Civic Institutions Historic District

The Civic Institutions Historic District in New London, Connecticut is a historic district that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. It includes six contributing buildings over a 7 acres (2.8 ha) area.[1] The district includes properties that were historically developed between 1867 and 1917 to provide for the city's indigent population, and to provide medical services to the community. Two of the buildings are almshouses, built in 1867 and 1917, and the others were historically associated with the delivery of medical services, and date to the turn of the 20th century. The district properties are 179 Colman Street, 32 Walden Avenue, and 156, 158, 171, and 173-5 Garfield Avenue.[2]

Civic Institutions Historic District
Location156-158, 171, 173-175 Garfield Ave., 179 Colman St., 32 Walden Ave., New London, Connecticut
Coordinates41°21′15″N 72°6′42″W
Area7 acres (2.8 ha)
Built1867 (1867)
ArchitectMitchell, Donald G.
Architectural styleColonial Revival, Queen Anne, Georgian Revival
NRHP reference No.90000602[1]
Added to NRHPApril 16, 1990

Description and history

The Civic Institutions Historic District is located on the western fringe of the developed core of New London. It is roughly bisected by Garfield Avenue, near its western end at Colman Avenue. On the south side of Garfield Avenue stands the former almshouse, a brick building with two wings joined by a central hyphen. On the north side of Garfield Avenue, closer to Colman, is the original Memorial Hospital building, built in 1892, with a wing added the following year. Behind the hospital, facing Walden Street, is a detached hospital building that was built as a dormitory for nurses in 1901. Facing Colman Street is the Mitchell Isolation Hospital, a single-story Colonial Revival structure built in 1914 as a facility for segregation patients with highly infectious diseases, including smallpox and tuberculosis.[2]

These buildings represent the city's response to the need to provide for its indigent and sick populations in the late 19th century. Architecturally, they are well-preserved specimens of institutional versions of the Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles popular at the time. The Mitchell Hospital building was designed by New London architect Donald Mitchell, who was a nephew of the hospital's principal patron, Annie O. Tiffany Mitchell, an heir to the fortune of jeweler Charles Lewis Tiffany.[2]

See also

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. "NRHP nomination for Civic Institutions Historic District". National Park Service. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
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