The Main Street Historic District of

Bristol, Connecticut Bristol is a suburban city located in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, southwest-west of Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford. The city is also 120 miles southwest from Boston, and approximately 100 miles northeast of New York City. The ...

encompasses much of the city's central business district, an area built up in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The district's 19 historic buildings are located along adjoining stretches of Main and Prospect Streets, and include important civic and commercial buildings. The district was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1995.

Description and history

The city of Bristol was incorporated as a town in 1785 and as a city in 1910. It historically had two principal villages, the southern one located near the banks of the Pequabuck River, where early industrial activity developed. The city center arose on the north side of the river in the pre-Civil War 19th century, when the town became America's leading manufacturer of clocks. Main Street was laid out in 1826, through the efforts of Chauncey Jerome, owner of an early clock factory, and the river crossing spurred additional industrial development along the river. The town center's subsequent growth as a financial, commercial, and civic center was assured by the 1850 arrival of the railroad. All of Bristol's early banks were located here, and its old town hall still stands here as well. The historic district extends along Main Street, from Summer and High streets in the north to Riverside Avenue in the south, and extends for one block along Prospect Street near its center. Most of the district buildings are either brick or masonry in construction, and range in height from two to four stories. Prominent buildings include the Bristol National Bank building at 200 Main Street, designed by

McKim, Mead & White McKim, Mead & White was an American architectural firm based in New York City. The firm came to define architectural practice, urbanism, and the ideals of the American Renaissance in ''fin de siècle'' New York. The firm's founding partners, Cha ...

, and the Lorraine Building/Curtis Block building at 175 Main Street, which was built in c. 1905, but restyled in the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

style with a cast-stone facade. and

References

{{National Register of Historic Places National Register of Historic Places in Hartford County, Connecticut Neoclassical architecture in Connecticut Gothic Revival architecture in Connecticut Art Deco architecture in Connecticut Historic districts in Hartford County, Connecticut Bristol, Connecticut Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut

Description and history

See also

References