A building that was first erected c. 1842 as a barn on the property of Thomas Greenman, youngest of the three brothers who founded the George Greenman & Co. Shipyard in Mystic, now houses the cooperage exhibit at Mystic Seaport. Coopers manufactured round wooden containers called barrels or casks, used both at sea and ashore.
The Buckingham-Hall House at Mystic Seaport was erected circa 1760 in what is now Old Saybrook by the Buckingham family. The house, which was located near the ferry crossing at the mouth of the Connecticut River, was purchased by William Hall, Jr., son of a New York import merchant, in 1833. When construction of a new highway bridge across the river threatened it with demolition in 1951, the house was presented to Mystic Seaport by the State Highway Department. It was shipped by barge to its present location, where it was reconstructed and refurnished to represent the lifestyle of the Buckingham family in the 1810s. In 1994, the house was re-restored and reinterpreted to represent the Hall family.
The David R. Prentice House is a classic Greek Revival-style residence, located at 30 Church Street in Mystic. Built in 1849, it was the home of Mr. Prentice, who served as Stonington selectman in the early 1850s.
Today is the Eleventh Anniversary of Historic Buildings of Connecticut! Pictured above is the house at 2 Jackson Avenue in Mystic. Built in 1882, its design was influenced by the popular Eastlake style. It was the home of of Francis Manning, a banker, and his wife Ann.
Originally erected as a house, the building at 5 Gravel Street in Mystic has been the First Church of Christ Scientist since 1914. Various dates can be found for the construction of the original house. The church’s website states that it was built in 1782 by Josiah Kemp. The brochure “a Mystic Riverside Walking Adventure” indicates that the house was built by Capt. George Wolfe between 1815 and 1827. In the latter year, it was sold to his brother-in-law, Capt. William Kemp (1795-1840), who commanded sloops and schooners. The nomination for the Mystic River Historic District gives a date of 1820. Work began in 1918 to transform the building into a church and it was dedicated on August 30, 1919. A Sunday School and Child Care room were added in June 1962 and in 1975 the original dirt cellar, on the street level of the building, was converted into a Reading Room.
Clift Street in Mystic was developed by Col. Amos Clift III (1805-1878), a local builder, and his mother Thankful Denison Clift (1780-1861). The house at 2 Clift Street, at the corner of Gravel Street, was built by Amos in 1837 for his brother, Capt. Waterman Clift (1809-1890). A shipmaster, Waterman Clift commanded the vessels Atlantic, Phume and Coasting Trader, as well as the U.S. transport Haze, which made regular trips between New York City and New Bern, North Carolina during the Civil War. He was later a harbor pilot in Apalachicola, Florida. The house has an east wing added in the 1920s. The front and side porch, which replaced an earlier entry portico, were added in the last few years.
Charles Mallory (1796-1882) was born in Waterford and learned sail making in New London as an apprentice to his brother-in-law, Nathan Beebe. In 1816 Mallory came to Mystic, where he soon set up his own sail loft. In 1836 he retired from sail making to focus on his fishing, whaling and shipping interests. His descendants would continue as an important shipping and shipbuilding family. Mallory had a sail making loft on the third floor of a building on Holmes Street in Mystic that he constructed circa 1830. All three floors were used for a variety of purposes over the years. In 1951 the building was brought upriver by barge to its current location at Mystic Seaport. The top floor has a sail loft exhibit, the middle floor has a ship rigging loft exhibit and the bottom floor has a ship chandlery exhibit. (more…)
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