Whittemore Building, 214-219 Bank Street, Waterbury, New Haven County, CT

Significance: The Whittemore Building, which owes its name to a leading Naugatuck Valley industrialist - John Howard Whittemore, was built on the south-west corner of land which he bought in 1901 and developed into a single commercial property called the Pritchard Block (199-219 Bank Street). Whittemore was president of the Naugatuck Malleable Iron Company, a director and vice president of the Colonial Trust Company of Waterbury, as well as a major real estate investor and developer in Waterbury and other sections of New England, Chicago, Cleveland, and the west. Built as an infill between two elaborate yet notably different buildings, the more reserved Georgian Revival building was designed by Wilfred E. Griggs, a Waterbury architect who made a visible impact on the city's appearance in its turn-of-the-century expansion. The Whittemore Building is modest in comparison to Griggs' other designs, but appropriate and straightforward in relation to its neighbors. More valuable than the individual significance of the Whittemore Building is its place within Bank Street Historic District: a contiguous row of large, 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-409
Building/structure dates: 1904 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: after 1950 Subsequent Work
National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 83001277