An excerpt from The Connecticut 169 Club
Essex, CT
Essex is a shipbuilding port on the Connecticut River in Middlesex County, made up of three villages, Essex, Centerbrook, and Ivoryton, and once called “The Perfect Small American Town.”
Middlesex County
A Shipbuilding Town on the River
Essex sits on the west bank of the Connecticut River, eight miles north of Long Island Sound. Originally part of Saybrook and known as the Potapaug Quarter, the settlement grew around two fertile farming areas, Scotch Plains and Lynde Plains, before shipbuilding took over as the town’s trade.- 1775–76 Shipbuilder Uriah Hayden built Connecticut’s first warship for the Revolution, the Oliver Cromwell, launching Essex’s reputation as a shipbuilding port.
- 1814 A British raiding party rowed six miles up the Connecticut River and burned 28 privateer ships in the harbor, then the town’s worst wartime loss.
- 1852 Essex separated from Saybrook and incorporated as its own town, taking the name Essex in 1854.
- 1859 The villages of Ivoryton and Centerbrook joined Essex, completing the three villages that make up the town today.
As wooden sailing ships gave way to steamships, Essex’s economic center shifted to Ivoryton, where the Comstock, Cheney & Company factory turned the village into the piano-key and comb ivory capital of the country. Today Essex is better known for its Federal-style homes, its historic Main Street, and its standing as one of the best-preserved river towns in New England.
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Notable Places to Visit
A 1776 inn, a river museum, a steam train, and Katharine Hepburn’s old summer stage
From The Connecticut 169 Club
This is an excerpt from the Connecticut travel guide The Connecticut 169 Club: Your Passport & Guide to Exploring CT. It was written by local residents to encourage people to visit the beautiful 169 towns and cities in Connecticut. Collect a stamp or signature in each town and earn the Leatherman patch when you finish. Podskoch Press
The Complete Travel Guide Series
Essex is one of the 169 towns featured in The Connecticut 169 Club, the guide this page is drawn from. Collect a stamp in every town, then keep going with the other guides.
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