The Mechanic Street Historic District encompasses a historic 19th-century mill and mill village in a 14-block area of the

Pawcatuck Pawcatuck is a village and census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Stonington which is located in New London County, Connecticut. The population was 5,624 at the 2010 census. It is located across the Pawcatuck River from Downtown Westerly, ...

section of

Stonington, Connecticut The town of Stonington is located in New London County, Connecticut in the state's southeastern corner. It includes the borough of Stonington (borough), Connecticut, Stonington, the villages of Pawcatuck, Connecticut, Pawcatuck, Lords Point, and W ...

. Extending along the

Pawcatuck River The Pawcatuck River is a river in the US states of Rhode Island and Connecticut flowing approximately .U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 There are eight dam ...

and south of West Broad Street (

United States Route 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, making i ...

), the area includes a large brick mill complex on the banks of the river, and a neighborhood of well-preserved worker housing on the road grid to its west. The district 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 v ...

in 1988. and

Description and history

The Pawcatuck area of Stonington developed, along with adjacent

Westerly, Rhode Island Westerly is a town on the southwestern shoreline of Washington County, Rhode Island, first settled by English colonists in 1661 and incorporated as a municipality in 1669. It is a beachfront community on the south shore of the state with a popula ...

, as a port and shipbuilding center in the early 19th century. Several shipyards lined the western (Stonington) bank of the river, whose worker housing formed the early construction of worker housing on the residential grid to the west. The arrival of the railroad in 1837 led the area to also develop an industrial base, with a foundry established in 1851 and a machine factory in 1857. This plant eventually specialized in the manufacture of

printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a printing, print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in wh ...

es, and was joined later in the 19th century by a

textile mill Textile Manufacturing or Textile Engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful goods ...

. Worker housing of all types was built nearby, both by the business owners and other parties, to meet the housing demand for the workers employed in these businesses. The historic district is in size, bounded on the north by West Broad Street and the east by the Pawcatuck River. It includes a large waterfront mill complex, with 7 major buildings over a area, and a smaller company office building. It extends westward from the mill as far as Courtland Street, the area beyond the railroad tracks consisting mainly of worker housing. The buildings in the residential area are stylistically diverse, including examples of Greek Revival housing from the shipyard period, and tenement-style housing built later in the 19th century.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places National Register of Historic Places in New London County, Connecticut Historic districts in New London County, Connecticut Greek Revival architecture in Connecticut Stonington, Connecticut Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut

Description and history

See also

References