Downtown New London Historic District (Boundary Increase)

About this property

The Downtown New London Historic District, also known as the Waterfront Historic District, refers to 78 acres (32 ha) with 222 contributing buildings along the waterfront of New London, Connecticut. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1979, with 190 buildings and 60 acres (24 ha). The district was expanded in 1988, adding 18 acres (7.3 ha) and 33 buildings. Bank Street is so named because it sits atop the bank of the Thames River. It is one of New London's oldest sections and was once dominated by fishing wharves and tall ships. Benedict Arnold led British forces through New London in 1781, burning much of the city to the ground during the American Revolutionary War. The waterfront was subsequently rebuilt and the roadway was raised to accommodate additional development and larger ships. the Shaw Mansion, built in 1753, which served as Connecticut Navy Headquarters during the American Revolution Bukeley House, built in 1796; the original owner of this house served with John Paul Jones New London Customhouse, built in 1833, the oldest such building continuously operated in the United States the Brown House at 258 Bank Street at the intersection of Tilley Street, built in 1833 in the Federal/Greek Revival style for Benjamin Brown, using the same materials as the Custom House including granite quarried from the ledge behind the house the site of the events surrounding the slave ship La Amistad State Street runs east–west through the District from Huntington Street to Water Street and is lined with 19th-century buildings. Notable exceptions are the 1787 New London County Courthouse at the head of State Street, which was separately designated to the NRHP and is not part of the District, and the 1740 Timothy Green printing studio off State and Green Streets. At one time the 1774 Nathan Hale School House was located on State Street, but it has been moved to Atlantic Street north of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument. Leopold Eidlitz's First Church of Christ (Congregational), was a Gothic Revival structure built in 1850, located at the corner of State and Union Streets. On 25 January 2024, the spire collapsed, and the building was destroyed beyond repair. the 1856 First Baptist Church at 268 State Street, designed in the Italianate style by William T. Hallett Eidlitz's Romanesque Revival Harris Place (1885) at 159 State Street, a mixed-use building which housed offices, eight luxury apartments, and the Hislop, Porteus & Mitchell department store Lyric Hall (1898) at 243 State Street, designed by James Sweeney, which had a small theater used for lectures and music and dance recitals

Location

Categories

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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