Mixed-Use Row Buildings

In its most basic form, a mixed-use row building is a rectangular, narrow and deep, three-bay-wide, 3 ½ story structure topped by a shallow gable roof. It features a street-level first story designed for commercial use and upper stories designed for use as one or more apartments, which accessed via front and rear stairwells. 

As a group nineteenth- and early twentieth-century mixed-use row buildings display a broad range of variations on this basic theme. Some have flat roofs, other have hip or shed roofs; some are 2 ½ stories tall, others are 4 ½ tall; some are built of brick, others of wood or cut stone; some have two-bay-wide fronts, others have four-bay-wide fronts; some are freestanding, others are arranged in rows of two or more continuous, unbroken units; some have projecting upper-story front window bays, others do not; some feature extensive exterior ornamentation, others have exteriors which are very plain. 

Historical Background

The practice of using individual structures for both commercial and residential purposes was well-established long before the advent of the nineteenth century. However, before 1800, few buildings in Connecticut were actually designed for mixed use. Most were simply houses with a modified first story. In the nineteenth century, building types specifically designed for mixed use were developed. In urban areas, the most prevalent of these new building types was the mixed-use row building. 

The mixed-use row building is essentially a hybrid building type. It combines the basic modular construction arrangement found in nineteenth-century urban row housing with the separately accessed ground-story space typically found in nineteenth-century urban commercial structures. In Connecticut, mixed-use row buildings emerged as a popular urban building form in the 1850s. By the early years of the twentieth century, they had been built in extensive numbers throughout most of the state’s urban centers. Today, New Haven, Hartford, Bridgeport, and Waterbury share the majority of these structures. In New Haven, they are found throughout the Fair Haven, Upper State Street, Dixwell, Dwight, and Hill neighborhoods. 

Several reasons help to account for the popularity enjoyed by the mixed-use row building as an urban building type during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. First, its proportions were ideally suited for the narrow and deep building lots available in most urban areas by this period. Second, it was a highly adaptable building type. It could be built in either a freestanding or multiple-unit, row format. Third, mixed-use row buildings were both affordable and ideally suited to the needs of bakers, grocers, etc. In fact, most mixed-use row buildings were originally erected for such small businessmen in outlying commercial districts which developed amidst the city’s outwardly expanding, nineteenth- and early twentieth-century residential neighborhoods. 

When Was It Built?

Determining the approximate or actual age of a building can be important. If you know your building’s date, a little further research will enable you to determine the physical properties of construction materials commonly used when it was built. This knowledge can prevent you from making costly repairs with inappropriate modern materials. 

The first step to determine your building’s construction date should be to call your local library, planning office, or the State Historic Preservation Office. The building’s date may have already been included as a part of the state’s ongoing architectural survey program. If the building has not yet been “surveyed,” the following may help you make your own assessment. 

There are three dating methods commonly used by professional researchers. The first involves tracing the history of the property using city directories, land records, tax records, building department records, and similar material kept on file by the city. Another approach is to look through old maps of your city which were compiled in different years and which have buildings drawn on them. For example, assume you have maps for your city from 1895 and 1911. If your building is not on the 1895 map, but is on the 1911 map, it is fair to assume it was built between these two dates. A third method is to date your building on the basis of its architectural style. The three methods may be combined to arrive at the most accurate date. 

What Style Is It?

Stylistic terms are used to categorize the basic massing forms and ornamental features which visually distinguish a building as a product of its time. Since most nineteenth- and early twentieth-century row buildings share the same basic form, their architectural “style” is conveyed primarily through exterior ornamentation, most of which is usually located on the front of the building. Ornamentation found on nineteenth/early twentieth-century mixed-use row buildings usually reflects the influence of one or more of the following three architectural styles which dominated the periods noted below. 

Italianate Style: 1860 to 1890

Typical exterior features shared by brick, frame, and cut-stone buildings include prominent main cornices projecting outward over tall frieze panels embellished by scroll-sawn brackets and decorative moldings, and 2-over-2 pane double hung windows. Typical features shared by brick and cut-stone buildings include cut-stone window and door sills and lintels and decorative bands of cut-stone trim spanning portions of walls. Typical features shared by frame buildings include clapboard siding and bracketed, projecting window trim.

Queen Anne Style: 1885 to 1910

Typical exterior features shared by brick, frame, and cut-stone buildings include prominent main cornices extending outward over tall frieze panels embellished by scroll-sawn brackets and decorative moldings, 2-over-2 or 1-over-1 pane double hung-windows and/or decorative double-hung windows with upper sash featuring panes of different size and color patterns, large projecting front gable dormers, and projecting, front upper-story window bays. Typical features shared by brick and cut-stone buildings include cut-stone window and door sills, arched window openings of decoratively detailed cut-stone or brick, and decorative bands of brick, cut-stone, or terra-cotta spanning portions of walls. Typical features shared by frame buildings include clapboard and/or wood-shingle sidings.

Colonial Revival Style: 1895 to 1825

Typical features shared by brick, frame, and cut-stone buildings include simply detailed main cornices projecting slightly outward over tall main frieze and architrave panels embellished by classically derived motifs (such as denticulated moldings, modillion brackets, or swag), column-like pilasters rising along the corners of the buildings, projecting front upper-story window bays, and 1-over-1 or 6-over-1 pane double-hung windows. Typical features shared by brick and cut-stone buildings include cut-stone window and door sills and lintels, arched window or door openings, and decorative bands of cut-stone trim embellishing portions of walls or storefront end piers. Typical features shared by frame buildings include clapboard siding and decorative window trim.

Text and drawings by Paul Loether and Preston Maynard

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