Hayden Block - Part 2 by Tom Beardsley 3-9-2024

On January 2, 1880, a massive plate glass window destined for the Hayden Block arrived at the railroad depot. It would be the first ever to be installed in Willimantic and a Chronicle reporter noted that “one pane of glass forms the entire front of each window and gives the store a magnificent appearance.” On January 9, New York’s famous fresco artist, Henry T. Gavitt arrived in town and began decorating the courtroom. It was completed a month later and the Chronicle reported that, “the frescoing of the new courtroom is finished and it looks gay”. Willard Hayden, Whiting Hayden’s grandson, installed a massive witness stand, plush chairs and decorated tables. A brass rail separated the front of the court from the public section. The witness stands, jury section, lawyers’ tables and judge’s stand were laid with plush Brussels carpet. The audience space was laid with matting. The building was ready for occupancy in June. Whiting Hayden gave the town’s ladies and leading citizens a tour of the new courtroom and offices. The Jpurnal reported that it was the finest courtroom in the State. The first case tried in the elegant new courtroom took place on July 6 when receivers of the defunct Willimantic Trust Company were suing shareholders for removing funds from the company when it threatened to fail. Interestingly, Hayden himself had removed $60,000 just before the bank collapsed. The town officials rented three large rooms in the Hayden Block for “library and office use”. The “East Room” was occupied by the Town Clerk and Treasurer and the “West Room” was used for meetings. Both rooms were said to have “excellent vaults and are beautifully furnished in plain and bird’s-eye maple”. A third room was converted into a library, a storage area for town records and an office for use by the Judge of Probate. By July 30, 1880, the move from the “music room” in the Willimantic Savings Institute building was completed. An asphalt sidewalk was laid in front of the new block and on the transom above the main entrance, the words, “Willimantic Court House & Town Offices” were elegantly painted. Whiting Hayden and his supporters argued long and hard to get the County seat returned to Windham. The 1880 census showed that Windham was the fastest growing town in eastern Connecticut. Its population had risen from 5,412 in 1870 to 8,264 in 1880, an increase of 52.7%. Broooklyn’s numbers had risen only 10.4% in the same period and other eastern Connecticut had similar small increases. Willimantic selectman then offered to build a jail, at no cost to the state. They also reminded the General Assembly  that they paid the highest taxes in the county, and "that  Willimantic is, by its railroad, telegraphic and hotel facilities, as well as by the possession of  a court room, second to none in the state,” most advantageously located for the accommodation of a large number of towns in the county who have occasion  to attend courts."  Despite protestations from, Putnam and Killingly, the  General Assembly gave Willimantic permission to host alternate sessions of the Windham Superior Court.  From 1881, three sessions of the Court were held in the  Hayden Building in September, December and June, and two sessions were held in Brooklyn in September and May. Whiting Hayden died in 1886. In 1893 Willard Hayden raised the rent for the court  room and town offices. The selectmen moved from Hayden's block in outrage. Temporarily, they met in the old Armory on Center Street. But the move was unsatisfactory because Arthur Turner’s silk mill operated on  its lower floors, and the selectman could not hear themselves talk because of the rattling of silk machinery. In 1898, the offices were moved to the new Town Building. Other than its contribution to political history, the Hayden Block has had an interesting  commercial history too. The courtroom was abandoned when the new town hall was built in1898. The first floor has housed a large number of  diverse activities. From 1880 until 1888; the entire first floor was occupied by Willard Hayden who operated a news depot, book and stationery shop that also sold wallpaper, window shades,  cornice poles, curtains‘ and curtain fixtures.  From I890 until I898, the west shop in the  block, closest to the Savings Institute, was  the Marble Front Clothing House, "dealers in  clothing, hats. caps, trunks, bags and men's furnishings, Anderson T. Walker, proprietor." Click on photo for larger version

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