by Pete Zizka
10-28-2021
At the Saturday, January 12, 1895 meeting, after many more proposals and resolutions, the majority of voters once again approved the erection of a town building on the Chase Lot. The lot was then purchased by the committee on behalf of the town. But the vote to build the town building on the Chase lot had left a loophole for Chase lot opponents who called for yet another town meeting. An editorial said, “(D)oubtless, hundreds voted with the majority Saturday who would much prefer the (town) building more centrally located and it is not improbable that with the question of location only before the voters, some other site might receive the majority of votes”. To be mercifully brief, I’ll just mention that in January of 1895 several petitions were circulated and meetings held at various places for the purpose of choosing a different site. The most popular site, other than the Chase lot, now became the Nason’s Lumberyard site on Meadow Street. Now, public meeting number four was held on the first Saturday of February, 1895. Inside the packed Loomer Opera House, the meeting was called to order by Town Clerk Dimmick. Immediately, there was a dispute over whom should chair the meeting. Finally, C.A. Capen was elected chair. It was a long meeting but ultimately 1,014 ballots were cast and the Chase lot was approved 617 to 397.
The next step was to approve plans. March 9, 1895 was the deadline for the submission of plans and eight architects had submitted them. At this point, another “wrinkle” appeared. Originally, the “public hall” was supposed to go on the third floor but it was realized that that would necessitate not only a three flight ascent for people but the weight of a capacity-filled hall would require thicker, stronger interior and exterior walls. So, no plans were accepted and the architects were asked to redraw the plans and make the building, “cover a larger ground surface thereby enabling the hall to be placed on the second floor”. All eight plans had come in at a cost below the $60,000 that had been appropriated. According to historian Tom Beardsley, “New plans were submitted and in June, Willimantic’s well-known, Irish-born building contractor, Jeremiah O’Sullivan was hired to build the Windham town hall after he submitted a bid of $59,396. Negotiations with O’Sullivan led to the copper work being re-included and extra money was secured to allow the introduction of stone work in the basement and first story, instead of brick. Work began with the digging of the foundations on June 12, 1895; and by July 11, 50 local men were at work tearing down the stone wall around the Chase lot, and using the stone to line the basement walls. However, in June, there were still two more rancorous town meetings with insults, resolutions, and arguments galore. Accusations were flying around that O’Sullivan was part of a building committee plot to wring more money out of the state and town coffers for the building to line their own pockets. A lawsuit was filed against the Town Clerk but such was local politics. Yet the building was going up, making it impossible to break contracts and stop construction. The final cost to the state and town for the new town hall was $73,000. On July 20, 1895, O’Sullivan had 32 men digging the foundations; but they hit a ledge of hard rock and blasting had to take place. The following week, the four structures on the Chase lot ‘were put up for auction. Two were dismantled by their new owners, but Nelson W. French rebuilt the best of the houses on "Upper Main Street." Those opposed to the town building on the Chase lot had a victory on Oct. 3, 1895, when the judge of the Windham County Court in Putnam made a ruling (on the June lawsuit) that special building meetings on June 15 ‘were illegal and had to be struck from the records. But it meant nothing as the walls were now half-built. O’Sullivan pressed ahead and on Oct. 9 he hired extra stone masons from Waterbury to get the walls completed before the winter set in. A couple of weeks later, the’ building committee decided to drop the word "County" from the, lettering proposed by architect Briggs. The front of the new town hall would now be lettered, "Windham Court House," in gold lettering.”
One photo is from an
insurance map published just after the Town Building was
finished. It also shows the three First District schoolhouses on
Windham Street. Pink denotes brick buildings and yellow denotes
wood frame buildings. The other photo is an early newspaper
sketch of the Town Building on dedication day.
<click on photo to see larger version>