Lomas & Nettleton Office

The building we see on the corner of Orange St and Court St in its current state was built in between 1918 and 1920 as the new headquarters of expanding New Haven business Lomas and Nettleton. Since its construction there has been little exterior change—the Lomas and Nettleton entablature and inscriptions into the stone cladding clearly still visible—but has undergone a shift in use and interior structure. Currently it houses the Emily Tremaine Foundation, Home Inc., The Greater New Haven Community Loan Fund and The Institute for Healthcare Communication and, at the back, The Blue Pearl Restaurant. Now part of Olympia Properties portfolio the combined structure is around 20,000 square feet.



In 1894, in the wake of stock exchange collapse termed the 'Panic of 1893' John E Lomas started a mortgage banking and financial service business, opening its first office at 817 Chapel St, New Haven. In 1900 Lomas joined forces with Edward Lee Nettleton, a childhood friend with whom he had grown up in West Haven. On the 16th July, 1917 the company was incorporated and in 1920 the company moved here—175 Orange St—from their previous offices at 137 Orange St. With this as its headquarters Lomas and Nettleton would grow to become extremely successful, as evidenced in a 1971 New Haven Register article boasting 'Lomas and Nettleton Tops In Nation With $3 Billion Mortgage Portfolio'.



As Kenneth E. Nettleton, son of Edward Nettleton recounts in his memoir of the company—'The Story of Lomas and Nettleton'—the building was "partly new, and partly rebuilt from a two and a half story building on the corner of Orange and Court and a three story building on Court Street." Along with another three story building on Orange St. these properties were purchased from the Osterweis family, renowned for the manufacture of cigars in Connecticut. Prior to this, as the 1911 Sanbon map illustrates, the buildings in question were owned by the Trowbridge family and as a set of images in the Dana Collection suggests, was the site of Goldman's Suits up until 1918 when construction work on the new Lomas and Nettleton building began. What's more, earlier still than this in 1784, the corner was the residence of Phineas Bradley.



Lomas and Nettleton's new location "had a frontage of one hundred feet on Orange St and one hundred feet on Court St". On the first story the building was clad with a moulded cornice of ashlar blocks and above that a stone cut parapet coping. The second story was a stark contrast of brick and simple windows, except for one central window above the entrance with an ornamental surround and cartouche. The entrance itself is arched and flanked by two faux classical columns. The resulting building is Beaux Arts Classical in style and a a fine example of Doric sensibilities. Part of what the 1981 Connecticut Historical Commission inventory form considered "one of the finest groupings of late 19th and early



20th century commercial architecture in the city."



The construction undertaken by Norton and Townsend architects can clearly be seen in the 1924 Sanborn map which demonstrates interior alterations and most evidently the new facade (shown in blue). Moreover, included in the book 'Lomas: The First One Hundred Years' are two photographs of the de and re-construction of the building, next to a full page directory notice from 1923 with and image of the completed headquarters (which can also be seen in the Dana Collection).



To both Lomas and Nettleton the new headquarters were not, as Kenneth Nettleton's memoir recalls, "built for show". Rather, they "signified that years of hard work and constructive effort could have their rewards". A sentiment echoed in the 1921 'Modern Connecticut Homes and Homecrafts' published by the American Homecrafts Company, which branded the building "ultra modern" and "a well merited reward for its many years of active and honourable endeavours", finishing by declaring it "an architectural achievement". This notion of the new offices as an understated work built upon a hard working local business is further demonstrated in its referral as an "unimposing building" and "an attractive but unassuming facade" in two New Haven Register articles in 1968 and 1971 respectively.



As I stated earlier, much of the exterior of the building has remained since its construction was completed in 1920. The second story windows have been replaced with large commercial bays, but other than that much of the exterior has remained the same. In 1981, the building underwent a renovation to facilitate its change of use, with First Bank occupying the ground floor offices and a law firm the upper floors. The resulting renovation is noted in the Connecticut Historical Commission inventory form from the same year as one that "greatly improved the quality of the area". This interior refurbishment served to better link up the three separate buildings and subsequently divide it into office and retail units.



The current owners of the property—Olympia Properties—purchased it in 2004 at which time they undertook another minor interior refurbishment, working primarily on the elevator and lobby to the state we see today. After talking to them on the phone they said much of the heavy refurbishment had been done in 1981 and there was little more than cosmetic work for them to do.



Whilst visiting the building to photograph it, I talked with a post man who told me that the architecture firm that was recently located on the first floor used the original vault door as the entrance to their offices. It was this same vault door that Kenneth Nettleton mentions in an anecdote on moving to the new building. He states that "Mrs Lomas was afraid someone would be locked in the vault at night and suffocate", a fear that prompted Mr Lomas to install a signal button.