Former Meriden Castle Bank & Trust Company
In the shadow of the Hanover and Harbor Towers, a two-story brick building stood for more than a century. Built in 1910, it watched Meriden rise, fall, and try again. The address changed with the times, and those changes tell the city’s story in miniature. On April 12, 1999, the doors opened as Castle Bank and Trust, an FDIC-insured community bank. For 10 years, it handled paychecks, mortgages, and savings accounts for people who lived a short walk away. On August 8, 2009, the bank merged with Naugatuck Savings Bank. Within four years, the brand shifted to Ion Bank, part of a wave of name changes and mergers across small-town banking. After the last deposit slip was filed, the building kept working. Visiting Nurse Services Inc. of Southern Connecticut moved in. A local campaign set up its headquarters there during the election season. Then a church, Elohim Casa De Dios, turned the space into a place of worship. The floors and walls absorbed a lot of everyday life. The city era came ne...