of Danbury were merged as the state eliminated most county government functions. Downtown merchants who had been affected by the flood reacted by moving to newer and larger space on routes 6,7,
37 and 202 outside of the city center. The empty, damaged space they left behind on the north and northwest of downtown was addressed by
urban renewal
Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...
programs of the late 1960s and early 1970s, which demolished whole blocks, partly to accommodate the rechanneling of the Still for
flood control
Flood control methods are used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters."Flood Control", MSN Encarta, 2008 (see below: Further reading). Flood relief methods are used to reduce the effects of flood waters or high water level ...
.
In the 1970s the completion of
Interstate 84 dealt Main Street another setback. All three of Danbury's U.S. highways were
rerouted onto the expressway as well and away from downtown. In combination with the expressway bypasses built for US 7 both north and south of the city, this made the outlying properties businesses had been moving to more accessible and competitive with downtown locations. Remaining business owners responded by renovating and
restoring their own properties, and the scope of preservation efforts began to expand from the old houses on the south end.
The Danbury Preservation Trust, which had been formed in the late 1950s, received a state grant in 1979 to survey and inventory the historic buildings on Main and the nearby side streets. Eventually the effort looked at 300 buildings before settling on the area that would become today's
historic district. It was designated and added to the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
in 1983, after an intensive survey of the area by the Danbury Preservation Trust as part of an effort by the Connecticut Historical Commission to catalog the state's historic resources for inclusion on the Register.
The city has special zoning regulations to maintain its historic character.
[. Retrieved March 19, 2008.]
During the 1980s downtown faced its greatest challenge. In 1981, after the last
Danbury Fair was held,
Wilmorite Properties
Wilmorite Properties, Inc is a commercial real estate company based in Chili, New York, a suburb of Rochester, New York.
A subsidiary of the company owes significant back taxes and fees to the City of Rochester resulting from a loan and tax a ...
of
Rochester, New York
Rochester () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located in W ...
, bought the fairground and began developing it into
a shopping mall. When it opened in 1986, its location near the junction of I-84 and the southern US 7 freeway made it attractive and convenient for shoppers in the region. Main Street's merchants formed a special taxing district,
CityCenter Danbury, downtown. For a while both they and the mall remained prosperous, although they knew Main Street would never be the center of local retailing again. But when the economy fell into
recession in the early 1990s, they feared shoppers would return to the mall and not Main Street. The 1991 closure of
Steinbach's, the last department store on Main Street, seemed to affirm this fear.
With state grants, the city built a
parking garage on some of the land marked for redevelopment after the flood, in order to free up other scattered parking space. It was the start of a planned complex that would include a movie theater, retail space and condominiums, all meant to attract
middle class
The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Com ...
residents to the city. The city also hired a consultant to look at plans to cluster similar retailers so downtown could match the mall in offering that to shoppers as well.
1996–present: Revitalization
By the middle of the decade these efforts had succeeded, helped in part by Danbury's transformation from industrial town to distant
exurb
An exurb (or alternately: exurban area) is an area outside the typically denser inner suburban area, at the edge of a metropolitan area, which has some economic and commuting connection to the metro area, low housing density, and growth. It sh ...
of New York City, with corporations such as Cartus and
Duracell building major facilities in the area and new housing going up in the areas on the city's periphery as commuters sought less expensive housing still within commuting distance of Manhattan. In 1996 Danbury's industrial space was 93% occupied, and office space vacancy rates were under 15%. Ives Street was reinvented as a Dining and Entertainment District, with the vacant buildings converted into restaurants and nightclubs. "We feel that the downtown is coming back strong", said one local bank president. The community rallied after
arson severely damaged the library in 1996.
Voters passed a bond issue to fund improvements and expansions to city hall and rebuild the library. The
Danbury Ice Arena
The Danbury Ice Arena is a multi-purpose arena in Danbury, Connecticut, that can seat about 3,000. It was built in 1999 with renovation and expansion in 2004.
The Danbury Arena was the home of the Danbury Trashers of the United Hockey League f ...
, later home to several minor league ice hockey teams, most recently the
Danbury Whalers, was also built near Main Street in 1999. It offered a visitor attraction to complement the former train station which had become the
Danbury Railway Museum
The Danbury Railway Museum RailincSearch MARKs accessed September 2009 is a railway museum housed in the former Union Station on the east end of downtown Danbury, Connecticut, United States. It was established in the mid-1990s following the clos ...
.
As they had in the mid-19th century, immigrants helped revitalize downtown in the early 21st century. This time they were from
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
, primarily
Ecuador
Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ' ...
and Brazil, working as
day labor
Day labor (or day labour in Commonwealth spelling) is work done where the worker is hired and paid one day at a time, with no promise that more work will be available in the future. It is a form of contingent work.
Types
Day laborers (also ...
at construction sites all over Fairfield County. Not all of them were
in the U.S. legally, and this created tensions between their community and Mayor Mark Boughton, who unsuccessfully asked
Governor
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
Jodi Rell
Mary Carolyn "Jodi" Rell (née Reavis; born June 16, 1946) is an American former Republican politician and the 87th governor of Connecticut from 2004 until 2011. Rell also served as the state's 105th lieutenant governor of Connecticut.
Rell was C ...
to have city police deputized as
Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that administers the country's naturalization and immigration system. It is a successor to the Immigration and Naturalizati ...
(BCIS) agents so they could legally enforce
federal immigration laws. The immigrant community was in turn angered by police efforts to close down their
volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...
games and
sting operations that turned some of them over to the BCIS. In 2005 they staged a mile-long march down Main Street in protest.
Significant contributing properties
Some of the district's properties are architecturally or historically noteworthy in themselves. One, the
John Rider House, was listed on the National Register prior to the district's creation. Another, the former jailhouse, was determined eligible for listing.
*American Legion Hall, 32–52 Elm Street. The open expanses of brick wall surface with round-arched windows on this 1927 building typify the work of local architect Philip Sunderland.
*Benedict & Nichols Building, 191-193 Main Street. When built in 1852 this transitional
Greek Revival
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...
-
Italianate
The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian ...
commercial structure was the first three-story block in Danbury.
*Chiarella Block, 272 Main Street. This 1914–15
mixed-use
Mixed-use is a kind of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning type that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions are to som ...
structure is one of the earliest in the district to show signs of the
Colonial Revival
The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture.
The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the archit ...
style.
*Commercial Building at 131 Main Street. Built in 1931, it is the youngest contributing property in the district. Its
modernist
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
design has some
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
elements.
*Commercial Building at 141 Main Street. The dedication plaque of this 1907 late
Italianate
The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian ...
building is inscribed in both English and
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
.
*Commercial Building at 279–283 Main Street. First built as a Greek Revival commercial structure in 1853, later sales to different owners led to portions of the facade being redone in
Tudor and modernist styles.
*Crofut Block, 253–255 Main Street. This brick 1876 building with wooden
pediment
Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape.
Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds.
A pedim ...
ed window hoods, corner
quoins and pressed tin ceiling in the store interior at 255 is an excellent example of the high commercial application of the Italianate style.
*''Danbury News'' Building, 288 Main Street. This 1873 building had a distinctive
Queen Anne tower added in 1893.
*Old Danbury Library, 254 Main Street. Donated to the city in 1878 by fur-processing executive Alexander Moss White, its brick
facade with
polychromatic
Polychrome is the "practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors." The term is used to refer to certain styles of architecture, pottery or sculpture in multiple colors.
Ancient Egypt
Colossal statu ...
sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...
trim and slate-shingled gable roof make it the only High Victorian Gothic building extant in the Danbury area.
*John Dodd Shop, 43 Main Street, rear. Moved from its original site to preserve it, this small 1790 frame building is the oldest commercial building in the district.
*Elmwood Park, in center of Main Street between South and Wooster streets. Originally donated to town as a
common, it was the last home of the Congregationalist church that was the focal point of the early village of Danbury. Later used for growing hay and turned into a public park.
*Fairfield County Courthouse, 71 Main Street. An 1899
Beaux Arts structure designed by
Warren Briggs Warren Briggs may refer to:
* Warren R. Briggs, American architect
* Warren M. Briggs, member of the Florida House of Representatives
{{hndis, Briggs, Warren ...
that now serves as
juvenile court.
*Hornig Block, 10–16 Elm Street. This 1882 Italianate commercial building is the only one in the district with pressed-metal siding.
*Houses at 101–103 and 105–107 Main Street. Two double houses, Greek Revival and
Federal in style respectively, that reflect Danbury's early industrial growth in the 1830s.
*Humane Hose Co. No. 1 Firehouse, 6 Boughton Street. The only property on Boughton is a 1911
stucco Italianate firehouse still in public use as a police garage.
*Old Fairfield County Jail, 80 Main Street. An 1872
Second Empire Second Empire may refer to:
* Second British Empire, used by some historians to describe the British Empire after 1783
* Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396)
* Second French Empire (1852–1870)
** Second Empire architecture, an architectural styl ...
building used for its original purpose until 1969. Today it has been converted mostly to senior housing, with part of the ground floor set aside as a small museum. It was determined eligible for the National Register in 1980 but has not been formally listed.
*Old Fire Station, 5-7 Ives Street. When this slate-roofed brick building went up in 1883 it was one of Danbury's first major public buildings. After being taken out of service in 1969, it has been converted into apartments.
*Old Post Office, 258 Main Street. Built in 1876, this Italianate brick building has
corbeled window hoods. Its original
cornice is missing.
*Old Saddle Factory, 68 Main Street. An 1836
wood frame building later used as housing and today as office space.
*Old Southern New England Telephone Company Building, 31 West Street. This 1908 brick building has some Dutch Colonial Revival touches, most significantly its prominent
stepped-gabled roof.
*
John Rider House, 43 Main Street. This 1785 wooden house is the oldest property in the district. It is currently home to the Danbury Historical Society and Museum, and the only property in the district individually listed on the National Register.
*Seifert Armory, 5–15 Library Place. This five-story 1891 brick building with brownstone lintels and iron cornice has been remodeled into apartments.
*St. James Episcopal Church, 25 West Street. A granite
Gothic Revival church completed in 1872, making it the oldest extant church building in the district. The parish hall and rectory were added in 1929.
*
St. Peter's Catholic Church, 119 Main Street. The spire of this 1870s building dominates the Danbury skyline. It was the first Catholic church established in northern Fairfield County, later the centerpiece of a small complex of associated buildings.
*St. Peter's Convent, 88 Main Street. An 1895
Renaissance Revival
Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...
three-story brick building with copper
hipped roof
A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...
.
![David Woosters Monument](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/David_Woosters_Monument.JPG)
*St. Peter's Rectory, 104 Main Street. A three-story 1891
Richardsonian Romanesque brick building with two projecting octagonal towers.
*St. Peter's School, 98 Main Street. An 1895 Italianate flat-roofed brick building with
bell tower. A rear extension was added in 1909.
*Sears Building, 129 Main Street. Built by the retailer in 1929, it was one of the first
modernist
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
buildings in the district.
*Thomas Settle Building, 248 Main Street. Warren Briggs designed this Richardsonian Romanesque 1887 commercial structure of
rusticated brownstone for the Danbury National Bank. Its original roof and
gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...
s were removed after a 1973 fire.
*Soldiers' Monument, Main and West streets. This granite statue of a
Union Army
During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union of the collective states. It proved essential to th ...
soldier atop a column with the names of
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
battles engraved in it was erected in 1878 to memorialize local war dead.
*Union Savings Bank, 226–228 Main Street. A
Louis Sullivan
Louis Henry Sullivan (September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924) was an American architect, and has been called a "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism". He was an influential architect of the Chicago School, a mentor to Frank Lloy ...
-inspired building in brick with
terra cotta
Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous.
In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...
that was considered one of the city's most distinctive upon its 1887 completion.
*U.S. Post Office, 265 Main Street. Oscar Wenderoth designed this two-story brick
Georgian Revival
Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover— George I, George II, Ge ...
building with a
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorphose ...
and
stained oak interior.
*Wooster Cemetery, Wooster Street behind old jail building. Danbury's oldest cemetery, with some graves dating to ca. 1700.
*Wooster Square This section of the city is named after General
David Wooster
David Wooster ( – May 2, 1777) was an American general who served in the French and Indian War and in the American Revolutionary War. He died of wounds sustained during the Battle of Ridgefield, Connecticut. Several cities, schools, and public ...
, who was killed defending Danbury against the British attack of 1777. It saw an initial increase in significance in the 1880s, due to its close proximity to the developing railroads and booming hatting industry. Unfortunately, many decades later, the flood of October 1955 caused severe damage to this area, leading to the loss of several notable buildings.
The
Danbury and Bethel Street Railway
The Danbury and Bethel Street Railway was a streetcar transit operator serving the greater Danbury, Connecticut, area, originally chartered in 1886. It was one of the few trolley companies to remain independent of the Connecticut Company consolida ...
, an electric trolley service, operated between Wooster Square and Greenwood Avenue (
Bethel) from 1887 until 1926.
File:WoosterSquare postcard.jpg, Danbury News Building in Wooster Square, from a 1915 postcard
File:WoosterSquare c.1890s.jpg, Wooster Square in patriotic decorations (1890s)
File:WoosterSquare 1910.jpg, Looking south to Main Street, Danbury (1910)
See also
*
References
External links
Main Street Danbury blog with photos and information on many buildings in district.
{{National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut
Buildings and structures in Danbury, Connecticut
Historic districts in Fairfield County, Connecticut
National Register of Historic Places in Fairfield County, Connecticut
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut