The Bank of Southern Connecticut

Built in 1927 by the Bank of Southern Connecticut and a contributing player to the colonial revival-style business district in downtown New Haven. Two-story, red brick and white detailing around the entryway, fenestration, and parapet. Arched windows frame the banking level, with protruding clock. A simple portico entrance is flourished with a broken pediment. In 2017 appears to be seeking tenant.

From what can be observed in sanborn maps and two surviving photographs, the current building's resemblance to the original Bishop family residence, which existed on the site for at least 75 years prior to the current building, is mainly limited to a similar L-shaped footprint and two-story height. The Bishop estate consisted of two structures, with a small separate building behind the main residence's extension towards the back of the lot. Also, the two-story Bishop house had a pitched roof that reached over the edge of the building, a symmetrical smooth stone facade with centered entrance sandwiched between pillars and below a protruding bay window, as well as a small, waist-high fence around the edge of their property on Church, indicating private residential property.

History: The current Bank of Southern Connecticut building was built in 1927 on the site of the Bishop estate. In the earliest recorded transaction of the site, the Bishops bought the property from the Baldwins in 1850 and passed ownership between members of the family through bequests by way of death of the patriarch/matriarch to the next of kin. According to New Haven directories from 1860s - 1900, Timothy H. Bishop, son of the first Bishop to live on the estate, was a physician and ran a practice out of his home. The Bishop's downtown neighborhood was mostly residential during their ownership, with Eli Whitney's estate just around the corner on Elm Street. However, even as early as 1911, the Security Insurance Company had been established on the corner of Church and Elm, beginning the shift in downtown development towards civic and financial services.



New Haven grew rapidly in population over the Bishops' ownership and Church St. became less a place for family residences than for commercial enterprises. According to the census, New Haven's population was 40,00 in 1863, 50,840 in 1870 and 108,027 by 1900. Numerous banks and financial institutions were established in the city to meet this new demand and many were located on Church and nearby Court Street. After Jane Maria Bishop's death (2/1/1924), the family sold the building to Edward M. Bradley & Company Investments who demolished the house and built the current building to serve their commercial needs. Bradley acquired a couple of adjacent plots of land within his first five years of ownership, then settled in to a quarter-century long tenure in the building which ended for unknown reasons in 1959. Bradley rented portions of the building to other tenants, most notably the Connecticut Forest and Park Assn.



Since 1959 the building has been occupied by three different banks: First New Haven National Bank, Connecticut National Bank and The Bank of Southern Connecticut, in that order. A 1973 sanborn map shows that by that year, the neighborhood had become almost entirely commercial offices and  commerce-related businesses. Neither the president of The Bank of Southern Connecticut, nor the compliance and technology officer (security guard) know much about the history of the building, other than the fact that the original Otis elevator still functions and the original vault door remains, not operational, but as a point of interest (both pictured below).



(Sources: Historic Resources Inventory of Building and Structures and Haase, "A History of Banking in New Haven")



Ownership Timeline:



10/22/1850 - 10/15/1890: S. Baldwin sold 215 Church St. to E. Huggins Bishop (surrounded by residences ex: South - Alfred Blackman and North- Ms. Henrietta Whitney)



10/15/1890 - 12/31/1906: Timothy H. Bishop, physician (due to the death of his father, E. H. Bishop)



12/31/1906 - 2/26/1924: Jane Maria Bishop (due to the death of her husband, T. H. Bishop)



2/26/1924 - 12/1/1925: Louis B. Bishop & May Bishop Thompson (due to the death of their mother, J. M. Bishop. May Bishop Thompson lived in Salt Late City, not at 215 Church Street)



1924 - 1926: Vacant



12/1/1925 - 12/1/1959: Edward M. Bradley and Company Incorporated (investment company)



1928: Additional Tenants: (6) Philip Buttrick, Forester - Connecticut Forest and Park Assn., (7) R.L. Day + Co. investments.



2/21/1930: John J. McKeon and William D. Scranton  transferred a rear parcel, East of Church St. to Edward M. Bradley and Company Inc.



6/28/1955: The First Universalist Society of New Haven transferred #276 Orange St. to Edward M. Bradley and Company Inc.



12/1/1959 - 3/30/1977: The First New Haven National Bank (purchased for $340,000)



3/30/1977 - approx. 1984: First Bank



approx. 1984 - approx. 2001: Connecticut National Bank



2001: The Bank of Southern Connecticut



(Sources: Sterling Memorial Library Manuscripts and Archives and New Haven Directories, NH Historical Society)



Major Alterations:



5/12/1926: E. M. Bradley & Co., $54,000 for brick alterations.



1/8/1946: E. M. Bradley & Co., $400 to alter private garage.



9/6/1962: First New Haven National Bank, $350 to erect sign.



11/13/1963: First New Haven National Bank, $6,000 to erect steel car canopy.



4/21/1976: The First New Haven National Bank, $2,380 to erect two electrical signs.



11/9/1976: The First New Haven National Bank, $3,500 to replace existing stairs.



1/17/1984: Conn. National Bank, $7,000 to replace sign for First Bank.



10/19/1987: Conn. National Bank, $172,000 on interior alterations and repairs, in part for handicap accessibility.



5/17/01: The Bank of Southern Connecticut, $5,000 for an identification sign, directional sign and clock (still exist in 2011).



Note: A helpful indicator of owner/occupancy transition is a permit to change the exterior sign. The cost of a sign has evolved over the years from $350 in 1962, to $2,380 in 1976 for two electrical signs, to $7,000 in 1984, to finally $5,000 for a sign and clock in 2001.



(Source: New Haven Department of Building permits)

In its rectangular lot, the two-story building, with an L-shaped footprint, abuts the sidewalk, in line with the other buildings on the street and surely in an effort to be accessible to pedestrians.

This style, hosting a bank's civic/commercial program, stands in contrast to the neo-classical style used for other important city buildings, including the courthouse directly across Church, and several other banks and municipal buildings downtown. It is interesting to consider this relatively squat building in the context of the loftier high-rises in the current downtown district and in the late 1920s development era, when art deco skyscrapers in nearby cities, like New York, were pushing vertical limits in a sleek modern style. 215 Church's colonial revival style is more backward-looking, referencing New Haven's conservative religious roots, and is within an architectural tradition that is especially particular to New Haven - a colonial revival and federal tradition that Cass Gilbert honored in his design of New Haven Public Library, and is rooted in a few early federal-era buildings, like United Church on the Green. Another hypothesis for the relative stoutness of the building is that with the development of the twelve-story Union and New Haven Trust building, completed in the same year and in the same architectural style, it could have been anticipated that additional office space would not be in demand. A final explanation may be that the original owner of the 1927 building, Edward Bradley, as just one person and not a corporation, didn't have the capital to undertake such a large project.



The Historic Resources Inventory gives a thorough, though technical, description of the current building's physical details: "2-story masonry commercial building, 5 bays wide and 5 bays deep. Building has a flat roof with cut-stone parapet (has alternating panels with blind balusters and solid panels). Below the parapet is a modilion cornice. The fenestration is symmetrical with rectilinear bays on the 2nd floor and arched bays on the first. The upper story windows have a simple reveal, 6x6 sash, flat-arch window head with keystone, and small sill. The ground floor windows have thick transom and muntin bars separating paired 2x2 sash with fanlight tracery overhead. The arch has narrow archivolt with keystone at its apex. The entry is off-center, in the extreme left side of the facade and features an elaborate surround with narrow pilasters supporting an entablature with broken pediment. The entry has a deep reveal with paneled surface".