When Cass Gilbert died during a 1934 trip to England, the London Times wrote that his buildings proved him “the most remarkable architect of his generation in America.”
Widow Julia Gilbert set about creating a Ridgefield memorial to her distinguished husband — a quasi-public library to house the papers, drawings, and artifacts from his career. Architect-son Cass Jr. built a Georgian-style red-brick building that echoed his father’s own design vocabulary. Some 150 guests, led by Connecticut Gov. Wilbur Cross, attended the dedication in October 1937.
The structure never did fulfill its intended purpose. Within a few years, it had been converted to a distinctive-looking Main Street residence for members of Gilbert’s extended family, a one-acre parcel carved out of the original Lott II footprint, and the first major subdivision since it was settled almost 250 years before.
The historic tavern property next door passed out of the Gilberts’ hands in 1957. The next year, Dr. Robert Mead acquired the one-time memorial building as a professional office and home.
KTM’s acquisition recovers the parcel, re-unites it under a single ownership, and will restore the building to its original purpose, this time as much-needed complementary space for our programs in citizenship and culture. With this adaptive reuse of 152 Main Street, we can demonstrate that there are second and even third acts in the lives of American buildings.
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