In 1850 a small square building was erected to serve as a temporary lock-up near where the railway Depot is located today in village of Noank in Groton. In 1913 the building was sold and moved to its current lot at 87 Main Street in Noank. It was then used for various purposes over the years, including a barbershop, a speakeasy, and an insurance office, before becoming a private residence. Additions over time have included a rear kitchen, side garage, and a back porch.
Allen Avery (1838-1915) was a businessman in Mystic who was very active in the local community. He worked as a ship joiner before entering the undertaking business, later opening a furniture store and then engaging in the real estate. He is associated with several houses in Mystic, including his 1874 house on Pearl Street on the Groton side and a later house on East Main Street on the Stonington side. In about 1879 he also erected the building (pictured above) at 6 Pearl Street. It’s described in the National Register of Historic Places Nomination form for the Mystic River Historic District as a “1 1/2-story cottage with roof of four gables, one in each direction,” as well as “Italianate solid brackets at the eaves returns of the front gable.” Also, “Window caps have small brackets.”
As related in the booklet The Mystic River Historical Society: Our First 40 Years (researched and written by Patricia M. Schaefer) the building was purchased in 1985 by Sandor Balint, first violinist
of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. He and his wife Joyce, who was also a violinist, felt it was a good omen that the house had been owned in 1912 by a man named Welcome Fidler. According to Kelly Sullivan, Fidler was a carriage-maker from Woodville, Rhode Island, where he was the subject of frequent raids by the local authorities for running illegal saloons. He then relocated to the building on Pearl Street in Mystic, where he operated a lunch room and pool hall on the ground floor and lived upstairs. He had not left his old ways behind however, because in 1909 and again six years later, he was raided by the police, who seized quantities of whiskey.
At 18 Pearl Street in Mystic is a Greek Revival style house built in 1842. It was originally the home of John Batty, a spar maker in Mystic’s ship-building industry. As described in the nomination form for the Mystic River Historic District, the house’s “pediment has two right-angle triangular windows with diagonal muntins that form horizontal diamond glazing. The front wall under the pediment is flush vertical boards.”
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The Greek Revival-style residence at 82 Front Street in Noank was the home of James Potter, Jr., a ship captain. In June of 1863, during the Civil War, the Confederate bark C.S.S. Tacony spent two weeks raiding off the coast of New England. One of the fifteen Union ships the Tacony captured and burned was the fishing smack L. A. Macomber, Captain James Potter, Jr. of Noank. The crew were allowed to seek safety in their small boat, which was able to reach Woods Hole. The Tacony‘s career ended after the capture of the schooner Archer. The Confederate crew transferred to the new vessel and burned the Tacony on June 25, 1863.
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Thomas Jefferson Sawyer was a sea captain who was born on Mason’s Island in Stonington in 1807 and moved to the coastal village of Noank in Groton circa 1840, where he built the Greek Revival-style house that still stands at 72 Main Street. He was an organizer and leading member of the Fort Hill Baptist Church in Groton. Among his children was a son who, like his father, was also named after the third president.
The hip-roofed house at 19 Gravel Street in Mystic was built in 1861 by Capt. John E. Williams. His earlier house on the site, built in 1844, was moved to make way for the new house. Capt. Williams was known for being the captain of the clipper ship Andrew Jackson, which was called the “Fastest Ship in the World.” Built by the firm of Irons & Grinnell in Mystic, the ship made a famous run in 1859–1860 around Cape Horn from New York City to San Francisco, which was performed in 89 days and 4 hours. The only other square-rigged ship to perform an 89-day run driving from New York City to California was the Flying Cloud, an extreme clipper which did so twice (in 1851 and 1854), the faster of these times being 89 days and 8 hours. Many consider this to be the record passage, because it was for a completed voyage, anchor to anchor, while the Andrew Jackson‘s time was pilot to pilot as the ship had to spend the night waiting for a pilot boat and did not actually tie up at a San Francisco wharf until the next day.
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Thomas Eldredge, and his brothers George and Elam, purchased land on Gravel Street in Mystic from their father in 1842. Thomas erected the house at 31 Gravel Street soon after. The three brothers were all shipmasters and mariners. Thomas was a captain for over 45 years and was known as “the Commodore of the Mallory line.” He sold the house when he retired. He moved to New York and maintained a summer home in Mystic on Prospect Hill. After a fire in 1879 the house’s original roof was replaced with a Mansard roof.
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