North Stonington Village Historic District


The North Stonington Village Historic District is a historic district encompassing the historic center of the main village of North Stonington, Connecticut. The district includes a well-preserved small industrial village, which flourished in the years before the American Civil War, and declined afterward. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

Description and history

North Stonington was settled as part of Stonington in the 17th century, and was separately incorporated in 1807. Its central village grew around an early gristmill site on the Shunock River, and its oldest surviving buildings are houses that date to the mid-18th century. Industry flourished after 1790, with a power canal prodiving water power to a variety of mills, as well as a triphammer and tannery. These were all relatively modest in scale, and suffered competitively with larger scale textile mills developed elsewhere. Business survived through the American Civil, which placed a heavy demand for woolen products, but declined thereafter. None of the village's 19th-century industrial facilities remain, beyond foundations, industrial archaeological remains, and traces of the water power system.
The historic district is centered on the confluence of Assekonk Brook and the Shunock River, and is roughly bounded on the south and west by the modern alignment of Connecticut Route 2. The district includes 72 contributing buildings, 5 other contributing structures, 3 contributing sites, and 1 contributing object. Most of these buildings are residences built either in the 18th century or in the first half of the 19th, and are in vernacular versions of architectural styles popular at that time. Federal, Greek Revival, and Italianate buildings predominate, although there are a few examples of later styles, particularly in the village's institutional buildings. The current town hall is a converted garage with Colonial Revival styling, while previously the town offices were in an 1809 Federal style commercial building. Probably the most architectural sophisticated building in the district is the Richardsonian Romanesque Wheeler Library, built in the early 20th century.

Contributing properties

Contributing properties having photos included in the 1981 NRHP application are:
The stone bridge over the Shunok River was damaged in flooding on March 29, 2010.