Ivoryton is one of three villages in
Essex, Connecticut in
Middlesex County. Ivoryton Historic District, the
historic district
A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...
in the village, was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places on April 15, 2014.
[Ivoryton Historic District](_blank)
National Park Service.
The
Ivoryton Playhouse, which is separately listed on the Register, is located within the district.
History and historic district
Ivoryton is roughly bounded by Main Street, North Main Street, Oak Street, Blake Street, Summit Street, Park Road, and Comstock Avenue.
The area is known as a "well-preserved example of a nineteenth-century
company town
A company town is a place where practically all stores and housing are owned by the one company that is also the main employer. Company towns are often planned with a suite of amenities such as stores, houses of worship, schools, markets and re ...
" and a world center of the
ivory industry.
The area became industrialized when Comstock, Cheney & Company, an ivory
import
An import is the receiving country in an export from the sending country. Importation and exportation are the defining financial transactions of international trade.
In international trade, the importation and exportation of goods are limited ...
business founded by Samuel Merritt Comstock, an Ivoryton native, and his partner George A. Cheney in the 1860s was founded there.
The district was one of several industrial areas in the
Connecticut River Valley established during the late nineteenth century, and is also historically significant as a center for
immigrants from Sweden,
Germany,
Italy, and
Poland, who lived in worker housing areas throughout Ivoryton.
Pratt, Read & Company was located just a few miles away from Comstock, Cheney & Company along the Connecticut River, and these two largest American ivory manufacturers "commanded a monopoly on all ivory production in the United States."
The area thrived between 1860 and 1938, and at its height the area employed and housed up to 600 workers.
The National Register of Historical Places states:
:"The historic district consists of
early Colonial structures representing the agrarian village before its industrial transformation, mid- to late-nineteenth-century ivory processing and manufacturing buildings, high-style
Victorian homes for company executives, modest
vernacular homes and tenements for factory workers, and public buildings such as churches, a post office,
company store, library, and a town
meeting hall. Although some of the factory buildings have been demolished, the industry-defining bleach houses are gone, many houses have been remodeled, and the village itself sustained damage in a
flood in 1982, Ivoryton's historic character remains intact as an example of a
planned community not unlike more formalized 'company towns' in an industry unique to the Connecticut River Valley. The period of significance ranges from the construction of earliest known extant building (Joseph Parker Homestead; ca. 1719) to the divestment of company-owned housing in 1938."
See also
*
National Register of Historic Places listings in Middlesex County, Connecticut
Notes
External links
Ivoryton Library Association websitewith village history
NRHP form- 271 pages with information on the historic district
{{authority control
Essex, Connecticut
Villages in Middlesex County, Connecticut
Villages in Connecticut
Ivory