American Seamen’s Friend Society Sailor’s Reading Room (1841)

One of the buildings at Mystic Seaport is set up to represent the American Seamen’s Friend Society Sailor’s Reading Room. The Society was incorporated in 1833 to provide moral and religious alternatives to the saloons, boardinghouses and brothels frequented by sailors while in port. The organization is best known for the libraries it placed aboard American ships for the use of sailors. The Society’s records are now held the Collections Research Center at Mystic Seaport. This historic organization is interpreted for Mystic Seaport visitors in a building erected c. 1841 as a work shop and tool shed by Clark Greenman of the George Greenman & Co. Shipyard. Starting in 1951, it was used as the Seaport’s Children’s museum, before housing the Reading Room exhibit. The building originally stood where the Treworgy Planetarium was built in 1960. It was moved to its current location in 1959. (more…)

Burrows House (1825)

The Burrows House at Mystic Seaport, built between 1805 and 1825, was originally erected on Water Street, on the Groton side of the Mystic River. In the 1860s and 1870s, it was the home of Seth and Jane Burrows. By that time the house had been raised above a new story in which Seth Winthrop Burrows sold groceries. The house was dismantled in 1953 to make way for a bank and then reassembled at Mystic Seaport. (more…)

Clark Greenman House (1841)

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Three brothers, George, Clark and Thomas Greenman, founded the the George Greenman & Co. shipyard in Mystic. The brothers soon built three adjacent Greek Revival homes along Greenmanville Avenue. The first was constructed by George in 1839 and this was followed by the houses of Clark and Thomas in 1841 and 1842. The Clark Greenman House has a porch and ornate Victorian decoration, which were added in the 1870s. The house was acquired by Mystic Seaport in 1949, initially serving as the museum’s library and now housing its administrative offices.

Langworthy-Allyn House (1820)

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Adjacent to the George Greenman House, on Greenmanville Avenue in Mystic, is an earlier house, possibly built around 1820, which was acquired by the Greenman brothers in 1837. The brothers resided in the house as they set up the George Greenman & Co. shipyard, eventually moving to the Greenman House, when it was built in 1839. Around 1849, the older house was raised an additional floor and a new two-story ell was added. For a half-century, it became a boarding house for workers at the shipyard and was run by the ship joiner David Langworthy and his wife, Fanny. From 1931 to 1974, the house was owned by the Allyn family. It is now owned by Mystic Seaport.

George Greenman House (1839)

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George Greenman was the eldest of three brothers who founded the shipyard in Mystic known as George Greenman & Co. His house on Greenmanville Avenue was built in 1839 and was enlarged and further ornamented later in the nineteenth century. Greenman’s brothers initially resided in the house with him, until they built their own homes nearby on Greenmanville Avenue. The Greenman home is reported to have been a stop on the Underground Railroad. The Mystic Seaport living history museum acquired the house from George Greenman‘s great-granddaughter in 1970. The house has a Historic Structures Report.

Mystic Seaport Lighthouse (1966)

Mystic Seaport is a living history maritime museum, which recreates a nineteenth century seaport. One of the museum buildings is an exact replica of the current lighthouse at Brant Point on Nantucket. The first lighthouse at Brant Point was built in 1746 and has been followed by many successive structures over the years. The present light, which is the lowest above sea level in New England, was built in 1901. The Mystic Seaport replica lighthouse was built in 1966. Inside, it currently displays a multimedia exhibition about lighthouses, called Sentinels of the Sea (video). (more…)