New London - Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Custom House, New London (1833)

The United States Custom House, on Bank Street in New London, was built in 1833 and was designed by Robert Mills, architect of the Washington Monument in Washington, DC. The wood doors are made from planks from the USS Constitution. When the Amistad was brought to New London in 1839, the ship was moored near the Custom House and when it was sold, in 1840, its cargo was auctioned off in the building. The New London Maritime Society was formed in 1983 to save the Greek Revival-style building. It established the New London Custom House Maritime Museum in what continues to be the oldest continuously-operating custom house in the country.

New London City Hall (1856)

New London‘s City Hall, on State Street, was originally constructed in 1856 in the Italianate style. This building then had a more residential appearance, in keeping with the houses that lined State Street in the mid-nineteenth century. By the early twentieth century, however, large commercial buildings dominated the street and many in the city government wanted a more imposing Municipal Building to assert civic pride. City Hall was therefore substantially remodeled in 1912. The original design, by W.T. Hallett of Norwich, was replaced with an imposing classical Beaux-Arts exterior, designed by the New London architect, James Sweeney.

Deshon-Allyn House (1829)

Daniel Deshon was a New London-based whaling captain and merchant who built a house for himself and his wife Fanny on Williams Street in New London in 1829. Mrs. Deshon died in 1833 and the house was put up for sale, being purchased in 1851 by Lyman Allyn, who was also a successful whaler. The house remained in the Allyn family until 1926, when Harriet Upson Allyn, Lyman’s last surviving child, died. Harriet Allyn had provided for the construction of the adjacent Lyman Allyn Art Museum, which was built in 1932. The Deshon-Allyn House was also opened to the public as part of the museum campus. The house was refurbished in 1956, a major restoration was undertaken in 1996, and another renovation in 2008.

Union Station, New London (1888)

When it was built in 1888, New London’s Union Station made a powerful architectural statement with its strong massing. It was planned to integrate New London transportation, which included service by six railroad companies. Unlike the preceding train dept of 1852, Union Station was on the city side of the railroad tracks and blocked the view of the city’s active harbor and busy rail yards from the commercial district on State and Bank Streets. Commissioned in 1885, the station was designed by H.H. Richardson, but was not completed until after his death in 1886. The building represents a variation of his distinctive Romanesque style in a scheme recalling his plan for Harvard’s Sever Hall (1880). It is therefore referred to as Richardson’s “Last Station.” Saved from demolition and renovated in the 1970s, the station has recently been again restored.

The Kelo House (1890)

The Kelo House, also known as the Little Pink House, was built in 1890 in a residential area of New London by John Bishop, a prominent local carpenter. It had various owners after Carpenter’s death in 1893 and few years later was moved to the Fort Trumbull neighborhood of New London. In the late 1980s, the Little Pink House and the house next to it were restored by the preservationist, Avner Gregory. On the market for many years, the house was not occupied until Susette Kelo moved in in 1997. When the City of New London sought to use the right of eminent domain to acquire the neighborhood for private development (which would bring in more tax money) it started a legal battle that went all the way to the Supreme Court in 2005. Although Kelo lost in Kelo vs. City of New London, the public reaction to the abuse of eminent domain laws led to citizen activism and new reform legislation in favor of property owners. Three years after the decision, in 2008, the house was rededicated on a new site on Franklin Street in New London. The house had been reacquired and moved by Avner Gregory and stands as a monument, with an explanatory plaque out front, to the battle over eminent domain. A new book about the case, Little Pink House: A True Story of Defiance and Courage, by Jeff Benedict, has just been published.

William Coit House (1763)

In the eighteenth century, Coit Street (then Cove Street) in New London followed the shoreline of Bream Cove, an arm of New London Harbor. The Cove later shrank in the nineteenth century from silting and filling in to create additional land. When the William Coit House, on the corner of Washington and Coit Streets, was built around 1763, it was therefore on the water, although this is no longer the case. The Coits were a shipbuilding family and William Coit commanded ships during the Revolutionary War. Coit was also captain of a militia company, composed largely of sailors, that marched to the Siege of Boston in 1775.

New London Ledge Lighthouse (1909)

The New London Ledge Lighthouse was built in 1909, on the Southwest Ledge at the mouth of the Thames River in New London Harbor. It was built after much lobbying to construct a new lighthouse, as the New London Harbor Light was deemed insufficient to direct ships around the dangerous ledges at the entrance to the harbor. The red brick New London Ledge Light is to have been built in the French Second Empire style at to the request of wealthy homeowners on the nearby shore, who wanted the new lighthouse to match the elegance of their own residences. The Coast Guard took over manning the lighthouse in 1939 and it was automated in 1987. New London Ledge Light is also famous as a haunted lighthouse (There are YouTube Videos here and here).