The Elton Hotel, Waterbury
Near New Haven, Connecticut
The Elton Hotel opened in Waterbury in nineteen oh four at the height of the city's brass industry boom and quickly became the social anchor of downtown. Waterbury was producing roughly a third of all the brass goods made in the United States at the time, and the Elton hosted the industrialists, salesmen, and financiers who moved in and out of the city on that wealth. Its Beaux-Arts facade on the Green gave Waterbury the cosmopolitan hotel it felt it deserved.
The hotel operated through most of the twentieth century, surviving the long decline of the brass industry that hollowed out Waterbury's downtown. It later became an assisted living facility, and is now individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a contributing property in the Downtown Waterbury Historic District. The building stands as one of the most intact reminders of the city's industrial-era confidence.
