From 1979: Bank may delay plans to demolish buildings

The following article appeared in The Hartford Courant 30 years ago today. It was written by Gary Weiss.

A local bank's board of directors will decide Sept. 13 if it will again delay its long-postponed plans to demolish the two 18th century buildings to expand its parking lot.

The College Street buildings, which were the home and shop operated by the Danforth family, Revolutionary War-era pewter craftsmen, stand on a site acquired for parking by the Farmers and Mechanics Savings Bank late in 1977.
Bank officials were dissuaded from demolishing the buildings by preservationists and city officials, who were looking to the now-abandoned proposal to move the Danforth buildings to the nearby urban renewal area. The bank's executive vice president, Arthur Webster, said the bank may wish not to demolish the two buildings -- if it can meet parking requirements some other way.

Webster referred to a city plan to build a four-deck, 400-car parking garage on land adjacent to the bank and to the Danforth buildings.

John R. Reynolds, a founder of the Greater Middletown Preservation Trust, said he believed the bank would only gain about 10 parking spaces if it decided to demolish the buildings.

A bid by the trust to move the buildings to the nearby Theater Block historic preservation project was rejected recently by the Redevelopment Agency, which said the proposal would conflict with the plans of the prime developer of the block, a group of old buildings at Main and College Streets nearby.

Reynolds said the ideal solution would be for the buildings to be refurbished where they now stand. The buildings have great historical significance for the city because of the fame of the Danforths, who were the leading pewter craftsmen of that era, and because there are few 18th century buildings still standing.

The fate of the buildings is being discussed by a sub-committee of the bank's board of directors. Thefull board will meet Sept. 13 to decide the issue.

Reynolds, who has moved and restored similar old buildings in recent years, said that retaining the buildings would fit into the plans drawn up by the garage project architect, Seb Passanesi.

At the time of the Revolutionary War, Middletown rivaled Philadelphia and Boston in its pewter production, almost exclusively because of the Danforth family (photo at right is of a piece in the Yale museum, probably made in Middletown). The Danforth house and shop was dismantled in 1979 to make way for what became known as the Middlesex Mutual Assurance Company garage. The house was reassembled five years later, at the corner of Pleasant and South Main Street (photo from Connecticut Museum Quest). The reconstruction of the house cost $100,000, paid for by the City. In 1995 the city sold the building for $10 to Eric Thomas and Juan Sosa, for use as professional offices.