USA > Connecticut > New London County > Norwich > History of Norwich, Connecticut: from its possession by the Indians, to the year 1866 > Part 53
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The road for many miles keeps near the Quinebaug, which has every where the same characteristics, chafed and noisy, the banks bold, the bed rocky, and the edges disfigured by boulders brought down with ice in spring floods, and lodged along the water course.
The section of the road from Norwich to Jewett City in Preston, was the most laborious and expensive of the route. The course was winding, the radius short, the earth encumbered with rocks; the contractors lost money, and were obliged to throw themselves upon the company. The tunnel alone cost nearly $30,000.
A large depot or station-house was erected at Norwich, contiguous to the steamboat landing, two stories high, and 200 feet in length. It is sit- uated just at the spot where the Shetucket contracts its course, turns a quarter round, and glides into the Thames. Here the company purchased a small rocky promontory called the Point, pulled down the buildings which covered it, blew up the rocks, filled the shallows, and constructed the station-house, together with a wharf and a solid stone wall.
During the severe flood in the spring of 1841, a bar was formed in the
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channel of the Thames, by an accumulation of sand brought down the Shetucket, 360 feet in length, which it was found very difficult to excavate so as to leave the channel of its former depth. In consequence of this bar, the steamboats which had before this occasionally grounded in the river, were now frequently delayed two or three hours upon their route. This obstruction, together with the serious inconvenience arising from the ice in the winter season, induced the company to extend their road from Norwich along the bank of the river, seven miles to Allen's Point, near Gale's Ferry. This part of the road was completed in 1843.
By a subsequent addition to their charter, the company were allowed to extend their road to Long Island Sound, provided it were done before 1856, and this term was afterward extended to 1860. But this project was not accomplished, and the portion of the road from Norwich port to Allyn's Point has since been dropped from the regular line of travel. The company, by contract with the N. L. & N. R. R. Co., now make use of their track upon the west side of the river to reach the Sound.
Public opinion greatly favored the construction of this road, or it could not have been accomplished. Twice the company obtained a loan from the city of $100,000, the Legislature sanctioning the act; the loan in the first instance being secured by 1500 shares of the stock, and in the second by a mortgage on the franchise and income of the road. In 1843, the Assembly authorized the company to issue bonds.
The junction of the Norwich and Worcester Railroad with the New London, Willimantic and Palmer Railroad, (now New London and North- ern Railroad,) at Norwich City, was effected in 1853. The junction track passes over Yantic cove by a curve, north of the wharf bridge, and from thence under the street leading to the bridge, and across the city wharves and slips to the depot near the mouth of the Shetucket. The cost of the right of way was about $40,000.
A company was incorporated in 1841, for the construction of a railroad from Norwich to the Connecticut river, called the Norwich and Lyme Railroad Company.
In 1851, the Norwich and Westbrook Railroad Company was incorpo- rated to effect the same object by a different route.
Nothing was done by either company, beyond the forming of plans and making of surveys.
CHAPTER XLIII.
CHELSEA. THE PARADE. FIRST HOUSES AND OLD INHABITANTS.
IN 1790, Middle or Main street in Chelsea was opened at an expense of £100, which was paid partly by the city and partly by individual sub- scription. About the same time, Crescent street, the ends of which were at the store of Capt. Thomas Fanning and the house of Rev. Walter King, was greatly improved through the liberality and exertions of Capt. William Hubbard.
The western avenue to Chelsea, now Washington street, was also at this time rectified and a new section thrown open by the adjoining land; holders.
The broad plateau intersected by these streets was then known as the Little Plain. It seems not to have had any more distinctive name. On the 11th of September, 1793, the 20th regiment of infantry, Joseph Wil- liams, Colonel, was here reviewed, and upon this occasion it was called the Parade. This was probably the first regimental review at this place. The general trainings had previously been held on the Great Plain, near Morgan's tavern, upon the road to New London.
Very little improvement had heretofore been made in this part of the town, but the period had arrived for bringing it into notice. Several building-lots had been purchased and houses erected upon its borders, but the central part of the plain lay untilled and unfenced, the owners being non-residents, descendants of the original grantees, John Reynolds and Matthew Adgate. The larger portion comprised a single field, popularly called " Adgate's three-square lot."
It was certainly desirable, both as a matter of taste and convenience, that this area should be kept open to the public, and fortunately men of liberal minds stood ready to bring about this result.
Joseph Perkins and Thomas Fanning, two of the neighboring land pro- prietors, apparently at their own motion and private expense, undertook to clear this central area of all claims and incumbrances, that it might be made a public square for the use of the town. This they effected, and having obtained quit-claim deeds of the several heirs, conveyed the fee as a free gift to the town. The deed of cession has the following preamble:
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We Thomas Fanning and Joseph Perkins, both of Norwich, for and in consideration of the good will we have and do bear to the inhabitants of the Town of Norwich and in consideration of the desire we have that said inhabitants may continually and at all times be furnished and accommodated with a free, open, unincumbered piece of land or ground, convenient for a public Parade or Walk, do give, grant, remise, release and forever quit claim unto Doctor Joshua Lathrop, one of the principal inhabitants of said town, and to all the rest of the inhabitants of said Town of Norwich in their corporate capacity, and to their successors forever, for the use and purpose of a Public Parade or open Walk, to be unincumbered with any kind of building or buildings, public or pri- vate, or nuisance whatever, and for no other purpose.
Dated 5th day of April, 1797.
All honor to the generosity and enlightened foresight of those men who secured this great privilege to the town. They struck at the right time, just when the spirit of progress had reached the spot. A little later, and in all probability the area would have been carved into building-lots, and the town would never have possessed this her most graceful ornament. Without this central plain, Norwich would seem deprived of half her beauty.
This public square has hitherto had no established name. The prevail- ing idea in the minds of the grantees seems to have been that of provid- ing an open space for military exercises. Its earliest designation was therefore the Parade. Col. Elisha Edgerton's regiment of cavalry was reviewed on the Parade, Sept. 4, 1798. But of late years it has acquired more of the character of a park, and from the long residence-more than half a century-of Gen. Wm. Williams upon its border, it has obtained the current and acceptable name of Williams Park .*
In 1801, the rage for setting out Lombardy poplars ran through the town like an epidemic. The quivering, silver-lined poplar,-the slender, quick-growing poplar,-was in high repute for convenience, use, ornament and health. The parade received a full share of the general adornment, and was entirely girdled with poplars. These Italian shades are however short-lived in our climate, and the first growth has been seldom renewed. Here, as in most parts of the country, they soon gave place to the more hardy and umbrageous natives of the forest. The elms and maples that now gird the park were set out since 1820.
First Houses and other Improvements.
1. A house on the border of the Parade, known of late years as the residence of Capt. Walter Lester, was built by Joseph Carpenter, but left unfinished at his death in 1797.
* In September, 1811, Gen. Wm. Williams, then Lieut. Colonel of the third regi- ment of militia, held his regimental review upon this parade.
Eng.ª.by Geo F Perme & C. M.Y
.
W's Williams
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
2. On the north-east side a dwelling-house was erected about the year 1785, by Capt. Henry Billings. It was the first house of any note upon the Plain, and was successively occupied by Capt. Billings, by Ebenezer Backus, and by the relict of the latter, with her second husband, A. S. Destouches, a French emigrant. In 1799 it was purchased by Major Rogers, a merchant from Southampton, L. I., and very soon afterward we find an assortment of goods advertised for sale by "Uriah Rogers & Son, at their New Store on the pleasant plains of Chelsea, half a mile from Norwich port."
Major Rogers died in 1814, and this house afterwards became the resi- dence of Rev. Alfred Mitchell, to whose fine taste and devout mind the woodland heights in the rear had a peculiar charm. They were his walk, his study, and his oratory. After Mr. Mitchell's decease, the place was for eight or ten years the seat of Mr. Charles Abbot's Family School for Boys. The house has since been removed to a different part of the town, and the site is occupied by one of the tasteful and costly mansions of modern times.
3. A house very nearly coeval with that of Capt. Billings, on the south-west side of the Plain, was built by Major Ebenezer Whiting, about 1790, and sold in 1795 to Capt. Daniel Dunham. The ground plot included the ancient Indian Cemetery, and sixteen acres of land running down to the neighborhood of Lathrop's Mills, where Major Whiting had a distillery. In preparing for the foundation of this house, a gigantic Indian skeleton was exhumed, and many rude stone tools and arrow-heads thrown up. The place was afterward purchased by Calvin Goddard, and remained for nearly forty years in the possession of the family .*
4. The brick-house, or Williams mansion, was built in 1789 and '90, by Joseph Teel of Preston, the site being a portion of the original Adgate lot. It was designed for a hotel, and immediately advertised as
"The Teel House, sign of General Washington."
It was noted for its fine hall or assembly-room, where shows were ex- hibited, and balls, lodges and clubs accommodated.t After Mr. Teel's death, the hotel was continued by his son-in-law, Cyrus Bramin, and when offered for sale in 1797, it was particularly recommended for its position : "on the central plain between the town and Landing, which according to the natural appearance of things bids fair to be the seat of business for the town of Norwich."
* Now the homestead of John Dunham, Esq., son of the former proprietor.
t An advertisement of May 29, 1794, announces the arrival at Mr. Teel's assembly- room of a party of Italian rope-dancers and tumblers, and the public are invited to call and see Don Peter and Clumsy the Clown dance a horn-pipe blindfold over fifteen eggs.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
In June, 1800, the hotel was transformed into a boarding and day- school under the preceptorship of William Woodbridge. After some other changes, it was purchased in 1806 by Carder Hazard, a retired merchant from Newport, by whom it was sold in 1813 to its present owner.
5. On the avenue leading from the east side of the Parade to the Landing, Christopher Leffingwell, Joshua Lathrop and Joseph Perkins were considerable landholders, and each contributed toward opening and embellishing the street, freely relinquishing the land necessary for the public convenience. Col. Leffingwell planted the fine elms that now over- shadow Broadway. Here were a tier of houses built before 1800, and occupied at the opening of the century by Rev. Walter King, Capt. Solo- mon Ingraham, and Thomas Coit, (afterward by Jabez Huntington.) Here also were the L'Hommedieu house and rope-walk, and the twin houses of Hezekiah Perkins and Capt. Z. P. Burnham. This row of buildings had the high granite ridge that projects into the center of Chel- sea in their front. The triangular plot between the roads, now inclosed as the Little Park, was formerly called the Everett lot. It belonged to Col. Leffingwell, and after his death, was purchased jointly by Hezekiah Perkins and Jabez Huntington, and in 1811 presented by them to the city, on condition that it should be inclosed and used only as a park.
6. The residence of Thomas Mumford, embowered by large trees, with a spacious garden and several vacant lots on the south and east, compris- ing in all eight acres, occupied the plot at the head of Union street. Mr. Mumford died Aug. 30, 1799, and the place passed into the possession of Levi Huntington. The street forming a continuation of Broadway was opened in 1800 by Christopher Leffingwell and the heirs of Mumford.
7. The house which has been for nearly sixty years the residence of . Joseph Williams, Esq., was built before 1800, by Capt. Samuel Freeman, and sold six years later to its present owner.
On leaving the Plain and turning the steep pitch of the hill, in the lower part of Union street, were the dwellings of Jeremiah Wilber, Lem- uel Warren, Israel Everit, and Christopher Vaill.
These comprise all the householders that have been traced in this part of the town, at or near the beginning of the century. From that time forward, improvements ceased for many years. The next houses built in this quarter were those of Major Joseph Perkins and Russell Hubbard. The former, a solid stone mansion, was completed in 1825, Mr. Hubbard's the succeeding year.
A costly dwelling-house, combining various elements of beauty in structure, situation, and prospect, was erected by Charles Rockwell in 1833, on the height between Broadway and Washington streets. This was one of the first experiments in grading and cultivating this rugged
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woodland ridge .* Many other beautiful seats, with choice gardens and groves, have risen since that period to adorn this part of the town.
A considerable portion of Washington street was originally opened through land belonging to Col. Simon Lathrop, and here on the river side of the street a house was built in 1780 by Elijah Lathrop.
In 1795, Samuel Woodbridge purchased one of the Lathrop lots, and erected a dwelling-house in what was then considered a wild and secluded spot, but exceedingly beautiful in situation. A contemporary notice speaks of it as "an excellent place for rural retirement." This property was purchased in 1811 by Richard Adams, Esq., a gentleman from Esse- quibo, and has been known for the last fifty years as the residence of his family.f
The next house that made its appearance in this part of Washington street was erected by Theodore Barrell, an Englishman who had been in business at Barbadoes, and had several times visted Norwich for commer- cial purposes. He brought his family to the place in 1808, purchased a lot of the heirs of Rufus Lathrop, built upon it and continued his inhab- itancy till 1824, when he sold his house and grounds to Wm. P. Greene, and removed to New London.
In the year 1809, the Lathrop house (built in 1780) was purchased by Mr. John Vernett, who had it removed to a position lower down on the same street, where it now stands. On the site left vacant by the removed building, Mr. Vernett caused a new dwelling-house to be erected, at a cost and in a style of elegance beyond what had been previously exhibited in Norwich. The area purchased by him consisted of twenty-five acres, comprising six or eight choice building-lots. The land bordering on the Yantic in this vicinity still retains its native luxuriance, its varied surface and woodland beauty. A scientific or collegiate institution might here have found a well-adapted and beautiful site.§
Mr. Vernett was a native of Sarsbourg on the Rhine. Having acquired a handsome fortune by trade at St. Pierre, he designed to withdraw from business and spend the remainder of his life in retired leisure at Norwich. Scarcely were his family settled in their new residence, when he met with sudden embarrassments and losses which entirely deranged his plans, and he sold the place in 1811 to Benjamin Lee of Cambridge.
* Sold by Mr. Rockwell to Capt. James L. Day, and purchased of the latter in 1862, by John F. Slater, Esq., who has in part remodeled the house and greatly im- proved the grounds.
t Mr. Adams had been here at school in his youth, and doubtless pleasant reminis- cences of the place led him to select it as the future home of his family.
# Residence of late Lyman Brewer, Esq.
§ The elegant mansion of Wm. H. Law, Esq., now occupies a choice and prominent position in this valuable Vernett purchase.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
These were the first noted houses of Washington street. They sprang up after a prosperous period of trade, to which the war with Great Britain in 1812 gave a crushing blow, and no others were built for twenty years. The next that appeared was that of William C. Gilman, completed in 1831.
Washington street is now skirted on either side with elegant and even princely mansions of more recent origin, exceedingly varied in position and style of architecture, but all indicative of taste, wealth, and home comfort.
The Breed family residence near the corner of Washington, Main and Church streets, is probably the most ancient house now remaining in Chelsea. It was built by Gershom Breed about the year 1760.
Church street was at first known as Upper or Third street. It was laid out along the steep side-hill, with the whole rocky height,-the ele- phantine granite back of Chelsea, crowned with woods,-towering in its rear. In 1800, the principal residents on this street were Shubael Breed, collector of U. S. revenue during the administration of the first President Adams, Nathaniel Peabody, Rev. John Tyler, and Dr. Lemuel Boswell. Capt. Benajah Leffingwell occupied the three-story house opposite Breed's corner, and there died Sept. 27, 1804. The next house to the westward was that of Capt. Oliver Fitch.
The principal householders in West Chelsea were Elijah Herrick, Jed- idiah Willet, Dewey Bromley, Thomas Gavitt, Septimus Clark, Stephen Story, and Luther Edgerton. These men were all engaged in ship-build- ing, or in some of the crafts connected with that business. A rope-walk, established by the Howlands in 1797, (owned of late years by John Breed & Co.,) has now been for nearly seventy years a conspicuous object upon the hill-side.
The Baptist meeting-house was raised in 1801.
The low brick building at the corner of Main and Union streets has the reputation of being the first brick edifice constructed in Norwich. It is not known when or by whom it was built. According to current tradition, it was occupied as a public house before the opening of the Revolutionary war, and at one time had the honor of entertaining and lodging General Washington and several officers of his staff. This was probably the night of the 30th of June, 1775,* at which time Washington was on his way to
* It is probable that to this particular night spent at Norwich, Elisha Ayers, the wandering school-master from Preston, referred in a brief interview that he had with Washington at Mount Vernon, in 1788. The General was standing by his horse, pre- pared to ride to another part of his estate, when the traveler arrived. The details of the interview are given by the latter with amusing simplicity :
" He enquired my name and what part of Connecticut I was from. I told him about seven miles east of Norwich City and near Preston village. I know where Norwich is,
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assume the command of the American army in the neighborhood of Bos- ton. He arrived at Cambridge July 2d.
The brick corner was afterwards famous as an auction stand. John Richards, auctioneer, occupied the premises from 1800 onward for sev- eral years. It is still a low, square, flat-roofed building, as at first,-a cramped and homely structure, compared with its younger neighbors, but respected as one of the antiquities of the city.
Another old hotel stood in Water street, nearly in the rear of the Mer- chant's Bank, with its upper story on a level with Main street. Reuben Willoughby left the stand in 1804, for a new hotel in Shetucket street, since called the American House. Ralph Bolles was his successor in Water street, but removed in 1809 to the house built by Mr. Levi Hunt- ington, after the fire of 1793, which he opened as the Chelsea Coffee House. This hotel was then situated in a breezy plot, open to the water, a sloping lawn in front graced with a row of poplars, and a garden en- riched with fruit-trees. The house is yet extant, but time-worn, con- tracted, and defaced, its grounds transformed to streets, and high brick buildings overshadowing it on every side.
The Merchant's Hotel in Main street was built in 1797, by an associa- tion of business men, and in style and accommodation was far superior to any previous hotel in Norwich. Newcomb Kinney, one of the proprie- tors, was for many years the well-known and popular landlord.
In the early part of the century, East Chelsea, or Swallow-all, was noted as the hive of sea-captains. There was then no road to the river, nor to the present Greeneville; all the land in that direction lay in rough pasturage. East Main street was narrow and crooked. Wells, fences, gardens, shops and dwelling-houses projected far into the present street. The whole district was rugged with rocks and water-courses, frowned on by circumjacent hills and washed by frequent floods. Franklin street was the road to Lisbon. Here were the dwellings of Capts. Christopher Cul- ver, Charles Rockwell, James N. Brown, John Sangar, and Seth Harding, -the latter usually called Commodore Harding. Other inhabitants were Jonathan Frisbie, Seabury Brewster, Judah Hart, Ezra Backus, Joseph Powers, and Timothy Fillmore.
A few of the old houses of this street, belonging to the last century,
he said. I told him that I remembered the time when he and his aids staid a night at Norwich when he was on his way to the American army at Boston, and the next morn- ing he went east to Preston village. At Preston village you were joined by Colonel Samuel Mott, a man that helped to conquer Canada from France, and there were two young recruiting captains for the Revolutionary war : one was Capt. Nathan Peters, and the other was Capt. Jeremiah Halsey. These went with you several miles on your journey to Boston. The General said, I remember something about it. I told him he went in sight of my father's house two miles north of Preston village. Very likely, he said. The General asked if I had been to breakfast," &c.
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still remain,-Capt. Christopher Culver still occupies the dwelling that he purchased in 1800,-but the last of its venerable trees, a grand old but- ton-wood, the landmark of a hundred years, was cut down in 1860.
In 1830, a great improvement was effected in East Chelsea by the opening of Franklin Square. In connection with this enterprise, the road was widened and graded, steeps were leveled, hollows filled up, fences and buildings removed. From this time onward, the march of improvement has never paused.
The streets east of Franklin, known as East Broad street and Boswell avenue, leading towards the old Providence road, have a date scarcely reaching beyond 1850, while the plateau of streets and houses north and east of there is of still more recent origin, having grown like a garden from a wilderness during the last six years. Previously it was a rough, unsightly tract, still populous with its native denizens, squirrel and wood- chuck, partridge and rabbit, and on this account the haunt of sportsmen. A slaughter-house and two or three huts stood upon its borders, and a nar- row, break-neck road, the old riding-way to the Shetucket, ran through it.
In this locality a plot of 55 acres, known as the Boswell farm, and listed for taxation at $4,000, was purchased by Joseph G. Lamb in December, 1858. Through his enterprise in the way of clearing, draining, blasting, the rugged surface was graded, streets and building-lots were laid out and offered to purchasers on equitable terms. In 1864 it was divided among nearly fifty owners, mostly artizans and laborers, and contained thirty-two dwelling-houses occupied by forty-four families.
Lamb's Hill, the highest portion of this plot, is on a higher level than the highest church spire in the city, and offers to the eye a prospect of great beauty and variety.
CHAPTER XLIV.
SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES.
THE schools in Norwich were neither intermitted or neglected during the Revolutionary war. An institution of higher grade than elementary was sustained in the town-plot through all the distractions of the country. It called in many boarders from abroad, and at one period, with Mr. Goodrich for its principal, acquired considerable popularity. This school is endorsed by its committee, Andrew Huntington and Dudley Wood- bridge, in 1783, as furnishing instruction to "young gentlemen and ladies, lads and misses, in every branch of literature, viz., reading, writing, arith- metic, the learned languages, logic, geography, mathematics," &c. Charles White, teacher.
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