Dan Antion

Waterbury Doors – #ThursdayDoors

Welcome to Thursday Doors! This is a weekly challenge for people who love doors and architecture to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos, drawings, or other images or stories from around the world. If you’d like to join us, simply create your own Thursday Doors post each (or any) week and then share a link to your post in the comments below, anytime between 12:01 am Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time). If you like, you can add our badge to your post.

As some of you know, I have some information to share with the participants in Thursday Doors. I’m going to ramble on about that, but other than the brief introduction in the next paragraph, I’m not going to say much about my doors.

When I went to tour the Palace Theater, I arrived in Waterbury, CT about an hour early. I was hoping to find a diner in which to have breakfast – don’t worry, I wasn’t successful, no photos of eggs, bacon and hash browns – I ended up just walking around. I spent some time, back in the early 1980s, working in Waterbury, so I have pictures of buildings and doors that are meaningful to me. I’m saving them for next week. Today’s doors are interesting, but they are just doors, as far as I know. I have described them in the captions. Click here if you want to skip all the talk about the Thursday Doors Recap page and just look at my doors.

In case you haven’t already heard, I added a list of the links to the Thursday Doors (TD) posts on a page of my blog. At some point after the entry deadline for TD passes at noon on Saturday, I kick off a little program, dump the results into Excel and create a table of links which I post on the Recap Page. My goal is to promote your posts a little better, especially if you arrived later in the posting window. Since I always have a post on Saturday and occasionally have one on Friday, your post might not be easy to find.

If you are not familiar with the Recap Page, click here to view the current version.

I am currently gleaning the information from either your pingback, or your blog. Part of the automatic process matches your domain, example – nofacilities.com or blahblahblah.wordpress.com to a table I created of domains and friendly sounding names like “The Blog of Joe Gadzooks.” I created this table by visiting your page and harvesting the title. However, if you would like to give me a better title, please click here and fill out a short form on my WuFoo site. The form also gives you the option of including a little more information about your blog.

This is a screen shot of the form

Note: The information you provide will NOT be used for any other purpose, shared, sold, stamped, spindled or mutilated.

The purpose of the Recap Page is to promote your blog. You still need to leave a link in the comments below, or ping back to my current Thursday Doors post (pingbacks only work from WordPress.com hosted blogs) to participate. The Recap Page will change each week and will only ever contain the most recent URLs. The page will not be refreshed until after the posting deadline (noon Saturday). Until refreshed, it will show the links from the previous week.

I will share the Recap Page by including a link in a short post on this blog. Nothing else will be in that post (so my regular readers can ignore it). I will also share the Recap Page via Twitter and the No Facilities Facebook page. I invite you to share that link via social media, also – the more the merrier.

I hope you enjoy the door in downtown Waterbury, CT.

The hospital was offering free parking and conducting Covid testing. I think it’s an important door to share.
Historic postcard of St Mary’s Convent and School.
St Mary’s School today. The school merged with another Catholic school and these buildings are closed.
This is/was an administration building for the St Mary’s school complex.
One of the school buildings in the St Mary’s School complex.
Another building in the St Mary’s School complext.
I think this is the old convent building in the St Mary’s School complex.
another view of the St Mary’s School buildings.
Directly across from St Mary’s Hospital is the Palace Bar & Grill
Apartment buildings across from the downtown green.
The Farrington Building. near the west end of the green. City News os on the left. I assume the space on the right is available.
The Elton Residential Care Facility. Assisted living facility on the west end of the green.
This appears to be a tight merger of two buildings. It’s interesting. I wish the plywood wasn’t hiding what I’m guessing is a beautiful corner door.
The corner door to the Palace Bar & Grill.
Margaret Croft School
Margaret Croft School
Margaret Croft School – This was a high school in Waterbury. I’m not sure what the current status is.

If you are in a hurry and don’t wish to scroll through the comments, click to Jump to the comment form.

133 comments

    • Thanks Pat. You comment about the sky reminds me of a book of science articles we had to read in my high school German class. “Wie ist der Himmel blau” was one of those stories. Why I remember, I can’t say. In any case, we have had some very pretty blue skies lately.

      Thanks for letting us explore a fortress today in your post!

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  7. […] As we were driving through Cooling/Cliffe near Rochester one day along the country lanes we stumbled across this old barn… even in its dilapidated state, I just couldn’t resist taking an photograph. Simply because the old door was hanging in there despite everything falling apart around it. And I thought it would be an ideal candidate for posting as part of Dan’s Thursday Doors Photography Challenge. […]

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    • I’m glad you like the old photos,. Sadly, the postcard was from a time when hundreds of children were bringing those buildings to life each day. Now, the fate of the buildings is uncertain. I hope they find a way to preserve them, but given modern building codes, it certainly won’t be as a school. I am hoping that Waterbury, and Connecticut’s other large old industrial cities find a way to adapt to modern times.

      Thanks for sharing a marvelous entrance today.

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      • Same happens here. Loads of late 19th Century schools have been demolished so when they’re converted into flats I’m actually happy, otherwise they’d be gone.

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  10. Lots of doors here Dan! I agree, the ER doors are the most intriguing because the hospital is offering Covid testing PLUS free parking! What stands out in all these buildings is the incredible brickwork. Fantastic. Hopefully those buildings that are partially boarded up will soon be brought to life again.

    At 5:30 am the outdoor thermometer read 40 degrees! Yaaayyyy!
    Ginger

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    • I had to include the hospital, Ginger. Those people are doing so much work these days, a little bit of tribute seemed in order. The brickwork in these buildings is amazing. Signs of a time when people really cared about the look of what they were building.

      Maddie walked without a coat today, although the wind was a bit much for me. It was a quick walk where she got to sniff all the sniffs.

      I hope you’re having a nice week.

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  12. Such beautiful stately buildings! Thank you for the journey, Dan. Your photos have a way of opening our eyes to see that which we might otherwise drive past. 😊

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    • It’s funny that you say that, Gwen. Until I started participating in Thursday Doors with Norm, I didn’ tpay nearly as much attention to my surroundings. I would always notice interesting architecture, but focusing on doors has caused me to notice many buildings I would have missed. I’m glad you enjoyed these.

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    • My walk around Waterbury did let me see some interesting new(er) buildings. They give the downtown area signs of life, but they don’t bring the same charm to the green as these buildings do.

      The buildings you shared are all beautiful, In the end, I guess there’s room for everyone’s vision.

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  16. Hi Dan – I hope your Thursday Door participants are helping you … sounds like you have some good ideas. Waterbury – the Brass City – an interesting place … just cold to look at! All the best – Hilary

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    • The Brass City, indeed, Hilary. Interesting that you mention that. The administration building for St Mary’s School is on Scovill St. The Scovill Brass Works started in Waterbury in 1802 and operated for 175 years. I did some consulting work in Waterbury in the early 1980s, as most of the brass companies were approaching the end of their run.

      The participants of this challenge are the best!

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  18. Dan you are what is good in a community. You are going above and beyond to make it easy for people to share and to be seen by other people. That is what a good friend does. And you are one of the best. Even If there is no Maddie shot, I still really enjoy those buildings. I love old, ornate buildings.

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    • I am glad you like the buildings, Pam and I thank you for your kind words. Supporting this challenge, keeping up with my own blog and other projects is a balancing act, but if I can find an easy way to help the participants be a little more visible, then I am happy to do that.

      Maddie doesn’t mind giving up one day of being the feature (don’t tell MiMi I said that).

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    • Thanks Yvette. I don’t know if the admin building is boarded up or if those are just shades that are drawn, but all four buildings are abandoned for the most part. I don’t know what will become of them. I think the church is trying to sell them. The hospital is the most likely party to be interesting in the location, but I’m not sure they’d want to invest in preserving / repurposing the buildings. The cost to modernize them and open them as a school was estimated at several million dollars. As they stand, the maintenance manager said it costs over$70,000 a year to heat the buildings.

      Thanks for participating today. I love the excerpt you shared as well as your doors.

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    • I agree with you Ally. I also think the building might have the best chance of being repurposed. It’s a good size and it’s closer to downtown than St. Mary’s School. I also think a single building is easier to work with.

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  24. A super look at the Waterbury buildings. I get the sense that this area is somewhat underutilized. Margaret Croft School is huge. I’m sure the participants of Thursday Doors appreciate your efforts, Dan. Well done.

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    • I’m with you on the Margaret Croft school, John. I think that building has a lot of potential. St. Mary’s School has a lot of potential, but with so many buildings is such a sad state of repair, I don’t have al ot of hope for their future.

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  32. Applesauce! So many comments already. Thursday Doors is thriving under your leadership, Dan. Way to go.
    I really enjoyed this tour. It’s sad that the school buildings (or some of them) have closed. I hope they find a new purpose, and not a wrecking ball. The old apartment building is really pretty. And regardless of plywood, how could I not love that turret.
    Even though I’m only an occasional participant, I couldn’t resist something called “WuFoo” so I’ve filled out your form. LOL. Now I need to see if Netflix or IMBd has “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar.” Because I suddenly want to watch it. ;o) Hugs on the wing!

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    • Haha – that curious connection was unintentional, but I’m glad you filled out the form. Remember, if you ever need to skip the comments to leave yours, there’s a jump link that will get you here ASAP.

      I hope those school buildings can find new life. One thing they have going for them is a large number of alumni living in the area. So, if the city has to ask for support, they just might get it. On the other hand, if someone wants to tear them down, there could be resistance.

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    • I doubt too many people would pay the extra price to have color and texture added to a brick building today. It’s rare to see commercial buildings even being faced with brick. That’s why I hope these buildings can find a new purpose.

      I like your random doors. Thanks for joining us.

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  35. Dan, what’s all that white stuff? :-) I know I’ve said this before but I find the very different building style so interesting. Homes here are of course mostly Southwest/Spanish style. Where we are, most commercial buildings are only one or a few stories and not nearly as old, so very different. Downtown Phoenix has skyscraper-type buildings, but thankfully I haven’t been there yet, just driven past.

    https://sustainabilitea.wordpress.com/2021/02/25/thursday-doors-yellow-doors/

    janet

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    • The white stuff is on the way out. We’ve had two days in the 40s and the sun is hanging around a lot longer now. Pretty soon, we’ll be back to brown and gray.

      Waterbury is one of the older industrial cities in Connecticut. They built these buildings to stand next to government buildings and churches – they needed to look their best. Towns and cities with large town greens is a very different look than what I grew up with in western Pennsylvania. I wish these guys all the best in trying to preserve the charm. It’s going to take a lot of work and support.

      Your doors today were a bright sunny page to wake up to.

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    • There’s something special about large red brick buildings, especially when they took the time to add so many details. The building with the turret like structure on the corner is hard to beat in my mind. St. Mary’s is a wonderful complex. I hope they can find a new use for it.

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  38. These are all big buildings – great collection, Dan! Important: emergency doors. In August I spent 3 hours in front of those doors because Hubs had a nasty broken finger, and they did not want t let “visitors” in. Hubby was more perturbed about that fact than his broken finger! Love also the second row on the left, red with a little tower above the entrance.

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  39. My favorite door was the hospital door! I got my first dose of the COVID vaccine yesterday! I’m still breathing! Yeah! No Doors for you today I’m playing catch-up……..I’m sure you know how THAT goes…..See you next week, but I will read everyone’s post! LOVE your new Information page, I hate missing a post!

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  59. Gorgeous architecture is gorgeous!
    Is the recap page like what the old frog link up had been? There are times I may need you to insult my intelligence or be a bit more pedantic, I’m sorry to say.
    Really like the disclaimer language.

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  61. One way I know you and I would enjoy a trip together, Dan, is your habit of seeking out the nearest diner when you travel. Forget trendy eateries and fast-food joints (except in a pinch): I’ll take good comfort food any day.

    Liked by 1 person

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