Southern New England Telephone Company Administration Building

For the similarly named Art Deco building in Hartford, see Southern New England Telephone Company Building.

Southern New England Telephone Company Administration Building
Location within Connecticut Southern New England Telephone Company Administration Building (the United States)
Alternative names	The Eli
General information
Status	Completed
Type	Mixed-Use
Architectural style	Art Deco
Location	227 Church Street New Haven Connecticut
Coordinates	41°18′33″N 72°55′25″W
Construction started	1937
Topped-out	1938
Estimated completion	1938
Height
Antenna spire	230 ft (70 m)
Roof	196 ft (60 m)
Technical details
Floor count	17
Floor area	45,720 square metres (492,100 sq ft)
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Roy W. Foote, Douglas Orr
Main contractor	Dwight Building Company
Southern New England Telephone Company Administrative Building
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
NRHP reference No.	97001447
Added to NRHP	November 24, 1997

The Eli, formerly the Southern New England Telephone Company Administration Building, is a skyscraper at 227 Church Street in downtown New Haven, Connecticut. Completed in 1938, it is the city's finest example of Art Deco architecture, and was headquarters to the Southern New England Telephone Company (SNET), which oversaw the building of the state's telephone networks. Designed by Douglas Orr and Roy W. Foote, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

Description and history

The Eli is located at the junction of Church and Wall Streets in downtown New Haven, one block north of the New Haven Green in the city's commercial business district. It has seventeen stories, and is built out of a steel frame whose exterior is clad mainly in Indiana granite. A low pink granite wall delineates the property line on Church Street. It rises as a rectangular monolith for thirteen floors, with the upper stories stepped back in stages. The two street-facing facades have two-story entrance pavilions that project. The Art Deco styling includes designs and depictions related to communications, including Classical style human figures wielding lightning bolts. The interior lobby area, also two stories in height, continues these themes, and is richly finished in a variety of materials.

The former headquarters of the Southern New England Telephone Company (SNET), the Art Deco building was completed in 1938, and was the tallest building in the city until 1966 (it is currently the tenth-tallest building in New Haven's skyline). Some 1,200 SNET employees worked in the office building after its completion. The company was one of New Haven's largest employers, and was responsible for the growth of the telephone system in the entire state. Beginning in 2004, the building was converted to a luxury apartment building and rechristened "The Eli"; it now is home to 142 apartments and two storefronts.

The building is regarded as New Haven's "premier" example of Art Deco architecture, and displays one of the area's most extensive employment of Stony Creek pink granite.

See also

• National Register of Historic Places listings in New Haven, Connecticut