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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