First Federal Savings and Loan / Webster Bank (Demolished 2020)

From 1855 to 1945, 80 Elm Street was home to Saint Thomas Episcopal Church. The lot was purchased in 1946 by First Federal Savings and Loan Association as part of the New Haven bank’s expansion plan, and became Webster Bank in 1948. The bank building, designed by Roy Foote, was a primary example of Art Deco architecture. After being sold to Spinnaker Real Estate in 2019, the agency demolished the building in early 2020 with plans of building a 7-story Hilton Hotel. As of 2025, in large part due to delays from the pandemic, the lot remains untouched. Spinnaker, the company behind the high-end New Haven apartment developments at The Audubon and ​“Square 10,” still intends to construct a hotel.

1855–1946 — Saint Thomas Episcopal Church

1946–2019 — Webster Bank

2019–present — Spinnaker Real Estate

1855 – Opened as New Haven's first Saint Thomas Episcopal Church. Consisted of two Victorian Gothic buildings, the brownstone church and an adjacent rectory.

1946 – The buildings and plot sold for $100,000 to the First Federal Savings and Loan Association as part of the New Haven bank’s expansion plan.

1952 – Webster Bank, designed by Roy Foote, opens.

2019 – Spinnaker Real Estate purchases the plot and gets approval from the Board of Alders to demolish the building and construct a hotel.

2020 – Building is demolished but the pandemic halts any other progress.

2025 – Lot still vacant, feasibility of the hotel uncertain.

In June of 1946, Saint Thomas Episcopal Church, a Victorian Gothic landmark, was sold for $100,000 to the First Federal Savings and Loan Association as part of the New Haven bank’s expansion plan. The transaction included both the original brownstone church building and the adjacent rectory, both built in 1855. Prominent New Haven architect Roy W. Foote, known locally for his work at West Haven High School and the Southern New England Telephone Company Building, was hired for the preliminary planning stages. His vision, much like the commercial Art Deco buildings of that time, called for a streamlined façade, handsomely polished sandstone, and large reflective glass windows. The building experienced few changes until its demolition in 2020. As of 2025, the lot remains vacant, though Spinnaker still plans to construct a hotel.

Located between the Green and State Street, 80 Elm Street lies within the heart of New Haven’s civic centers and commercial activities - walking distance from the City Hall, public library, multiple banks and the News 8 WTNH headquarters. It was a central location for a bank and maybe one day, a hotel.

With very little changes made since its construction in 1948 and its demolition in 2020, the bank stood as a two-story masonry structure, with 10 bays abutting the street front and a flat roof. The bays were sheathed in sandstone blocks with vertical windows in metal frames. A central pavilion of polished granite asymmetrically divides the bays, and its double doors existed as the main entrance to the building. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the building, however, was Foote’s decision to maintain the skeletal frame of the Saint Thomas Episcopal – preserving both the central nave and balcony. The original pitched roof of the church could be seen from the street, and the balcony was visible from the structure’s interior attic. As a result of this shift in program, the interior of the bank still very much resembled the typical layout of a Gothic church – what was the aisle remained the central circulation axis for customers and the bank tenants’ cubicles exist where the pews once were, facing inward toward the aisle. A second floor mezzanine level existed for offices, in what one could imagine was once the church’s clerestory.

2025 updates: https://www.newhavenindependent.org/article/80_elm_st