Republican Building, 229-231 Bank Street, Waterbury, New Haven County, CT

Significance: In 1883 Corinne and J. Henry Morrow purchased the south-west corner of Henry C. Griggs' homestead, and built the Republican Building to accommodate his expanding newspaper and printing businesses. The Waterbury Republican, founded by Morrow as a weekly paper in 1881, printed its first daily edition from the new Republican Building in 1884. Typical of the Victorian period, the Republican Building's stylistic sources are eclectic. But, nonetheless, its appearance is simple if not elegant. Most ornamentation is limited to the gabled parapet where brick corbeling and terra-cotta panels frame a large semi-circular window below. Although the Republican was the earliest commercial building in the area, and prefigured the ultimate development of the block, it is perhaps more significant in its place within the entire Bank Street Historic District: a contiguous row of multi-story buildings set close to the sidewalk, highly decorative and diverse in style, yet closely related in size, scale, and materials. Together the four buildings are typical of Waterbury's commercial architecture at the turn of the century. They also represent the city's prosperity and its economic growth during that period.
Survey number: HABS CT-411
Building/structure dates: 1883 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: after 1980 Subsequent Work
National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 83001277