The Mystic Bridge Historic District is a historic district in the village of Mystic, Connecticut on the Stonington side of the

Mystic River The Mystic River is a riverU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 in Massachusetts, in the United States. In Massachusett, means "large estuary," alluding to t ...

. It includes the

Mystic Seaport Museum Mystic Seaport Museum or Mystic Seaport: The Museum of America and the Sea in Mystic, Connecticut is the largest maritime museum in the United States. It is notable for its collection of sailing ships and boats and for the re-creation of the craf ...

, whose grounds and floating vessels represent the area's history, and the 1924 Mystic River Bascule Bridge. The district is significant as a well-preserved shipbuilding and maritime village of the 19th and early 20th centuries, With and it 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 ...

in 1979.

History

Mystic developed in the early 19th century as a small seaport and shipbuilding center, businesses that were mostly located on the eastern shore of the

. The village is divided between the towns of Stonington and

Groton, Connecticut Groton is a town in New London County, Connecticut located on the Thames River. It is the home of General Dynamics Electric Boat, which is the major contractor for submarine work for the United States Navy. The Naval Submarine Base New London is ...

. The Greenman brothers, George, Clark and Thomas founded the George Greenman & Co. shipyard and built their

Greek Revival style The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

houses on the grounds. Their shipyard was one of the village's largest, and now serves as the grounds of the

. The museum still uses some of the buildings for their original purposes. This section of Mystic became known as "Greenmanville", as the brothers not only owned and operated the shipyard, but also a textile mill and a company store. They also managed nearby farms and rented out housing to their workers. The Greenmans were

Seventh Day Baptists Seventh Day Baptists are Baptists who observe the Sabbath as the seventh day of the week, Saturday, as a holy day to God. They adopt a covenant Baptist theology, based on the concept of regenerated society, conscious baptism of believers by immers ...

, celebrating the Sabbath on Saturday, and the shipyard's schedule reflected that. The industrial village prospered from the 1840s to the 1890s, after which it declined, as wooden ships gave way to those built of iron and steel.Interpretive signs on site

Gallery

File:Charles W Morgan.jpg, The ''Charles W. Morgan'' at the Mystic Seaport Museum File:George Greenman House 3, Mystic Seaport Museum.jpg, The George Greenman House File:Clark Greenman House 1, Mystic Seaport Museum.jpg, The Clark Greenman House File:Thomas S. Greenman House 1, Mystic Seaport Museum.jpg, The Thomas S. Greenman House File:Greenmanville Seventh-Day Baptist Church, Mystic Seaport Museum.jpg, The former Greenmanville Seventh Day Baptist Church

References

External links

* {{National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut, state=collapsed Queen Anne architecture in Connecticut Italianate architecture in Connecticut Mystic, Connecticut Historic districts in New London County, Connecticut Historic American Engineering Record in Connecticut Bascule bridges in the United States Drawbridges on the National Register of Historic Places National Register of Historic Places in New London County, Connecticut Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut Bridges in Connecticut

History

Gallery

See also

References

External links