East Lyme, New London and Niantic CT

We arrived in East Lyme on July 30 and on the 31st we headed to New London and hoped to find a Visitor's Center.   What a wild goose chase!   There IS NO VISITOR's CENTER.   We found that there are several historic restoration organizations in the area and NONE of them speak to each other!   Warring tribes!  

We got fed up so parked the car and  started walking and we discovered on the Nathan Hale schoolhouse.   Nathan Hale is quite the hero in Connecticut.   He was hung as a spy and his famous comment was "I regret that I have only one life to give for my country".   Thankfully there was a young history major volunteering there and he gave us suggestions of things to see.   We discovered that historic sights are only open from 1-4, and usually Friday through Sunday.  

Our next venture was over to Groton, CT across the Thames River from New London where we visited the Avery-Copp house/museum.  The house was built in 1800 and contains original furnishings passed from generation togeneration in the same family.  The docent there suggested we go to the Fort Griswold bttlefield State Park just up the road.  This was the site of the battle of 9/6/1781 when 800 British forces commanded by Benedict Arnold defeated 165 local patriots.   In the bloody massacre 85 Americans were killed and 35 were wounded.   Down slope from the Fort is the home of defender Ensign Ebenezer Avery which sheltered many woulded after the battle.   We toured the house  and also the museum on the site of the fort.

Our final stop that day was the home of Nathaniel Shaw.   The docent was a Wolfpack grad whose hubby is in the Nuclear Sub force.   We talked about the Sadlacks closure and the roundabout on Hillsborough St.   The Shaw house was the home of Nathaniel Shaw, commissioned Naval Agent for Connecticut by the Continental Congress.   Late in the summer of 1781, near the end of the war, the British decided to punish New London.   They sent 1600 trooops under Benedict Arnold to destroy the city.   The Shaw house was a primary target.   On that day close of 150 buildings were destroyed, but not the Shaw Mansion.   The Shaw house also boasts that George Washington slept there.

Sunday, August 3 we drove back to New London and toured the Hempstead Houses.  The first house was built in 1678 and is the oldest in the city.   The other was built in 1759 by a ropemaker.   Residents over the years included one of New London's early civic leaders, at least two enslaved people, a hero of the American Revolution and some of the city's leading abolitionists.   Both houses survived the burning of New London by Benedict Arnold in 1781.   We drove back to East Lyme and visited the 1850 farm home - the Smith Harris House.