November 2010

Fulfilling its mission, the society brings together the historical artifacts, events, and family genealogies of the town. The museums preserve and display collections, relics, and curiosities of New Canaan's past. With education as our primary focus, the society offers historical and genealogical research and publications in its library as well as numerous educational programs. The society also displays both permanent and changing historical exhibits.

The organization has about 200 members and has recently opened their new office and museum in the renovated train station in Naugatuck.

The mission of the Naugatuck Historical Society is to bring together those people interested in the history of Naugatuck; to discover and collect any material which may help to establish or illustrate the history of the area; to endeavor to provide for the preservation of items of historic significance; to cooperate with officials in insuring the preservation of records and archives of the town; and to disseminate historical information and attempt to arouse interest in the past.

Mystic Seaport, the Museum of America and the Sea, is one of the oldest living history museums in the United States, featuring both a collection of sailing ships and boats and over 60 original historic buildings with craftsmen to demonstrate how work was done.

Since the 1600s, Mystic, Connecticut, had been a center of shipbuilding. Between 1784 and 1919—the golden age of American maritime enterprise—more than six hundred vessels were constructed along the Mystic River. But the advent of steam power and the decline of wooden shipbuilding after the Civil War meant that textile manufacturing became Mystic’s dominant industry. The museum was established in 1929 as the “Marine Historical Association.”

The house was built by James Brown, a wealthy plantation owner from Madison County, Mississippi. The house was started in late 1848 and was completed in 1852.

In 1877, Jefferson Davis was looking for a quiet retreat to write his books and papers. He fell in love with Beauvoir and bought it from a family friend for $5,500, to be paid in three payments. He made the first payment and six months later, the owner died and he found out he was her sole heir and eventually inherited the house along with other property.

The society maintains a part-time archival and curatorial staff available to assist researchers and to continue the organization and cataloging of the collections.

In addition to the Downes Building, the society owns the Portersville Academy, purchased from the Town of Groton in 1975 and partially restored. This historical building serves as the society's education and outreach space. A schoolroom of the 1840's has been recreated upstairs, and historical displays form a backdrop for educational activities downstairs. The Downes Building and Portersville Academy lie adjacent on High Street in Mystic, south of West Main Street.

Portersville Academy was built in 1839 by Amos Clift as the Fifth District School and originally stood further up High Street just north of Union Baptist Church. In 1887 the Town of Groton bought the building and moved it to its present site. It was used as a District Hall for a number of years, eventually falling into disrepair before the Society acquired it.

The Mogollan people occupied Casa Malpais, which means "House of the Badlands," for almost 200 years before leaving for good. While the view itself is extraordinary, the main attraction is the Great Kiva, or ceremonial chamber, constructed entirely of volcanic rock. A steep basalt staircase set into a crevice of the high red cliff wall leads to the top of the mesa. Visitors can stop by the Visitor's Center and Museum for background on the Mogollan people and then take a guided tour of the archaeological park.

In 1970 local citizens joined forces to preserve the long-time home of Titanic’s most famous survivor. They organized as Historic Denver, Inc. and began a long-legacy of preserving Denver’s historic places. Today, you can visit the Brown’s opulent 1889 home, designed by architect William Lang with all the modern conveniences, including electricity, central heat and in-door plumbing. Through microscopic paint analysis, architectural research, and studying original house photographs from 1910 the house was finally restored to its original splendor. You’ll also hear the fascinating tales of Molly Brown’s incredible life, from instant mining-town wealth, to labor reform and the stages of New York.

Built between 1821 and 1841, these three missions served as homes and workplaces for the first Christian missionaries to travel to the Hawaiian Islands.

A visit to Mission Houses Museum will carry you away to the nineteenth century when Protestant Missionaries from New England established the Sandwich Islands Mission in 1820. The Museum is the original location for the Honolulu Mission Station which served as the headquarters, or main station, for the Sandwich Islands Mission between 1821 and 1863.

The Frame House ( Ka Hale La‘āu), was shipped around Cape Horn from Boston in 1820 and is the oldest wood house in Hawai'i. The Chamberlain House (Ka Hale Kamalani), built of coral blocks in 1831, was both a family home and storehouse for mission supplies. The third building, also of coral blocks, completed in 1841 today functions as the Printing Office (Ka Hale Pa‘i). A working replica of the first printing press to be brought to Hawai‘i is demonstrated there on a regular basis.

The society aims to assist the research, nurture the interest, and provoke the actions of any and all people who have an enthusiasm about the preservation and investigation of the history of Milford.

The Historical Society is headquartered at General Mansfield House, one of the few residential structures still standing on Middletown’s Main Street . Once the home of General Joseph K.F. Mansfield, a Civil War hero who died at the battle of Antietam in 1862, the Federal brick mansion has been the home of the Historical Society since 1959.

At the museum at General Mansfield House, visitors can explore the community’s past through major exhibits, which showcase artifacts from the Historical Society’s permanent collection. Recent exhibits have examined Middletown’s 19th century women’s clothing, varied immigrant groups; the rise and fall of manufacturing in Middlesex County; and death and dying from colonial times to the present. A permanent exhibit, Hard Tack, Salt Pork & Faith, movingly explores local soldiers’ experiences in the Civil War through photographs, military gear, diaries and letters home.