Lupoli Brothers Funeral

This Art Deco building, currently housing eight separate condominiums, captivates with its motifs of grandeur including an intricate brick pattern façade and stylized columns engraved onto the building. Interestingly enough, the location at 576 Chapel Street has gone through multiple functional and physical transformations with the changing dynamics of the city. Sitting across the street from Wooster Square, it is difficult to imagine this building and specifically this façade was once intended to house a funeral parlor owned by the Lupoli family, which is what the gold engraved “Lupoli” above the entrance indicates. Starting out as a Greek Revival home for Henry L. Hotchkiss, the building was bought by the Lupolis in the late 1880s and transformed into a funeral home before going out of business and being internally remodeled to serve as residences. Now, it pays homage to these origins and its exterior with certain elements like curtains over the Depalma entrance doors and narrow stained-glass windows on this side of the building as well.

1841~1860s: Henry Lucas Hotchkiss

1880-2008: Lupoli family, Lupoli Funeral Home

2008-now: residential, 8 tenants

The history of Wooster Square actually began in the 1830s, which was around the time that this building was constructed as a house for Hotchkiss. He was one of many wealthy business owners who decided to settle in the area and made Wooster the appealing area it became at the time for architects. 576 Chapel was one of the important homes in creating the space and significance of Wooster because it, along with other expensive properties, presented an image that made other wealthy people want to invest money into the city.

The Wooster area did go through an economic and social slump in the 1930s, when HOLC maps put it in a red zone to discourage investors from putting money into the area and therefore further demeaning its reputation and hopes for help. It is unclear when this slump ended, but this may be the reason for the renovation of the exterior of the funeral home in 1935. Facing an economic and social decline, it would make sense for the Lupoli to assert their dominance and try to revive the market in the Wooster area by constructing the beautiful art deco façade.

This building was constructed in the early 1840s as a Greek Revival home for Henry Lucas Hotchkiss, owner of a Rubber Company at the time. According to the Wooster Square Historic District, the Hotchkiss family was important in the area because they were among the earliest to settle in Wooster and had businesses tied to the city itself. The family was likely important in drawing capital to the city of New Haven and may have had a broader effect in this way. The 1911 Atlas of New Haven refers to the original owner of the 576 Chapel home, Hotchkiss, despite the fact that it had already been sold by this time. Although the building is three floors now, it was originally two stories and the third was not added until 1863. It is unclear when the Hotchkiss family moved out of the home or under what circumstances, but it is interesting to note that Russell Hotchkiss was involved with the New Haven Clock Company in the 1840s and this company very soon went on to be very successful in drawing European immigrants to work in New Haven. Interestingly enough, it was Italian immigrants that began to settle in Wooster in the 1900s and it was the Italian family Lupoli that eventually took over the 576 Chapel Hotchkiss home in the 1880s and remade the façade in the 1930s. In this way, the Hotchkiss family’s industrial ventures drew in the people who were to later inhabit and transform their home.

When the Lupoli family bought the home in the 1880s, they followed the trend of the earlier inhabitants by setting up businesses themselves. Starting off as a livery, the Lupoli business grew into a funeral home in the 1900s that ran until 2008. During the time of the Lupoli ownership, there was likely much importance placed in the funeral parlor because the façade renovation is intricate and indicative of grandeur. This business undoubtedly peaked in the 1930s with its exterior renovation. The Lupoli funeral parlor went out of business in 2008 after around a century of operation because several complaints were lodged against the owner for not providing adequate services or having the proper legal documentation.

After the Lupoli business left 576 Chapel, architect Christiaan Dinkeloo was hired by the city to rebuild the entire interior of the building to make it into condominiums. Although the interior was divided into eight separate homes, the architect did not modify the exterior at all and in fact took inspiration from the building itself in ornamenting the interior. Now, the building is more a part of daily life in the city as it houses families.

576 Chapel is located directly across the street from Wooster Square, near its southwest corner. It is located near other historic New Haven buildings and is actually right next to the famous Bristol House at 584 Chapel. A few doors down from it is a funeral home that is actually still in operation. This location nonetheless stands out from its surroundings because its art deco façade is so different from the rest of the older buildings with more traditional 1860s structures. In a sense, it is helpful that it is next to the Bristol House because this building also stands out in the historic Chapel Street setting and they almost emphasize each other’s non-belonging. 576 Chapel is definitely a building that sparks intrigue because it is so central and its façade facing Wooster demands attention. It also sparks intrigue in the visitor because it bears the Lupoli name permanently embedded in gold above its entrance.

576 Chapel was initially a Greek Revival style house built for Henry Hotchkiss. Although there was an added third floor during the Hotchkiss ownership, the exterior remained consistent. In the photographs of the building with its previous façade, one notes the contrast of the light-colored building and dark shutters on numerous windows. Although it has elements anchoring it as a very American building such as the coloring and the outward flaring of the roof, the height and strictly rectangular shape in addition to the use of column in the portico entries signal elements of Greek architecture. Also, the use of numerous windows piercing the façade allows generous light into the home in a manner reminiscent of those Greek columned temples.

In the modifications made by Lester Lulianelle that brought the exterior to its current Art Deco appearance, the building looks completely different. 576 Chapel is a true architectural palimpsest, with the visual similarities that remain between the original structure and the Lupoli façade being the very distinct and imposing presence of the heavy cubic shape of the building as it faces Wooster. In addition to that, the cement columns stylized in a two-dimensional manner into the brick surface of the building can be seen as both a nod to the original Greek Revival structure and an artistic element. The columns are interesting because they are not functional, but decorative. They add to the overall intimidating and impressive presence of the building. The columns make their presence known on the façade with their distinct color and materiality against the background of patterned brick. They are also wide and tall, bisecting windows and the building as a whole, and even ending beyond it with these vase-like figures resting on the roof. This new façade is also intimidating in its selective minimalism. Although the brick pattern and the designs on the columns and in the cement are intricate, there are only two large columns, and very few windows on the building as a whole. In the center of the front of the building, the centered octagonal window above the entrance fits into the whole geometric trend in the art deco style. This building makes great use of shapes and patterns on its exterior surface. The bold concrete outline around the front door of the building also gives it a look of great importance and is almost a visual reference to the mausoleum shape. It is interesting to note that within this concrete bordering, the Lupoli name remains engraved and painted in gold to this day.

One must also note the way the sidewalk and steps up to the building are designed to fit its style, extending its presence beyond the structure and into the sidewalk itself. In both the Wooster and the Depalma entrances, the railing leading up the steps to the building is also very geometric and has gold and black elements. They create more lines that resemble the geometricity of the art deco façade. This is also the case with the pavement leading up the steps to the Chapel street main entrance, where the initial large landing before the final steps has a diamond shape in the center and geometric lines on the sides incised into the cement.

The back of the building initially looks inconsistent with the rest of the building. Seen from the back, 576 Chapel becomes even more visually varied in its geometricity because the shape of the building is varied as if it were multiple blocks of different dimension stuck together to make one home, with the main façade cube being the most dominant. In the back of the building as seen from Depalma Ct., there is an entrance that is a long, horizontal rectangular prism likely made of molded concrete that has a pattern of squares on its surface. Although this initially seems inconsistent, it fits in with the emphasis on lines and rectangles used so much in the building. There is also a small echo of this pattern on the Depalma entrance, in the cement part of the building that breaks out of the top of the arch above the doorway and interrupts the brick pattern to end in a pediment shape framing this entrance.

In the interior modifications made within the last eight years to convert this building into a living space, there is once again an attempt from the architect to retain some sense of the exterior. We see homage paid to the building’s previous use in the way curtains are hung in front of the Depalma door, making this look like a funeral home still. There is also the preservation of the narrow stained-glass windows that are now part of a condo. In terms of the architecture itself, one can see in photos below of the interior of one of the apartments that the architect echoed the two-dimensional columns from the exterior and incorporated them into the condo walls. He also seems to have cut into the wall to create some sort of decoration.

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