Rouse Davis House (1846)

The house at 64 (66 in the nomination form for the Noank Historic District) Pearl Street in Noank was built in 1846. It is known as the Rouse Davis House. According to the Genealogical and Biographical Record of New London County, Connecticut (published by J.H. Beers & Company of Chicago, 1905):

Rouse Davis grew up at Westerly, [RI] and in early manhood went as a young farmer on Fisher’s Island, where he met the lady that later became his wife; she was Desire Brown, daughter of Peter Brown, of Stonington. After their marriage they lived for a time in Groton engaged in farming, and then moved to Quaugutaug Hill in Stonington. Mr. Davis was an industrious, reliable man, and was engaged in various kinds of work at Mystic, New London, Sag Harbor and Noank. His death took place in the present home of [his son] Capt. [Henry E.] Davis, in 1861, at the age of sixty-three years. His widow survived to the age of eighty-six years, dying in 1881. They were good, Christian people, members of the Baptist Church at Noank.

St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Mystic (1867)

Begun as a mission in 1859, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Mystic was organized as a parish in 1865. That same year, the parish acquired land at what is now 15 Pearl Street for a church. The cornerstone was laid in 1866 and the first service was held on Christmas Morning, 1867. Once the church was free from its large construction debt of $9,000, the building was dedicated on St. Mark’s Day, April 25, 1873. An education wing was erected in 1962.

Masonic Temple, Mystic (1911)

At 7 Gravel Street in Mystic is a building erected in 1911-1912 as a Masonic Temple for Charity & Relief Lodge No. 72. The Lodge had its origins as Charity Lodge No. 68, formed in 1825, which first met in Gurton Bill’s Tavern in Groton. The Lodge was inactive from 1846 to 1850 due to its members unwillingness to move to Mystic. After this move took place, the Lodge met on the Stonington side and then on the Groton side of the Mystic River. A split led to the creation in 1869 of Relief Lodge No. 71 on the other side of the river. Charity Lodge lost its rooms in the Central Hall Building on West Main Street due to a fire in 1880 and were invited to used Relief Lodge’s rooms until new quarters were found. The two lodges reunited in 1891-1892 to form Charity and Relief Lodge #72. After almost of century on Gravel Street, the Lodge faced declining membership and the lack of parking. It merged with Asylum Lodge No. 57 and Pawcatuck Lodge No. 90 to form Costal Lodge No. 57, which meets on Pequot Trail in Stonington. In January 2008, the former Masonic Temple on Gravel Street was sold to developers, who converted the building into two condominium units by 2010.

Capt. John Anthony Wolfe House (1809)

At 3 Gravel Street in Mystic is a house, built between 1809 and 1815, that was traditionally called the “Case Bottle House” because it resembled the shape of the cases in which bottles of liquor were once shipped. It is not the only house in the area to have had that title: the same name was applied to the Elijah Williams House in the village of Wolf Neck in Stonington (noted in The Homes of Our Ancestors in Stonington, Conn. (1903), by Grace Denison Wheeler). The house on Gravel Street was built by Capt. John Anthony Wolfe and has been much altered and enlarged over the years. Restored in 1951, it is now a commercial property, home to Grover Insurance.