Bridge Builder

Architect.

As a boy growing up in rural Connecticut, Ithiel Town excelled at doing the intricate carpentry necessary to build the massive timber-frame houses common still in the New England landscape. Moving to Boston as a young adult, Town continued to pursue building design under the tutelage of one of the nation's best-known authors of architectural books, Asher Benjamin. Town launched his professional career as an architect by designing and building the Center Church on the town green in New Haven, Connecticut. He managed to build the spire of the church inside the tower and then lift it into place in less than three hours using a special windlass. His reputation established, Town won commissions to design several important public buildings across the country, including the Wall Street Customshouse, state buildings in New Haven and Indianapolis, and Christ Church in Hartford, Connecticut. Town...