April 2010 – New London County Historical Society

Ribbon-cutting for Accessible Bathroom

Posted on April 20, 2010April 25, 2019 by stevemanuel

New_bathroom_entrance photo

Friday 30 April, the New London County Historical Society will celebrate the completion of a $60,000 construction project to add an accessible bathroom and classroom to the 1845 wing of the Shaw Mansion. A reception will be held from 4:30pm to 6pm with the ribbon-cutting slated for 5:15.

The project was supported by grants from the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation, the Community Foundation of Southeastern Connecticut, The Frank Loomis Palmer Fund administered by the Bank of America, and through a matching grant from the State of Connecticut’s Community Investment Act, Historic Preservation Funds, administered through the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism.

Consulting architect for the project was Rick Gipstein of Lindsay Liebig Roche Architects of New London, and the contractor was LaBossiere Builders of Norwich. Short-term funding assistance was obtained through the Southeastern Connecticut Enterprise Region (seCTer).

The project has transformed what was once the 19th century servant’s hall and kitchen, and a small lavatory stuffed into a closet in the 1970s, into a large classroom and commodious bathroom which meets ADA guidelines. The entire first floor of the historic house is now accessible to visitors, with the bathroom accessible from both the inside and outside of the building. This will allow the lovely garden area of the Shaw Mansion to be a much more attractive and useful location for events.

The Board of Directors of the historical society hope that many members and invited guests will join in a toast to our new bathroom!

From:

hallway_destruction_photo

To: finished_stairway_photo

State Historian Walter Woodward to Speak at April Second Sunday

Posted on April 2, 2010November 16, 2014 by stevemanuel

“New England’s Other Witch Hunt: The Hartford Witch Hunt of the 1660s and the Changing Patterns of Prosecution.”
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Walter Woodward, Connecticut’s State Historian, will be making a presentation based on his just published book, Prospero’s America: John Winthrop, Jr., Alchemy, and the Creation of New England Culture, 1606-1676. The presentation will take place on the Connecticut College Campus in Blaustein 210, on 11 April at 2pm, in a program co-sponsored by the Connecticut College history department and the New London County Historical Society.

The book is full of provocative insights. While some are familiar with alchemy, the common knowledge is usually limited to the idea that alchemy was a magical quest to turn lead into gold. Woodward leads us to understand how alchemy was much more than that, “an important contributing factor in the development of modern chemistry and experimental science.” In this work Woodward shows how Winthrop’s alchemical knowledge, and connections emanating from his participation in the Royal Society, empowered him locally, as a favored Connecticut governor, and at the Royal Court in England.

Combining religion, metallurgy, healing, an entrepreneurial spirit and political will, Woodward is able to enlighten the reader with how those elements intertwine. Winthrop’s efforts to found a NEW London was an attempt to create an outpost of scientific research in the wilderness.

Winthrop’s knowledge and authority as a political leader gave him the power to put a brake on witchcraft trials in Connecticut — while he was in the colony.

Too frequently our view of colonial New England culture is limited to puritans as religious zealots locked in a battle with the wilderness. This book jostles that outlook placing a proto-scientific lens on that world and placing Connecticut’s early history within the framework of an Atlantic World Economy. All too often, historians have assumed Connecticut was just like Massachusetts; this work challenges that concept giving us new insight to the past, our local past. This book shines a bright light on southeastern Connecticut.

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