Imperial Granum-Joseph Parker Buildings, New Haven

The Imperial Granum-Joseph Parker Buildings, also historically known as the Del Monico Building, are a striking pair of conjoined 19th-century commercial buildings located at the corner of Elm and Orange Streets in downtown New Haven, Connecticut—just a block east of the iconic New Haven Green.

Built in 1875 (Parker) and 1877 (Imperial Granum), the two buildings showcase some of the city’s finest surviving examples of late 19th-century commercial architecture. Notably, the Imperial Granum Building retains New Haven’s only surviving cast-iron facade on a ground floor—a rare architectural detail in the city, where cast iron was never widely adopted. This feature, along with the richly ornamented masonry and stylized classical detailing, earned the buildings a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

The Parker Building, constructed from red brick, anchors the street corner and originally served as a warehouse for a paper manufacturer. Its modern ground-floor facade is designed to echo the style of its narrower neighbor, the Imperial Granum. Above the ground level, its windows are rectangular with peaked stone lintels, while the Orange Street side includes blinded window bays and a secondary entrance.

Next door, the Imperial Granum Building—named after a patent medicine sold by its owner, Edward Heaton—features more elaborate upper-level window surrounds with segmented arches, engaged columns, and decorative cornices. For many years, an advertisement for Imperial Granum adorned its southeastern wall.

Architecturally, both buildings have been attributed to designers from Henry Austin’s office: David R. Brown for the Parker Building and Rufus G. Russell for the Imperial Granum. In 1945, the two structures came under single ownership and were internally joined on the upper floors via a shared staircase and party wall openings.

Today, these well-preserved buildings continue to make their mark in downtown New Haven, with the ground floor home to Del Monico’s hat shop, adding a dash of retail charm to their historic legacy.