United States Park Service
MagicPiano
The complete list of sources may be found by clicking the “Bibliography” button, and, then typing “Gardner Carpenter” in the SEARCH box.
The Carroll Building, also known as the Flat Iron Building, was built in 1887. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 and is a member of the Downtown Norwich Historic District. It is located on a triangular tract formed by the intersection of Main and Water Streets. It is highly visible from Washington Square and is one of the most noticeable aspects of the downtown streetscape.
The Carroll Building was designed by Stephen C. Earle. He was a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and he also designed Park Congregational Church and the Slater Museum. The building is an excellent example of Romanesque Revival style architecture. It is the best surviving example of commercial Romanesque Revival architecture in Norwich.
Stephen Earle’s design of the Carroll Building illustrates the successful execution and adaptation of Romanesque style architecture to a peculiar shaped building lot. The design maximizes the constricted and different inclines of the site by essentially forming a single-building by joining two separate buildings connected by a common staircase.
Lucius W. Carroll, the original owner of the building, was one of the most prominent of Norwich’s 19th-century business leaders. He was a merchant who sold wool, cotton, manufacturer’s supplies, dye stuffs, paints, oils, glass, and other assorted items. He was one of the founders of the Occum Water Power Company, and the owner of a cotton mill.
The Carroll Building is historically significant because how it was used economically represents real estate practices prevalent in the city during the late 19th-century. Carroll rented the property as a realty investment. He never occupied the building named for himself. The building was rented to a variety of local businesses, including the main office of the Southern New England Telephone from 1894-1902.
United States Park Service
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The Chelsea Parade Historic District is comprised of 525 major buildings, two sites, and six objects. In addition to houses the district includes churches, schools, a museum, a park, a cemetery, monuments to wars of different periods and a watering trough. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
The district is architecturally significant for its scores of well-preserved houses which embody distinctive characteristics of many diverse styles, ranging from Federal to the Colonial Revival of the early 20th century. The district is especially noteworthy for its many examples of domestic architecture of the Victorian period.
St. Patrick’s Cathedral is one of several beautiful, historic buildings in the Chelsea Parade Historic District. The following is an excerpt from a plaque at the cathedral :
“In 1831, Father James Fitton administered the first baptism, and the first Catholic marriage occurred in 1840. The “great hunger,” the potato famine in Ireland, brought the Irish immigrants to Norwich & Worcester Railroad.
The first Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was on December 25, 1844 at St. Mary’s Church in lower Greeneville. By 1853, the Catholic population numbered over 4,000. In 1867, it was determined that another church was needed.
Father Daniel Mullen, Pastor of St. Mary’s, purchased this site, and on Good Friday, April 7, 1871, the work on St. Patrick’s Church began. The Irish from Greeneville marched 1,700 strong, led by Dr. Patrick Cassidy, to the present site. Horses and carts, filled with picks and shovels, arrived with the workers, and form Good Friday morning to Easter Sunday the volunteer army dug the complete foundation by hand.
Parishioners paid 10 cents a week and thus paid for the Gothic church. Father Shahan said the first Mass on a temporary altar on St. Patrick’s Day, 1879.”
Norwich came into possession of this cannon after appeals to the U.S. government by the Robert O. Fletcher American Legion, Norwich War Bureau, Rotary Club, and the Chamber of Commerce for a war trophy to be placed prominently in Norwich.
Initially placed at Chelsea Parade in 1926 following a dedication from then-governor, John H. Trumbull, the howitzer had been captured from Germany during the war, and would serve as a memorial to the conflict that ended eight years prior.
However, long exposure to harsh weather deteriorated and is now being restored by concerned citizens of Norwich.
Horses provided the primary means of transportation for passengers, goods, and equipment in Norwich prior to 1890. For their welfare, town officials positioned many watering troughs throughout the city.
The trough shown in the upper two images was built in 1889 and placed on centrally located Franklin Square. As electrified trolleys and automobiles became a more efficient means of transportation, the Franklin Square trough was no longer needed. In 1907, it was moved to its present location, at the northern most part of Chelsea Parade, as shown in the lower two photos.
It should be noted that the trough also provided lighting. In the older images, (on top) the lighting was provided by oil and the newer images show electric lighting.
The plaque shown on the left was set into place on June 25, 2024. It recognizes the efforts of the Women’s City Club of Norwich. They maintain the watering trough/fountain and keep it beautiful by planting flowers around its base.
THANK YOU !
* Place cursor over images to magnify
The complete list of sources may be found by clicking the “Bibliography” button, and, then typing “watering trough” in the SEARCH box.
Thousands of people have lived in the Chelsea Parade Historic District over the years. The list below highlights a few of the many notables.
United States Park Service
Farragutful
The complete list of sources may be found by clicking the “Bibliography” button, and, then typing “Chelsea Parade” in the SEARCH box.
The Colonel Joshua Huntington House, 11 Huntington Lane, in Norwich, Connecticut was built in 1771. It is a well-preserved example of Georgian architecture. It was built for Colonel Joshua Huntington, a local military leader in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. The house, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, is also located in the Norwichtown Historic District. It is situated across the street from the home of his father Major General Jabez Huntington and a few doors down from the home of his older brother, General Jedediah Huntington.
The house is a 2-1/2 story wood frame structure, five bays wide, with a gambrel roof, twin brick chimneys, and clapboard siding. Its main entrance is flanked by pilasters and topped by a transom window and gabled pediment. Windows on the ground floor are topped by corniced lintels, while those on the upper floor butt against the eave. There are two gabled dormers projecting from the front face of the roof.
“Colonel Joshua Huntington (1751-1821), married Hannah (his fourth cousin), daughter of Colonel Hezekiah Huntington in 1771. At the beginning of the Revolution, he was already established in a prosperous business at the Landing, and had vessels of his own at Sea, but at the first summons to arms, he hastened to Boston. At that time he had already served as lieutenant of militia. Though he felt that his business claims required his presence at home, he still remained with the army, and served for a while in New York. He was later engaged in securing ships for the service, and in fitting out privateers. He was agent for Wadsworth & Carter of Hartford, in supplying the French army at Newport with provisions, and had charge of the prizes sent by the French navy to Connecticut.”
(Info Source 2)
Huntington family ownership of the house ended in 1823, when it was sold to George W. Lee.
United States Park Service
“Old Houses of the Ancient Town of Norwich, 1600-1800”, (1895), page 218, by Mary Elizabeth Perkins
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The Commonwealth Works Site is an historic industrial site located near Yantic Falls on the Yantic River in Norwich. It was the location of a multi-functional industrial facility developed in the mid-19th century, with an industrial history dating back to the 18th century.
This Iconic Norwich placement only addresses the business enterprises directly associated with the Commonwealth Works business operating at the site after 1864. Previous to, and after, this period in time there were numerous other enterprises that are not addressed here.
In 1865 Charles A. Converse consolidated water rights at Yantic Falls and built a large brick building, the “Commonwealth Works”. The facility housed a number of different water-powered enterprises. They included the gun factory of Bacon Manufacturing Company, Hopkins & Allen Manufacturing Company, a braid mill, a cork-cutting factory, Norwich File Works, a Dye Works and several others.
The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.
“The Mysterious “Colonel Charles Augustus Converse”, The Muse Newsletter, Summer 2007, by Vivian F. Zoë
“History of Norwich, Connecticut: From Its Possession From the Indians, to the Year 1866”, page 614, by Frances Manwaring Caulkins
“City of Norwich, Conn. 1876”, by O. H. Baily & Company
“Aero View of Norwich, Connecticut 1912”, by Hughes & Baily
The complete list of sources may be found by clicking the “Bibliography” button, and, then typing “Commonwealth Works” in the SEARCH box.