New London, Connecticut

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City of New London
Downtown New London on the  west bank of the Thames River.
Downtown New London on the
  west bank of the Thames River.
Official seal of City of New London
Seal
Nickname: The Whaling City
Motto: MARE LIBERUM
Location of City of New London
Coordinates: 41°21′20″N, 72°05′58″W
NECTA Norwich-New London
Region Southeastern Connecticut
Settled 1646 (Pequot Plantation)
Named 1658 (New London)
Incorporated (city) 1784
Government
 - Type Council-manager
 - City council Margaret Mary Curtin, Mayor
Kevin J. Cavanagh, Dep. Mayor
William M. Cornish
Charles Frink
Jane L. Glover
Robert M. Pero
Elizabeth A. Sabilia
 - City Manager Martin Berliner
 - Supt. of Schools Christopher Clouet
Area
 - City 27.9 km²  (10.76 sq mi)
 - Land 14.3 km² (5.54 sq mi)
 - Water 13.5 km² (5.23 sq mi)
 - Urban 318.66 km² (123.03 sq mi)
Elevation 17 m (56 ft)
Population (2005)[1] [2]
 - City 26,174
 - Density 1,824/km² (4,725/sq mi)
 - Metro 266,618
Time zone EST (UTC-5)
 - Summer (DST) EDT (UTC-4)
ZIP code 06320
Website: City of New London

New London is a seaport city and a port of entry on the northeast coast of the United States. It is located at the mouth of the Thames River in southeastern Connecticut.

The harbor at New London is the best on Long Island Sound [1]. Connecticut College and the United States Coast Guard Academy are located on the west bank. Naval Submarine Base New London and the Electric Boat Corporation are located on the east bank in neighboring Groton.

New London was founded in 1646. It was a base of American naval operations during the Revolutionary War and was a major whaling port in the 19th century. New London Harbor is home port to the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Chinook, the Coast Guard's tall ship Eagle, and to seventeen [2] nuclear-powered attack submarines of the U.S. Navy.

The Norwich-New London metropolitan area (NECTA [3]) includes twenty-one towns [4] and 266,618 people [5]. The population of the city of New London is 26,174 [6].

Contents

[edit] Geography

49% of New London's area is water.
49% of New London's area is water.

In terms of land area, New London is one of the smallest cities in Connecticut. Of the whole 10.76 square miles (27.9 km²), nearly half is water; 5.54 square miles (14.3 km²) is land [7].

The town and city of New London are coextensive. Between 1705 and 1801 sections of the original town were ceded to form newer towns. The towns of Groton, Ledyard, Montville, and Waterford; and portions of Salem and East Lyme; now occupy what had earlier been the outlying area of New London [8].

New London is bounded on the west and north by the town of Waterford, on the east by the Thames River and Groton, and on the south by Long Island Sound.

The geographic coordinates of the state superior courthouse in New London are 41° 21' 20" N, 72° 5' 58" W [9].

[edit] Transportation

New London is visited daily by Amtrak's Acela Express
New London is visited daily by Amtrak's Acela Express

By land, New London is practically midway between New York City and Boston. The major seaboard interstate highway, I-95, passes through the city, and New London's Amtrak station is on the passenger rail Northeast Corridor. The city of Worcester, Massachusetts is 74 miles (119 km) northward, principally via Interstate 395, and the Connecticut capital, Hartford, is 53 miles (85 km) to the northwest via a sequence of state highways.

New London is served by local taxi companies, regional Southeast Area Transit buses, interstate Greyhound Lines buses, the Cross Sound Ferry to Long Island, the Fishers Island Ferry District, and in summer by the Block Island Express ferry.

The Groton-New London Airport is located in neighboring Groton; and two major airports, T. F. Green and Bradley International, are within 75 minutes driving time.

Rail freight is by the Providence & Worcester Railroad and the New England Central Railroad. Seagoing cargo at the State Pier is handled by Logistec.

[edit] Demographics

Population since 1810
Population since 1810
Population 1756-1800 [10]
1756 †‡ 3,171
1774 †‡ 5,888
1782 †‡ 5,688
1800 ‡ 5,150
† Includes area taken to form other towns in 1786 and 1801
‡ Includes area taken to form other towns in 1801

As of the census² of 2000, there were 25,671 people, 10,181 households, and 5,385 families residing in the city. The population density was 4,635.5/mi² (1,789.1/km²). There were 11,560 housing units at an average density of 2,087.4/mi² (805.7/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 19.71% Hispanic or Latino of any race, 18.64% African American, 0.88% Native American, 2.12% Asian, 0.08% Pacific Islander, 9.13% from other races, 63.49% White and 5.67% from two or more races.

There were 10,181 households out of which 27.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 30.4% were married couples living together, 17.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 47.1% were non-families. 37.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.26 and the average family size was 3.00.

In the city the population was spread out with 22.8% under the age of 18, 17.6% from 18 to 24, 29.6% from 25 to 44, 17.9% from 45 to 64, and 12.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31 years. For every 100 females there were 95.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.8 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $33,809, and the median income for a family was $38,942. Males had a median income of $31,405 versus $25,426 for females. The per capita income for the city was $18,437. About 13.4% of families and 15.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 23.5% of those under age 18 and 11.4% of those age 65 or over.

[edit] Government

Ballot on voting machine
Ballot on voting machine

New London has a form of government centering on a professional city manager and elected city council. Distinct town and city government structures formerly existed, and technically continue. However, they now govern exactly the same territory, and have elections on the same ballot on Election Day in November of odd-numbered years; the officials of town and city interact essentially as do a single town's, or city's, officials, who have different but related responsibilities and powers.

[edit] History

New London in 1813
New London in 1813

Before English settlement, nearby tribal people called the site of New London by a name the English spelled "Nameaug". John Winthrop, Jr. led the first English to settle there in 1646, making it about the 13th modern Connecticut town settled by colonists; they informally named it Pequot (from the name of a tribe). The Connecticut legislature wanted to name the town "Faire Harbour," but the citizens protested, declaring that they would prefer to be called Nameaug to Faire Harbour. The legislature relented and the city officially took its current name (after London, England) on March 10, 1658.

Prior to the Battle of Groton Heights, New London was burned by the loyalist Benedict Arnold in the attempts to destroy the colonial privateer fleet and storage of goods and naval stores within the city. The main defensive fort for New London, Fort Griswold, located across the Thames River in Groton, was well known by Arnold who sold its secrets to the British fleet so they could avoid its artillery fire.

Connecticut's independent legislature, in its January session of 1784, made New London one of the first two cities (along with New Haven) brought from de facto to formalized incorporations.

For several decades during the middle of the nineteenth century, New London was the second busiest whaling port after New Bedford, Massachusetts. The wealth that whaling brought into the city furnished the capital to fund much of the city's present architecture.

State Street in c. 1920
State Street in c. 1920

The family of Nobel and Pulitzer-Prize playwright Eugene O'Neill, and most of his own first 26 years, were intimately connected to New London. He lived for years there, and as an adult was employed and wrote his first seven or eight plays in the city. (A major O'Neill archive is located at Connecticut College there, and a family home there is a museum and Registered National Landmark operated by the O'Neill Theater Center.)

On February 22, 2005, the United States Supreme Court decided in Kelo v. City of New London, that the city may seize privately owned real property under eminent domain so that it could be used for private economic development, deciding the tax revenue from the private development satisfied the requirement for public interest for eminent domain.

[edit] Prominent features

Lyman Allyn Art Museum
Lyman Allyn Art Museum

New London hosts Connecticut College, Mitchell College, and the United States Coast Guard Academy, as well as the small private secondary school The Williams School. The Connecticut College Arboretum is a fine, 750 acre (3 km²) arboretum and botanical garden. The Lyman Allyn Art Museum is located on the Connecticut College Campus. Housed in a handsome Neo-Classical building designed by Charles A. Platt, the permanent collection of over 15,000 objects includes paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, furniture, decorative arts, and American art from the 18th through 20th centuries.

Ye Antientist Burial Ground, circa 1652, is one of the earliest colonial graveyards in New England. Here is a significant repository not only of the first generation of settlers, but an open air museum of the early stonecutter's art as well. Of all Connecticut burying grounds, this in New London may hold the greatest variety of different carving schools. There is also a historical site in the remains of Fort Griswold (located across the Thames River in Groton, CT), dedicated to Americans that fell in the Battle of Groton Heights defending the fort and the city against British invaders. New London is also home to Fort Trumbull.

[edit] Notable residents

Cassie, singer


John Winthrop, the Younger (1606-1676), statesman, metallurgist, alchemist, and physician. Founder of New London. Able and popular Governor of Connecticut (1657, 1659-1676). Obtained from Charles II the generous Charter of the Colony of Connecticut in 1662. Made an Original Fellow of the Royal Society in 1663 -- the only resident in North America. Physician to some 500 families out of a population of about 5,000 persons. Treated an average of twelve patients a day by traveling around the colony. [11]


Fitz-John Winthrop (1638-1707; son of John Winthrop, the Younger), soldier, statesman. Governor of Connecticut (1698-1707). In 1694 argued before William and Mary in defense of the colony against covetous Massachusetts and New York, and won royal reaffirmation of the Charter of 1662. [12]

Gurdon Saltonstall (1666-1724), clergyman. Governor of Connecticut (1708-1724). Proponent of the controversial Saybrook Platform. [13]

Sarah Kemble Knight (1666-1727), teacher, businesswoman, diarist. Author (1704) of The Journal of Madame Knight. (ISBN 1-55709-115-3). [14]

Eliphalet Adams (1677-1753), clergyman. An eminent Hebraist, he learned the language of the Nehantics and Pequots, and established schools for those tribes. His congregation elected not to adopt the Saybrook Platform. A renowned preacher and sought-after speaker, many of his sermons were contemporaneously printed. [15]

Joshua Hempstead (1678-1758), farmer, surveyor, carpenter, gravestone carver, trader, petty attorney, public official, and diarist. Author of Diary of Joshua Hempstead of New London, Connecticut, 1711-1758. (ISBN 0-9607744-1-6). [16]

Detail of reverse of a 1776 Connecticut 1s. note
Detail of reverse of a 1776 Connecticut 1s. note

Timothy Green (1679-1757), printer. Second in the succession of Connecticut printers. Moved from Boston to New London in 1714 to replace Thomas Short, the first printer in Connecticut, who had died in 1712. Euonymous sire to later New London printers Timothy Green (1703-1763) and Timothy Green (1737-1796). [17]

Thomas Short (1682-1712), printer. Moved from Massachusetts Bay Colony to New London in 1709 to be the first printer in Connecticut. Printed in 1710 the Saybrook Platform and the election sermon of Eliphalet Adams -- one or the other being "the first book printed in Connecticut", depending on the source.


Dudley Saltonstall (1738-1796), naval officer, nephew of Governor Gurdon Saltonstall. First commander of Continental Navy's first flagship, the Alfred.

Nathaniel Shaw, Jr. (1735-1782), merchant, financier. Continental Naval Agent for Connecticut during the Revolutionary War.

Nathan Hale appeared on US postage stamps issued in 1925 and 1929. Likeness is from statue by Bela Lyon Pratt.
Nathan Hale appeared on US postage stamps issued in 1925 and 1929. Likeness is from statue by Bela Lyon Pratt.

Nathan Hale (1755-1776), schoolmaster, patriot. Yale College Class of 1773. An active and enthusiastic teacher, and an early champion of education for daughters as well as sons. Appointed Master of the Union School in New London, and elected First Sergeant of his militia unit there. Commissioned a captain in the Continental Army in 1776. Volunteered to reconnoitre behind enemy lines during the Battle of Long Island. Captured, he was condemned without trial by the English general William Howe. In spirit and deportment as he faced his death, the twenty-one year-old so impressed the enemy company in witness that his last words are remembered as, "I only regret that I have but one life to loose for my country." In 1925 the first of two U.S. Postage stamps honoring Nathan Hale was issued, in 1963 the USS Nathan Hale (SSBN-623) was launched at Groton, and in 1985 the General Assembly made Captain Nathan Hale the Connecticut State Hero. The Nathan Hale Schoolhouse in New London (Union Schoolhouse, c. 1775) is preserved by the Connecticut Society of the Sons of the American Revolution and is open to the public.


Nathan Belcher ( June 23, 1813 - June 2, 1891) was a United States Representative from Connecticut.

Edward Clark Potter (1857-1923), sculptor. Works include the iconic "Lions" (1911) of the New York Public Library.

Issued Oct. 16, 1967 at New London CT
Issued Oct. 16, 1967 at New London CT

Eugene O'Neill (1888-1953), playwright.

A reporter for The New London Telegraph before meeting success as a playwright, his autobiographical Ah, Wilderness! (O'Neill's only comedy) and Long Day's Journey Into Night are set at Monte Cristo Cottage, the family's home in New London. The Monte Cristo Cottage is preserved by the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center and is open to the public.

Daniel Burrows (October 26, 1766 - January 23, 1858) was a United States Representative from Connecticut.


Among the living, New London is the birthplace of

  • Swing saxophonist Larry Elgart of the "Les and Larry Elgart Orchestra".
  • Major league baseball player John Ellis.
  • Broadway award-winning, and twice Emmy-nominated actress Glenne Headly.
  • Model, actress, and emerging R&B artist Cassandra "Cassie" Ventura.
  • Dawn Robinson, singer and member of En Vogue


Among the living, New London is the home of

Also, see list of Connecticut College people.

[edit] Culture

[edit] Literature

  • Hempstead, Joshua [1901] (1998). Diary of Joshua Hempstead: a record of life in colonial New London, Connecticut, 1711-1758. New London: New London County Historical Society, 750 pages. ISBN 0-9607744-3-2. 
  • Stone, Clifford [1976]. The Great Sunflower: A Novel. Seattle: Vanguard Press. ISBN 0-8149-0775-X. 
  • Gerba, Janet Burnett [1995]. With no little regrett [sic]: an historical novel based on The journal of Madam Knight. Rutland, Vt: Colonial American Press, 275 pages. ISBN 0-9647752-0-4. 
  • King, Matthew [2003]. The New London State of Mind. New London: WhaleheadKing.com. 
  • King, Matthew [2005]. Why Not New London?. New London: WhaleheadKing.com. 
  • King, Matthew [2006]. New London Eel Stew. New London: WhaleheadKing.com. 

[edit] Local music

New London has been home to an active and vital original music scene since the 70s. Some musicians who call New London home:

  • Brad Fury. Solo acoustic artist also plays guitar and sings for 61 Fury and is an up and coming show booker/promoter in the area.
  • Brazen Hussy. Surging melody over driving punk beats.
  • Brian Skidmore. "The Ukulele King of Northern Downtown New London."
  • Burned In Effigy. Metal / Hardcore / Heavy.
  • Cassie. Pop / Hip-Hop / R&B
  • Dr. VonFiend. A mysterious conglomeration personality stemming from the underground New London music group known only as Paleo.
  • Fatal Film. Noisy rock and roll.
  • Geoff Kaufman. "Acoustic music...with a pinch of salt."
  • Incognito Sofa Love. Funk / Jazz / Rock.
  • Low-Beam. Indie sonic pop.
  • Paul Brockett Road Show. Yodeling and folk, with a New London twist.
  • Quiet Life. Folk inspired Indie Rock.
  • 61 Fury (band). Punk rock band best known for their dark lyrical content and catchy upbeat hooks.
  • Stressbomb. Hardcore / Alternative / Punk.
  • The American Infidels. Punk rock.
  • The Reducers. Old-school punk/pub rock, since 1978.
  • The Chuck Hestons. Noise Pop, since 2002.
  • The Suicide Dolls. New London Noise Rock.

[edit] Art

In the late 70's, during the City Arts time, several artists moved into the city. Many art galleries now serve artists both in and out of town.

[edit] Resident Artists

  • George K. Clarke - Abstract artist and photographer [19]

[edit] See also

[edit] Further reading

  • Caulkins, Frances Manwaring [1852] (1985). History of New London Connecticut from the first survey of the coast in 1612 to 1852. New London: New London County Historical Society. ISBN 0-8328-0008-2. 
  • Starr, William Holt (1876). A Centennial Historical Sketch of the Town of New London. New London: G.E. Starr. OCLC 5956004. 
  • Stone, Gregory N. (June 2000). The Day Paper. The Story of One of America's Last Independent Newspapers. New London: The Day Publishing Company. ISBN 0-9672028-0-9. 
  • Powell, Walter L. (December 2000). Murder or Mayhem?: Benedict Arnold's New London, Connecticut Raid, 1781. Thomas Publications. ISBN 1-57747-059-1. 
  • Richter, Robert A. (2001). Touring Eugene O'Neill's New London. eOneill.com. Connecticut College. Retrieved on October 19, 2006. “Due to urban renewal in the 1960s, Bradley Street no longer exists, but during O'Neill's day it hummed with activity. At the turn of the last century traveling salesmen reported that New London had 'the liveliest, most wide-open red-light district between New York and Boston.' Bradley Street was the district's hub, even though the New London Police Headquarters was located here.”

[edit] External links


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