Barnum/Palliser Historic District

The Barnum/Palliser Development is an urban-scaled neighborhood of innovatively-designed working-class housing. It is associated with the real estate development aspect of the life of the important 19th-century showman P.T. Barnum; is reflective of his relationship with and philanthropic attitude toward those of a less favored social class, an important late-19th-century trend, and is primarily the work of the nationally-known architectural firm of Palliser, Palliser & Company. Of the four moderate-income housing developments this Bridgeport-based firm is known to have been responsible for in that city, this represents the only instance where the principals were actually owners of some of the properties, as well as the only such development that consists mostly of double houses. The work of another major architect, Warren R. Briggs, is also represented in the District in both earlier and later portions of the Myrtle Avenue School.

The land occupied by the District was purchased by Barnum in 1876 from the estate of Ezra Wheeler Development commenced at once in 1882 (the Bridgeport Standard reported "Very few people have a correct idea of the rapid improvement in the southern part of the city and of the numerous buildings now in progress below the railroad between Broad Street and Park Avenue, there being over fifty houses by actual count now in process of construction in that portion, all of which are of a good class, well built and designed...').

Although the attribution of the majority of the District's buildings (all but the ones they themselves owned) to the Palliser firm remains circumstantial due to a lack of concrete evidence, the hand of a single master planner is at once apparent in the interrelationship of the buildings on these blocks. Barnum had employed the Pallisers extensively on his development of Cottage Street in the years between 1875 and 1882", and his endorsement of their work appeared in at least one Palliser publication. Perhaps the final word on the attribution is spoken eloquently by the designs published in Palliser's American Architecture (1878), to which the structures in the District have an unmistakable similarity.

According to City of Bridgeport Land Records, P.T. Barnum was the holder of mortgages on at least some of the properties. It is also possible that he may have subsidized the construction of the Palliser-owned buildings by giving the Palliser Brothers free land to spur other construction, a practice he is known to have employed in his development of East Bridgeport'. A South End resident himself, Barnum was an eager advocate of any project which would help effect the evolution of the integrated worker/industrialist community he envisioned.

In styling, the double houses of the District were less bound to the dictums of a restricted budget than smaller single houses would have been. Their detailing could almost be considered opulent (the newspaper noted "These houses are odd in design and are very elaborate, both internally and externally. . .each house is painted in very striking colors entirely different from its neighbor"), and these structures were sincere reflections of the aspirations of the Arts and Crafts Movement espoused by Charles Eastlake, William Morris and Oscar Wilde. Michael Tomlan, in his introduction to a compendium of the Pallisers' works, wrote "They were among the foremost disseminators of architectural designs of their time. Perhaps even more important (was) their desire to raise the level of popular taste and practical understanding of design". George and Charles Palliser's position at the forefront of late-19th century design practices is underscored by the sophisticated layout and decoration of these working-class houses 10. They eloquently demonstrate Barnum's commitment to elevating the quality of the housing stock of his adopted city.

The publications of the Palliser firm as well as their position as the originators of the practice of "mail-order architecture" in America are perhaps too well known to necessitate an explanation in this text. The District takes on added significance, however, when it is noted that both George and Charles Palliser lived in one of the development houses for several years before their removal to New York City (373-7, Myrtle Avenue) and that at least one of their understudies lived in an adjoining house. The Pallisers, who ran widely-circulated advertisements which stated that they were" prepared to receive a limited number of suitable young men as students in practical architecture" had in their employ at one time, or another such later-renown architects as Warren R. Briggs and Walter F. Stickles 15. Also, several of the development masons, plasterers, and other tradesmen and contractors may well have found employment on Palliser projects 16.

The Barnum-Palliser Development is an example of an "artistic" architectural mode applied to a class of housing that most other architects ignored. It is an important chapter in the history of American architecture and its concern with the problem of housing workers in the growing 19th-century Industrial cities.