Robert Coit House (1856)

The Robert Coit House is a brick Italianate house on Federal Street, facing the mouth of Prospect Street, in New London. It was built in 1856 for Robert Coit (1785-1874), a merchant who dealt in lumber and coal and owned a chandlery, which outfitted ships for whaling voyages. Coit was also a founder of the Saving Bank of New London, formed in 1827, and served as the bank’s president from 1852 to 1858. The house originally had a wooden bay window over the front that was later removed and bricked in.

The Thames Club (1904)

The Thames Club, Connecticut’s oldest social club and the third oldest in New England, was founded in 1869 and later acquired its first permanent home in a residence built in 1838 at the corner of State and Washington Streets in New London. After the house burned down in 1904, it was replaced by a new clubhouse at the same location, completed the following year. Unlike the house that preceded it at 290 State Street, the new Thames Club building‘s entrance was designed to face uphill to the north, instead of facing State Street. The building was designed by Ewing and Chappell of New York. Architect George Chappell was the son of A.H. Chappell, a member of the Thames Club.

Garde Arts Center (1926)

This weekend we’ll be looking at three surviving Connecticut movie palaces, now restored as theatres. First up is the Garde Theatre in New London, which opened in 1926. It was one of six new movie palaces being built at the time in Connecticut and Massachusetts by Arthur Friend, a New York movie studio attorney and early partner of Cecil B. DeMille, and was nemed for Walter Garde, a pominent businessman. The Art Deco building, the work of architect Arland Johnson, featured a lavish Moorish and Egyptian Revival interior, typical of the movie palaces of the time that sought to create an exotic atmosphere. The Garde‘s early Vaudeville performances were eventually completely supplanted by motion pictures and the theater was owned by Warner Brothers from 1929 to 1978. Since 1985, the building has been the Garde Arts Center and has been extensively restored and and adapted as a theatre for the performing arts.

Officers’ Quarters at Fort Trumbull (1830)

Known as Stone Row, the Officers’ Quarters at Fort Trumbull in New London were built around 1830 and housed military officers for over a century and a half. Until 1910, army officers occupied quarters in the building, followed by officers of the Revenue Cutter Service, the Coast Guard and finally the Navy, who converted it to offices in 1995. The building once had small wood dormer windows, but the Coast Guard replaced these with full-length shed dormers along both sides of the building. In 2000, the structure was adapted to serve as the Visitors’ Center for Fort Trumbull State Park.

90 Bank Street, New London (1860)

The stone Romanesque Revival block of connected buildings at 90-94 Bank Street in New London were built around 1860 (a sidewalk plaque indicates 1876). The commercial building was used by A.B. Currier, an auctioneer, around 1873 and was later home to Darrow & Comstock, ship chandlers. The New London Day newspaper began publishing on the building’s second floor in 1881. More recently, the building has housed Roberts Audio Video store, with the upper floors being used as a residence.

New London City National Bank (1905)

The New London Bank was founded in 1807 and in 1865 was reorganized as the New London City National Bank. It was New London’s second bank, following the establishment of the Union Bank in 1792, and its founding made New London the state’s first city to have two banks. According to A Modern History of New London County, Vol. 2 (1922):

The old stone building on Bank street, which was built for this institution in 1820 and was occupied by it for eighty-five years, was in most respects sufficient for the need of former days, but in 1905 it seemed evident that the time had come for increased facilities, and the present structure was erected, covering the old site and also the land extending to the corner of Golden street. This is a modern building, with a well protected vault and such other equipment as the business of the bank has thus far required.

In 1953 the bank became part of the Shawmut National Corporation. Today the building is a branch of Liberty Bank.

Huntington Street Baptist Church (1843)

The Greek Revival-style Huntington Street Baptist Church in New London was built in 1843 and was originally a Universalist church. It was designed and built by John Bishop, a member of the church, who was inspired the book, The Beauties of Modern Architecture (1835), by Minard LaFever, a prominent architect of churches in the early nineteenth century. Financial difficulties led the Universalists to sell the church in 1849 to a Baptist congregation. As explained in Frances Manwaring Caulkins‘s History of New London (1860):

A third Baptist church was constituted March 14th, 1849, by a division of one hundred and eighty-five members from the first church. This society purchased the brick church in Huntington Street, built six years previous by the Universalist society, for $12,000, and dedicated it as their house of worship, March 29th, 1849. Sermon by Rev. J. S. Swan, who was the chief mover in the enterprise, founder and pastor of the church. In 1850, the number of members was three hundred and eleven.

Jabez Smith Swan was a prominent preacher and hymnist (pdf link)