The Art League of New Britain, at 30 Cedar Street, is the second oldest art league in the United States. Founded in 1928 as an art school with day and evening sessions, it became an art club in 1934 where artists could work together and gather socially. Its first president, Sanford B.D. Low, former director of the New Britain Museum of American Art, was central to its early success, and the Sanford B.D. Low Gallery honors his legacy. The League's home was once local industrialist George Post's stable and carriage house, later passing through A.J. Sloper and William C. Hungerford; after Judge Hungerford had allowed the League to use the stable during his lifetime, his widow deeded the property to the League after his death. Built in stages beginning shortly after the Civil War, the richly ornamented mid-Victorian Stick-style complex included stables, a hayloft, cast iron water troughs, trap doors for hay delivery, a probable tack room, later kitchen and bathroom areas, and a final addition that now houses the Meta Lacey Gallery, with cupolas that vented heat and odors. The Studio was said to have transformed New Britain's social life by bringing together artists and people from many occupations, and the League continues to preserve the carriage house and keep it open to the public. New Britain's founding industrial and civic leaders included Seth Judd North, who helped start the city's first industry in 1812 and worked to bring the state's first teachers college to New Britain; Frederick T. Stanley, founder and longtime president of The Stanley Works, who promoted the railroad, water works, and city government; Cornelius B. Erwin, builder of successful businesses and a major benefactor to colleges and local institutions; George M. Landers, hardware manufacturer, public servant, and supporter of the Civil War Soldiers Monument; William Hart, longtime Stanley Works leader who advanced sales, became president, perfected cold rolling steel for building hardware, and invented the telescoping box; Justus A. Traut, a German-born inventor who developed more than 300 patented tool improvements and helped make the Stanley Rule and Level Company famous; Philip Corbin, hardware manufacturer and brief automobile producer whose P and F Corbin Company supplied prominent buildings and later joined American Hardware Corporation; and John Talcott, industrialist, mayor, and philanthropist who funded the establishment of the New Britain Museum of American Art.