The Laurel Hill Historic District is a predominantly residential

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 ...

south of downtown

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

. The district was added to 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 v ...

on October 26, 1987. It extends south from the

Shetucket River The Shetucket River is a tributary of the Thames River, long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 in eastern Connecticut in the United States. It is formed at ...

along Laurel Hill Avenue, River Avenue, and Spruce Street. This area was developed as a residential district beginning in 1850, and includes a significant number of well-preserved Italianate and Gothic Revival houses.

Description and history

Laurel Hill is located south of downtown Norwich, separated from it by the

. The neighborhood is characterized by relatively steep hillsides Laurel Hill Avenue, its principal roadway, runs south from a pair of bridges over that river, parallel to the

Thames River The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

, on a terrace of the hillside. Spruce Street, River Avenue, and Summer Street are secondary residential streets paralleling Laurel Hill Avenue on different levels of the hill. The historic district has 124 houses and one industrial building, almost all of which date to the 19th century. About one third of the houses are Italianate in style, reflective of the area's development in the 1850s and 1860s, while Carpenter Gothic and Queen Anne Victorian styles are also well represented. The only significant non-residential building is a c. 1871 Italianate schoolhouse, which is one of two brick buildings (the other is a house) in the district. The district also includes Laurel Hill Park, an early feature of the development. Laurel Hill was largely undeveloped before 1850, because of its difficult terrain. In 1850, a consortium of developers led by Henry Bill purchased most of the land in the area, laid out Laurel Hill Avenue, and began promoting it as a residential suburban area in the country style advocated by

Andrew Jackson Downing Andrew Jackson Downing (October 31, 1815 – July 28, 1852) was an American landscape designer, horticulturist, and writer, a prominent advocate of the Gothic Revival in the United States, and editor of ''The Horticulturist'' magazine (1846–5 ...

. Early construction, near the Shetucket River, consisted of large and handsomely landscaped lots. As part of his promotion of the area, Bill advocated for the construction of a toll-free bridge across the river, and built his own home prominently overlooking the river. The area experienced significant growth due to a business boom caused by the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, which continued into the post-war years. Many high quality homes were built, although the size of home lots decreased further south in the neighborhood, and some multi-family residences were also built. File:Laurel Hill Historic District - 16 Laurel Hill Ave (New London County, Connecticut).jpg,

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

(1868) File:Laurel Hill Historic District - 146-148 Laurel Hill Ave (New London County, Connecticut).jpg, American Queen Anne (1882) File:Laurel Hill Historic District - Laurel Hill Ave street scene (New London County, Connecticut).jpg

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Italianate architecture in Connecticut Historic districts in New London County, Connecticut National Register of Historic Places in New London County, Connecticut Norwich, Connecticut Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut

Description and history

See also

References