Historic Barns of Connecticut

Designations

• National Register
• State Register

Historic Significance

Architectural description (quoted from NR Nomination p.2):

The 1 1/2-story, 36 x 30-foot, frame mill is on the west side of the
stream, called Briggs Brook, at the bottom of the change in elevation that
the stream descends to provide the water power. The mill faces south toward
a fine 24 x 30-foot cobblestone courtyard. The dominant feature of its architecture is the gambrel roof, covered with wooden shingles, that flares out
in front over a wide porch. The porch has four wooden posts that are tree
trunks with the stubs of branches left in place. The porch floor is concrete,
and the front elevation of the building is covered with segmentally-sectioned
horizontal siding in a “log cabin” effect. The porch fenestration, in
sequence from the left, consists of a 9-pane window, a 9-pane window, a
Dutch door of wide, vertical boards, a 9-pane window and a large window of
small panes, 21-over-28 (seven across and three and four high). (See HABS
Sheet 1. ) The mill is known to have had approximately this appearance in
the 19th century. What it looked like earlier is unknown.
The east elevation has the same siding. At the first floor there are
two 6-over-6 windows and, toward the rear, a modern door. At the second
floor, toward the front, there is a goods door with a 6-over-6 window toward
the back. (HABS Sheet 1.) The north (rear) elevation, of the same siding,
has five windows, three 6-over-6 diminishing in size on the left, and two 12-
over-12 on the right. (Photograph 2.) There is a low stone chimney in the
upper slope of the roof on the east side.
The wheel is on the west elevation. The west wall of the mill is
built of flush, vertical boards to a height of about the middle of the lower
slope of the gambrel, with horizontal flush boarding above. There are two
6-pane windows at the level of the eaves.

Historical significance:

See National Register Nomination Form No. 82001008

Field Notes

New London's Old Town Mill was established as an essential part of the community in the early years of settlement. The fact that it has survived on its original site and in its original relationship to stream and flume is remarkable. The first proprietor of the mill was the leader of the settlement and a famous Colonial figure, John Winthrop, Jr., who went on to serve as governor of Connecticut from 1657 to 1676. - David Ransom from NR Form New London is a historically-rich community located at the convergence of the Thames River and Long Island Sound. The area was called Nameaug by the Pequot Indians. John Winthrop, Jr. founded the first English settlement here in 1646. Inhabitants informally named it Pequot after the tribe. On March 10, 1658 the town was officially named after London, England. The harbor was considered to be the best deep water harbor on Long Island Sound, and consequently New London became a base of American naval operations during the Revolutionary War. For several decades beginning in the early 19th century, New London was the second busiest whaling port in the world. The wealth that whaling brought into the city, and later connections by rail and water, furnished the capital to fund much of the city's present architecture, including examples from the early 19th-century whaling period, the late 19th-century industrial age, and an early 20th-century period of popularity as a summer colony for the wealthy.

Use (Historic)

• workspace

Use (Present)

• re-use

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Demolished

n/a

Location Integrity

Original Site

Related features

• Other

Environment features

• High Density
• Industrial

Relationship to surroundings

Located beneath the bridge approach ramps of Route US 1 and I-95 near the west bank of the Thames River.

Building Typology

• Mill

Materials

• Other
• Vertical Siding

Structural System

• Wood Frame

Roof materials

• Wood Shingle

Roof type

• Gambrel

Approximate Dimensions

36 feet x 30 feet

Date Compiled

04/14/2010

Compiled By

Charlotte Hitchcock, reviewed by CT Trust

Sources

Photographs by David Ransom.
City of New London Assessor: MapBlockParcel F08/290/1/

Ransom, David, Winthrop Mill National Register Nomination, National Park Service,1982.

City of New London Office of Development and Planning, Preserving Our Heritage: A Guide to the National Register Historic Districts and Individually Listed Properties in New London, New London, CT 06320 undated.

Sexton, James, PhD, Survey Narrative of the Connecticut Barn, Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation, Hamden, CT, 2005, http://www.connecticutbarns.org/history.

Visser, Thomas D., Field Guide to New England Barns and Farm Buildings, University Press of New England, 1997.
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_London,_Connecticut