Ivoryton is one of three villages in
Essex, Connecticut
Essex is a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 6,733 at the 2020 census. It is made up of three villages: Essex Village, Centerbrook, and Ivoryton.
History
The Great Attack
Essex is one of the few A ...
in
Middlesex County. Ivoryton Historic District, the
historic district in the village, was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
on April 15, 2014.
[Ivoryton Historic District](_blank)
National Park Service.
The
Ivoryton Playhouse
Comstock-Cheney Hall, also known as Ivoryton Playhouse, is a theater building located in the village of Ivoryton in the town of Essex, Connecticut, US. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The theatre is believed to be the fi ...
, 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" and a world center of the
ivory
Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals i ...
industry.
The area became industrialized when Comstock, Cheney & Company, an ivory
import 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
The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing roughly southward for through four states. It rises 300 yards (270 m) south of the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, and discharges at Long Island ...
established during the late nineteenth century, and is also historically significant as a center for
immigrants from Sweden,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
,
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
, and
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
, 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 home
In Great Britain and former British colonies, a Victorian house generally means any house built during the reign of Queen Victoria. During the Industrial Revolution, successive housing booms resulted in the building of many millions of Victorian ...
s for company executives, modest
vernacular homes and tenements for factory workers, and public buildings such as churches, a post office,
company store
A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared g ...
, library, and a town
meeting hall
In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the grea ...
. 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
A planned community, planned city, planned town, or planned settlement is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed on previously undeveloped land. This contrasts with settlements that evolve ...
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
*
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