Morning journal and courier., 1883-07-23
auurusI srtS GGlrisr.
Monday, July 23, 1888.
The Nov Armory.
The Second Regiment Building on Mead
 SNraAf.

The Second Regiment Building on Mead
 Ow Street.
 The elegant new armory building of the Second regiment on Meadow street is now substantially finished and will be turned over to the companies which are to occupy it this week. It is in all respects 8 suitable build ing. It Is large, roomy and handsome. It has very commanding front with founda- tions six feet high of rock-faced Portland brown stone. The building is 256x1O7 feet and there are three floors and cellar in the front. The body of the structure on the street above the foundation is of Fair Haven brick, laid in black mortar and terminating in turretted battlement walls capped with stone, the buttresses also being topped off with the same. All the outside trimmings are of Portland stone and over the wide front en- trance on the main floor Is half circle Of graceful terra cotta work, having radius of five and a half feet and bearing the coat of arms and motto of Connecticut. This was l the work of Fair Haven artists and directly beneath it, in square cut letters of freestone, l is the name of the structure. The armory has 8 larger clear floor in it's drill room, probably, than any building in the State. | The walls of the drill room, running back | from the front, are of common brick, six ! tresses twenty four inches thick, which sup port the great circular Howe trusses that bear up the immense surface of roofing.
 The drill room is of immense size, being | 190x1OO feet and there is 8 space of 31 feet | from the floor to the eleven trusses which
 support the roof. The floor is of yellow pine planking laid on sleepers in cement directly upon the ground, making it perfectly solid. At the rear end of this floor are four compa nv rooms with accoutFement apartments di- rectly alongside of each, which latter ar
 rangement is a manifest improvement over all armories in the country, as it will enable the men to make all changes in their dress outside of their main rooms. At the from or street end of the building are two more
 company rooms and a ladies' and the armor I CTS apartment and 8 chamber for the Cat
 l1ng gun. The brick walls of the drill room
 are to be painted soft color with the vain
 scoting of darker shade.
 The system of ventilation, by means of the
 tier of large windows running the length ol
 the peak of the building, is evidently per
 feet. In addition there are circular windows | set in the brick work of the walls, midway
 between the floor and the trusses.
 The large front and rear galleries com, mapd a perfect view of the drill room as it | appears from under the sweeping trusses. They will seat 600 people. At the rear end l of the building are two additional company rooms and a squad drill room, while in the ! front are rooms for the colonel, adjutant, | field and staff officers, non-commissioned stan, quartermaster, board of officers and | stores The various apartments will be | lighted with gas, while the drill hall will be l illuminated with six full-powered electric lights room in the third story of tho front will be used by the band and drum corps. The various companies are expected to fit up their own apartments.
 In the cellar, which extends only under the front of the armory, are rooms for stores, a steam heater with two large boilers, commodious lavatory, and connections with the toilet rooms i'll the ladies' and of ficers' apartments on the first and second floors. All precautions have been taken to insure proper ventilation. The most notice able feature in this part of the building, how ever, is the shooting gallery, which extends under the south side of the armory, is who'll ly under ground and is of stone, arched with brick, six feet wide by four feet high and two hundred and sixty feet long. large hood like and inverted funnel hangs over the mouth to the gallery to draw ont the smoke of the guns as they are discharged, and which passes up and out into the open air through a heated fue. By this means the gallery will be kept free from smoke, while at the further end brick room is so arranged | that the target tender is placed beyond the possibility of injury. A gas light will fall upon the face of the target, and the man in | attendance will indicate to the marksmen by means of @ code of signals the results of their firing. The building is one of the finest oi l it's kind in the country and is a great credit
 to all who have been connected with it.