Dr. Lord’s Hall (1765)

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The front section of the building known as Dr. Lord’s Hall was possibly built as early as 1765 by Thomas Griffing, on Main Street in Stonington Borough. In 1811, the lot is described as having a shop and a house. In 1814, Dr. William Lord became the building’s owner through a defaulted mortgage. He enlarged it and gutted the second floor, installing a sprung floor so that dance classes could be held, even though, at the time, a revival movement was underway and the Baptist church nearby disapproved of dancing. Later, the first Stonington Band practiced in the house and the band’s practice room was used for Episcopal services from 1844 to 1849, while a church was being built. In later years, the house was a tenement and a grocery store, but is now a private home. Dr. Lord’s own residence, no longer standing, was nearby on Main Street.

The Joseph Teel House (1789)

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The Joseph Teel House, on the Chelsea Parade Green in Norwich, is a three-story brick Federal-style mansion, with a hip roof, built in 1789-90. It was originally built to be a tavern and inn: At the Sign of General Washington. The house was later occupied by a boarding school, run by William Woodbridge, and was for many years the home of General William Williams. He donated 7 1/2 acres to the Norwich Free Academy and his wife, Harriet Peck Williams, founded the Peck Library (1859) at the Academy (in honor of her father, Capt. Bela Peck of the Continental Army) and the Williams School in New London. The house next served as the parsonage of the Park Congregational Church and then the Norwich Free Academy headmaster’s house. The house is now for sale.

The Oliver Mather House (1777)

Colonel Oliver Mather was born in 1749 and married Jemima Elsworth, the sister of Oliver Ellsworth, in 1778. Their eldest son, also named Oliver, graduated from Yale in 1799. The Mather House, on Broad Street in Windsor, was built the year before the colonel’s marriage. Mather died in 1829 and around 1840 the house was remodeled, adding a heavy balustrade along the roof and above a square hip-roofed entry porch. In 1901, the building became the home of the Windsor Public Library (founded in 1895). Early on, the librarian lived in the house and the library was in a one-story addition to the house. Further additions have since been made and the front facade has been restored to a colonial appearance.

Capt. Nathaniel B. Palmer House (1852)

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As a young sea captain in 1820, while searching for new seal rookeries south of Cape Horn, Nathaniel Brown Palmer became the first American to discover Antarctica. Palmer Land, on the Antarctic Peninsula, and the Palmer Archipelago are named in his honor. Later, Palmer helped develop the clipper ship and became a successful ship owner. A biography of “Captain Nat”, titled Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer, An Old-Time Sailor of the Sea, by John R. Spears, was published in 1922. An icebreaking research ship, named the Nathaniel B. Palmer, was launched in 1992. Palmer’s 1852 Italian Villa style mansion, located on Palmer Street in Stonington, overlooks the upper section of Stonington Harbor and is one of four stately homes built in the area of Lambert’s Cove in the 1850s. The house was acquired by the Stonington Historical Society in 1994 and is now open to visitors as a house museum.