Built circa 1858, the house at 39 Church Street in Noank was originally the home of William Gadson Rathbun (1831-1913), known as Captain Bill Gad Rathbun. He went to sea as a boy, but in 1849 headed to California for the Gold Rush. Returning after three years he resumed a life at sea, being master of several sailing vessels during his career. In the 1890s Rathbun served as postmaster during the second administration of President Grover Cleveland.
The house at 29 Pearl Street in Noank was built in 1840 for Ray S. Wilbur.
The house at 11 Cove Street in Noank was built in 1880 and has a modern entrance porch. It was the home of Cornelius Fowler, who may be the same Cornelius Fowler who was a veteran of the Civil War, serving in the Twenty-First Regiment Infantry Regiment. Cornelius and his brother, Sylvester Crossman Fowler (1848-1919), were lobster fisherman.
The building at 55 Sylvan Street in Noank, formerly used as a church, was built in 1902-1903. It combines elements of the Gothic and Shingle styles with distinctive Art Nouveau windows. As related in Historic Groton (1909):
The Methodist church was formed as a chapel, partially dependent on the conference for support, in the year 1878. After years of using what was known as the chapel, it became advisable to build a better and larger house, which was done in 1903. They have now an auditorium with a seating capacity of two hundred and fifty to three hundred, fitted with modern improvements. A well equipped kitchen and Sunday school rooms are below the main auditorium.
The Noank Methodist Church later merged with the Groton Methodist Church to form Christ United Methodist Church, which moved to a new building at 200 Hazelnut Hill Road in 1972. The former Noank Church was converted into a residence.
In 1850, Robert Palmer and his brother started a shipyard in Noank that would be continued until the death of Robert’s son, Robert Palmer, Jr. (1856-1914). The Palmer shipyard became the largest business enterprise in Noank. Robert Palmer, Jr. resided in the grand Colonial Revival-style house at 25 Church Street in Noank, built in 1907. His biography is related in Genealogical and Biographical Record of New London County, Connecticut (1905):
Robert Palmer, Jr., was born Feb. 15, 1856, and he received his education in the schools at Noank and Mystic, and at Scholfield’s Business College, at Providence, R.I., finishing the latter at the age of twenty-one. He entered his father’s employ, and has thoroughly familiarized himself with every branch of the business. In 1877 he was admitted to partnership, the firm name being Robert Palmer & Son, which was afterward changed to Robert Palmer & Sons. On Dec. 10, 1897, when a stock company was formed, Mr. Palmer became the secretary and treasurer, and has proved himself a most important factor in the progress of the Palmer shipyard. He has shown himself a genius as a shipwright, and under his direction the Company has built several fast boats of unique design, which have carried off a number of regatta prizes.
The “Irma,” built in 1894, and owned by Fred Allen of Galveston, Texas, was one of the first of these prize winners, showing remarkable adaptability for racing in both the calm waters of the Bay, and the rough waters of the Gulf. She was thrice a prize winner, and became known as the “Queen of the Gulf.”
The “Novice,” built a year later, strictly of original design, a sail boat 27 feet long and 10 feet wide, proved a wonder, easily distancing all class boats, and taking the prize over all the noted boats and yachts in Southern waters. She was of the skimming dish type with an overhanging end, and a center-board.
The “Jennie,” a steam yacht 33 feet long, 8 feet beam, attracted much attention among yachtsmen along the Atlantic coast.
The “Gleam,” a 24-foot cat boat, but eligible to the 20-foot class, was built in 1895, and won three of a series of races at Bushby Point, July 11, 25, and 31, 1896.
In March, 1881, Mr. Palmer married Miss Elizabeth L. Murphy, of Noank, daughter of Charles and Nancy Murphy. Their only child, Bernard Ledyard, died March 5, 1885, aged two years and eleven months. Like his distinguished father, Robert Palmer, Jr., has long been an interested participant in the political life of his locality, a representative and influential member of the Republican party. The same high standard of citizenship that has so long characterized the Palmer family at Noank, is found in him. In 1886 he represented the town in the Connecticut Legislature, serving on the committee on Appropriations. He is a prominent member and liberal supporter of the Baptist Church.
The house at 40 Pearl Street in the Noank section of Groton was built circa 1850. It was the home home of Horace W. Davis, probably Horace Winthrop Davis (1823-1891) who married Harriet Ashby in 1845.
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The house at 17 Pearl Street, on the Groton side of Mystic, is currently the home of Dinoto Funeral Home. A sign on the house indicates it was built circa 1874 and was the home of Allen Avery, undertaker. As related in the Genealogical and Biographical Record of New London County (1905), Allen Avery was born in 1838 and married Alice Babcock Hinckley in 1862. As the book continues:
Mr. Avery spent his boyhood days in Old Mystic, securing an excellent education in the public schools and at the academy at Mystic. Leaving school he worked as a ship joiner with his father in the Greenman yards, but in 1864, he embarked in an undertaking business at Mystic, in a store built by his father. Later, he purchased the store, and carried on an undertaking business for a number of years, but about 1884, he retired from that line, continuing, however, to operate his furniture store, which he had in the meanwhile established, until 1895. He is now engaged in the real estate business.
Apparently he lived in the house at 17 Pearl Street for no longer than twelve years, as the biography notes:
For the past seventeen years he has lived on the Stonington side of Mystic, in a house he built in 1886, so that he takes a deep interest in the affairs of the town of Stonington. For thirteen years he was a menber of the executive committee of the fire district. and was one of the organizers of the Hook and Ladder Company, which he served faithfully and ably as treasurer for twenty-one years. He is now vice-president of the Avery Memorial Association. which he served as president for two years. In fact there are few measures of a public character, designed to advance the interests of Mystic, in which he has not been concerned.
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