Laying the Urban Fabric, also, Normal School. / The start of an institution. Laying the Urban Fabric , This corner comprises New Britain's least disturbed early 20th century urban space, and perhaps one of the best in the state. Here, closely spaced buildings create a pleasing urban space. Although of different architectural styles, the buildings serve and complement each other, creating an artful composition. At the beginning of the 20th century, the city's post office, library, churches, commercial shops, and residences all coexisted in this neighborhood. Created at a time when the city's industrialists were dedicated to the welfare of city residents, this neighborhood is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as the Walnut Hill District. , Two prominent architects, William H. Cadwell and William F. Brooks, lived in and designed buildings for the neighborhood. Cadwell designed his own home at the southwest corner of South High and West Main Streets Brooks designed two of the buildings that today compose the New Britain Public Library. , Whether intuitively or consciously, architects and city leaders in the early 20th century understood the value of a pleasant, densely built urban environment. Churches, municipal buildings, residences, shops, and offices were clustered around parks. The bulk of the large buildings were disguised with scale distorting site elements including ornamental paving, fencing, and trees. Building ornament was highly appreciated as a way to entertain the human eye. , The buildings in this area reflect that way of thinking. The neo-classical Old Post Office (southeast corner of South High and West Main Streets) was New Britain's main postal facility for many years. Supposedly, the design of the facility allowed supervisors to observe employees as a way to deter theft. , After the post office relocated to a new, larger facility, the building was skillfully adapted to office use by New Britain's Kraus Builders. The New Britain Public Library has evolved over the centuries. The central building was constructed as the Library of the New Britain Institute (1901) and the northerly building as the Hawley Memorial Children's Library (1951). The buildings were connected in 1976 by an addition designed by New Britain architects, Kaestle Boos Associates Inc. , Much of this text was borrowed from, A Walk around Walnut Hill, Kenneth Larson, 1975. , [Captions] , . Top right: Construction of the New Britain Post Office, circa 1910. , . Middle left: New Britain Public Library, circa 1950s. , . Bottom left: Construction of the interior of the New Britain Post Office, circa 1910. , . Bottom right: The remarkable Cadwell House, designed by New Britain architect William Cadwell as his home in 1890. , Normal School , In the early to middle 1800s almost no educational standards existed in the United States and less than half of all children attended school. New Britain stood out as a leader in educational reform in the state. One of the best places this can be witnessed is with the creation of the Normal School. , As a result of public pressure and evidence of other successes, the Connecticut General Assembly voted in 1849 to create a Normal School (a school to train teachers in the “norms” of teaching). Connecticut's Normal School was the sixth one established in the United States. Many towns applied to be the home of the school, but New Britain was chosen, due in part to the efforts of industrialists and Major Seth North. , At the time, no training or education was generally provided to teachers. Since the Normal School provided instruction from some of the foremost education experts of the time, the school was a great stimulus to public education in New Britain. , The first home of the New Britain Normal School was at the corner of Main and Chestnut Streets. The school did so well that it soon outgrew the original building. The General Assembly appropriated $75,000 in 1880 for a new building, requiring New Britain to contribute $25,000. The new building opened in 1882 on Hillside Place, directly to the south of where you are now standing. In less than a decade, the Normal School began to outgrow its new building as well. The state solved this problem by opening additional schools across the state. Teacher education was no longer a poorly funded experiment. , Marcus White led New Britain's Normal School into the 20th century. He became principal in 1894 and made many changes in the 35 years that he held the position. He arranged for schools in Burlington and Southington to be “practice schools” in order for teachers to gain experience. More significantly, he campaigned for a new campus on Stanley Street with two buildings, one being the dormitory for women, completed in 1925, which still bears his name. The Hillside Place building accommodated many uses before being sold and converted to condominiums in the 1990s. , Marcus White also advocated for the normal schools to extend their programs to four years, resulting in the 1933 act creating the Teachers College of Connecticut at New Britain. In 1983 the school transitioned from a college to a regional university and took its current name, Central Connecticut State University, where to this day it remains a prominent university for the field of education. , {Captions (left to right)] , . The building, on the corner of Main and Chestnut streets, which was the original home of the Connecticut State Normal School. The city's high, grammar and primary schools were at the same time housed on the lower floors of this building. By 1880 growth of the school made it necessary to construct a new building; the Normal School relocated in 1881. , . The expansive campus of Central Connecticut State University, the modern-day successor to the Normal School. , . Picture postcard of the newly constructed Normal School building atop Hillside Place circa 1881.