The former Union and New Haven Trust Building, located at 205 Church Street in

New Haven New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

, was the tallest building in New Haven when it was constructed in 1927. This

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 ...

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 archi ...

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...

was designed by architects

Cross and Cross Cross & Cross (1907–1942) was a New York City-based architectural firm founded by brothers John Walter Cross and Eliot Cross. History Cross & Cross was known as Old New York City Society's architectural firm of choice. John Cross (1878–1951) s ...

. The building, sited on the northeast corner of the historic

New Haven Green The New Haven Green is a privately owned park and recreation area located in the downtown district of the city of New Haven, Connecticut. It comprises the central square of the nine-square settlement plan of the original Puritan colonists in New ...

, changed hands several times over the years. In 2014 it was converted into residences and renamed The Union.

History

Situated on the corner of Elm and Church streets, the site was the home of Richard Perry in the 1640s, who served as secretary to the General Court of the Colony of New Haven. The building was constructed for the Union and New Haven Trust Co. during the

Roaring Twenties The Roaring Twenties, sometimes stylized as Roaring '20s, refers to the 1920s decade in music and fashion, as it happened in Western society and Western culture. It was a period of economic prosperity with a distinctive cultural edge in the U ...

, designed to reflect the architecture of the Green and its three historic churches. The building's golden

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, from ...

intentionally mirrors that of the Green's United Church. The building was the tallest in New Haven when it opened in 1927. The Union Trust Company moved its headquarters to Stamford in 1981, but kept a branch on the ground floor. The bank was purchased in 1995 by

First Union Corporation First Union Corporation was a bank holding company that provided commercial and retail banking services in eleven states in the eastern U.S. First Union also provided various other financial services, including mortgage banking, credit card, inv ...

, which later took the name of its

Wachovia Wachovia was a diversified financial services company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Before its acquisition by Wells Fargo and Company in 2008, Wachovia was the fourth-largest bank holding company in the United States, based on total asse ...

acquisition and in 2010 merged into

Wells Fargo Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California; operational headquarters in Manhattan; and managerial offices throughout the United States and intern ...

. The building's ground floor is still occupied by a Wells Fargo branch.

Apartments

On March 28, 2013, Cooper Church LLC, a New York-based developer, purchased the 184,480 square-foot building from Hampshire Hotels & Resorts for $13.5 million. The New Haven Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) approved Cooper Church’s proposed zoning variances in June 2013. Construction to convert the former office building to 138 studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom market rate rental apartments began in April 2014. Leasing at The Union commenced in spring 2015. The building includes 138 studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom apartments.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Union And New Haven Trust Building Office buildings completed in 1927 Buildings and structures in New Haven, Connecticut Skyscraper office buildings in Connecticut Skyscrapers in New Haven, Connecticut Colonial Revival architecture in Connecticut Georgian Revival architecture in Connecticut 1927 establishments in Connecticut