Connecticut Mutual lays cornerstone for its new building

1. American flags and the company’s banners draped the iron girders of the building.
2. The speakers all stood on a wooden platform around the cornerstone.
3. Jacob H. Greene assisted with the ceremony from the platform.
4. Guests of honor included:

• Samuel T. Chase
• Peter M. Fraser
• Michael A. Schwartz
• George B. Tannery

5. The audience was arranged as follows:

• Dignitaries, including Norman Stevens and officials of the company, sat in a reserved section on the first floor of the building.
• Henry S. Robinson and Marion C. Armstrong viewed the ceremony from a limousine.
• Spectators watched from high ground in front of the building.

6. According to the coverage of the event, “three or four Grand Army men” attended the event to see Robert H. Kellogg.
7. The luncheon was attended by officers and directors of the company.

The article that covered this event, published on October 15, 1925, referred in its headline to the “third cornerstone” laid by Connecticut Mutual.  This was a reference to the third building that Connecticut Mutual had built:  the first at the corner of Pearl and Main, the second an addition to the first building that ran along Pearl Street, and third, this building on Garden Street.  However, according to the preview article published on October 14, 1925, the cornerstone laid today was the first cornerstone it had laid:  “The records of the company have been searched for indications of the placing of a cornerstone in the building construction in 1872 and again for the building addition in 1902 but without success.  On this account the company is giving particular attention to the ceremony to be held on Wednesday [10/14/1925] noon.”

Ground was probably broken for the new home office building on April 13, 1925.

A construction worker will be killed on site on December 3, 1925.

1. Robert H. Kellogg had been a prisoner of war at Andersonville. He also served as the model for a memorial to Connecticut soldiers who served in the Civil War at the State Capitol.
2. Samuel T. Chase was considered the “dean of general agents” at Connecticut Mutual.
3. I’ve seen some typos and printing errors as I’ve read through 19^th century articles from the Courant, but this one beats all: “It was through the medium of the guarantee fund that the company was able to determine the plan of insurance to be written and the choice was made of that of a mutual company.  116Mu Sliabiportambuccummm”

1. “Mayor Stevens has accepted an invitation to be present extended by Vice-president James Lee Loomis, which states that ‘the city of Hartford has an interest, and, we hope, much pride and satisfaction in the progress of our insurance companies.”
2. “The construction work has progressed rapidly and it is expected to have the building under cover before the winter sets in and ready for occupancy some time early next summer.”
3. “Although the Connecticut Mutual is now embarked upon the construction of a third home office building during its history of seventy-nine years this is the first time, as far as the records of the company disclose, where a ‘cornerstone’ has been laid. The records of the company have been searched for indications of the placing of a cornerstone in the building construction in 1872 and again for the building addition of 1902 but without success.  On this account the company is giving particular attention to the ceremony to be held on Wednesday noon.”
4. From Loomis’s opening remarks: “For these and all sunch new relationships to be created here in future years we seal this cornerstone today.  We have been impelled to come here by a desire and hope that this building and all it signifies will succeed.  Your presence indiciates more than this, it speaks your faith that the Connecticut Mutual will propser and grow, and your willingness to back that faith with your individual work, for faith without work is dead.”
5. From Kellogg’s address:

• “Mr. Loomis and men of the Connecticut Mutual, I wish to express my high sense of the honor conferred upon myself and other representatives in the field, in being privileged to have a share in this interesting occasion. I count it one of the highest honors and one of the greatest privileges of my whole life.”
• “As a schoolboy I attended the Hartford High School, at the corner of Ann and Asylum streets, where there was a very high board fence between the girls’ playground and that of the boys, and with no provision for a neutral zone in which ‘sparking’ might be done. Please take notice that I say ‘sparking’ and not ‘parking.’”
• “There was a desk used by Dr. Guy R. Phelps, pretty well worn, and showing his hand as a whittler. It was a very plain affair, but all the early work of the Connecticut Mutual was done upon it.”
• “I was going to say that it is not well to dwell too long upon the past. You all know about Lot’s wife, what the result of her prolonged backward look was.  The outcome was petrification.  That seems to be the law of life.  We must look and go forward, and not backward.  I am reminded of the words of the Old Testament prophet.  ‘And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, go forward, out of the wilderness, and into the promised land, into a land flowing with milk and honey.’  That has been the way with the Connecticut Mutual:  step by step it has forged its way to the very front in the underwriting profession.”
• “I long ago dreamed of the time when this business of ours would rank with the learned and legal professions. And with medicine, and the Gospel ministry, and be generally recognized as a leading profession, and it has reached that point.”

1. E. Chester Sparver was the editor of publications for Connecticut Mutual.
2. James Lee Loomis was vice president of Connecticut Mutual.
3. Robert H. Kellogg was the oldest living employee of Connecticut Mutual. He had worked for the company for 50 years.
4. Henry S. Robinson was president of Connecticut Mutual.
5. Henry C. Irons was the builder of the new home office building.
6. Benjamin Wistar Morris was the architect.
7. Peter M. Fraser was Connecticut Mutual’s general agent in New York City, and his general agency there produced the largest volume of business among general agents.
8. Jacob H. Greene was the secretary of Connecticut Mutual.
9. Samuel T. Chase was Connecticut Mutual’s general agent in Chicago, and he was the longest serving general agent among those currently active in the company. He was considered the “dean of general agents.”
10. Michael A. Schwartz was an agent under Peter Fraser in New York City. He was the largest producer of paid premiums in the company for the year ending August 15, 1925.
11. George B. Tannery worked for the agency in Albany, NY. He wrote the largest number of life insurance policy for the year ending August 15, 1925.
12. Norman Stevens was mayor of Hartford.
13. Marion C. Armstrong was Henry S. Robinson’s wife.

Unattributed.  “Conn. Mutual lays third cornerstone,” Hartford Courant, October 15, 1925, page 10.

Unattributed.  “Conn. Mutual Life lays cornerstone today for its new home office,” Hartford Courant, October 14, 1925, page 11.

Unattributed.  “Conn. Mutual plans cornerstone laying,” Hartford Courant, October 12, 1925, page 16.