Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Stonington

Boardman School, Mystic Seaport (1765)

The Boardman School at Mystic Seaport is a one room schoolhouse that was originally built in the town of Preston. It may date to as early as 1765 (or c. 1840) and was named for the Boardman family whose land was adjacent to the schoolhouse. When the section of Preston called Glasgo, where the school was located, became the separate town of Griswold in 1815, Boardman School became District Seven School (it was also known as Potter Hill School). It served as a school until 1949, when it was moved to Mystic Seaport.

(more…)

Mystic Post Office (1925)

The Mystic Post Office is located at 23 East Main Street, on the Stonington side of Mystic. It is a colonial revival-style building erected in 1925 and later expanded an additional two bays on the left side of the front façade.

John Edmondson House (1860)

One of the many buildings on the grounds of Mystic Seaport is the Edmondson House, which now serves as the Children’s Museum. The house was built in the 1850s-1860 as a residence for John Edmondson (1803-1875), a textile worker and shipyard foreman. He married Catherine Greenman (1803-1882), a sister of the three Greenman brothers whose former shipyard is now the site of Mystic Seaport. After the Seaport acquired the house in 1942, the building became the Pugsley Clock Shop, an exhibition space for clocks, watches and navigational instruments. It is now the Children’s Museum, which had previously been located in a former work shop and tool shed dating to 1841.

James Driggs Shipsmith Shop (1885)

Located at Mystic Seaport, the James Driggs Shipsmith Shop originally stood at the head of Merrill’s (now Homer’s) Wharf in New Bedford, Massachusetts. It was erected in 1885 by James D. Driggs, who had previously operated the most productive blacksmithing business in New Bedford with his partner, Joseph Dean. In 1846 Dean & Driggs had established their shop near Merrill’s Wharf, at what would become known as Driggs Lane, where they produced harpoons and other equipment for whaling ships. Among the journeymen they employed was Lewis Temple, Jr., the son of the man who invented the toggle iron harpoon in the 1840s. In 1885, with the whaling industry waning, Driggs moved to the smaller shop, pictured above, which he built with the help of his grandson.

In 1902, Driggs sold the shop to Ambrose J. Peters, who pursued both whalecraft manufacture and general blacksmithing. After his death in 1918, his brother, Charles E. Peters, continued the business until 1924, selling the building the following year. It was then placed on display at Col. E. H. R. Green‘s estate at Round Hill in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts, where the Charles W. Morgan, the last ship of America’s whaling fleet and now based at Mystic Seaport, was also exhibited. The Driggs shop was also moved to Mystic Seaport in 1944.

(more…)

George Greenman House (1898)

According to the nomination for the Mechanic Street Historic District in Stonington, the house at 117 West Broad Street in Pawcatuck is known as the George Greenman House. This George Greenman must have been related to the Greenman family of shipbuilders in Mystic and Westerly. In 1827 Silas Greenman, 3rd had joined with his brother George in a ship-building business in Mystic, but he moved to Westerly, Rhode Island (adjacent to Pawcatuck) in 1834. George continued shipbuilding in Mystic, partnering with his brothers, Clark and Thomas. Silas established a shipyard in Westerly called Silas Greenman & Company. He was later joined by his son, George S. Greenman, born in 1826. Could the owner of the house at 117 West Broad Street have been a grandson or other relative?

Old Mystic Inn (1784)

John Denison (1716-1808) and his son Nathan (born 1759) were both hatters in Old Mystic. John bought land from Samuel Williams in 1783 and then sold it to Nathan in 1785, by which time the house that exists today at 52 Main Street had most likely been built, along with their hatters shop. In 1787, Nathan Denison sold the property to his brother-in-law John Baldwin (1752-1814). The property had two other owners in the next decade and was acquired by Nicholas Williams (1770-1802) in 1799. His widow, Lucretia Hempstead Williams (1776-1851) willed the property to ten people, with six people getting shares in the house. The house has had many owners over the years. In the 1930s, it was owned by the Williams family, who owned a general store across the street from 1875 to 1967. Charles Vincent bought the property in 1959 and ran the Old Mystic Book Shop in the house until 1986. Since 1987 the house has been a bed-and-breakfast called the Old Mystic Inn. In 1988 a carriage house was added to the property, doubling the number of guest rooms.

Thomas S. Greenman House (1842)

Three brothers, George, Clark and Thomas Greenman, founded the George Greenman & Co. Shipyard in Mystic (now the location of Mystic Seaport). Each erected a house along Greenmanville Avenue, the last being the home of Thomas S. Greenman. Erected in 1842, the house has a cast-iron fence, put up about 1866, and a porch, added in the 1870s. Thomas Greenman’s granddaughter, Mary Stillman Harkness, donated the house to Mystic Seaport in 1945. An exhibit was opened in the house in 1952, while the kitchen and upstairs rooms are used as offices.

(more…)