Norwich's Heritage Trail - Walktober 2019

Town Historian, Dale Plummer led the walk

I'm really enjoying the Walktober events. On Sunday, September 29th I participated in the Norwich Heritage Trail Walk. The tour began at Christ Episcopal Church on Washington St.

Christ Episcopal Church

The Heritage trail follows a mix of paved riverside paths, old neighborhoods of middle class and mill worker's housing, busy town streets with the grand homes of mill owners,  Native American burial grounds, and a waterfall!

Dr. Cassidy's house was built in a mix of styles

In addition to being an important doctor in the Norwich community, Dr. Cassidy played an important role in building the community's first Catholic Church. Sadly, his once grand home and office has fallen into disrepair.

Across the street is a counterpoint to Dr. Cassidy's house

Paved path along the Yantic River

The East Branch of the Yantic River

The Yantic River begins in Lebanon, CT.  It continues on to Norwich where it joins the Shetucket River to form the Thames River. In this area of Norwich, there are two branches of the Yantic (east and west) which were formed when garbage from ship building and unloading cargo ships was thrown into the river, eventually forming a long island which today houses the city's sewage treatment plant.

That long pipe in the background is the longest free standing stainless steel pipe in the U.S.

In addition to being home to Benedict Arnold, Norwich's other claim to fame is having the longest free-standing stainless steel pipe in the U.S. It carries sewage over to the treatment plant built on an island of garbage, and then spills into the Thames River. Yuck! Anyway, you can see the pipe along the Heritage trail.

Tyler Ave. a middle class neighborhood on the Heritage trail

Along the way Dale told us about another of Norwich's claims to fame. President pro tempore of the Senate, Lafayette S. Foster, of Norwich, would have been president of the United States if the conspiracy to assassinate both Lincoln and his vice president had succeeded. Because the plot failed, today most of us  know only about Booth assassinating Lincoln in a theater, and Andrew Jackson becoming president. Foster then became acting vice president.

Along some sections of the trail you can catch a glimpse of the Yantic River.

This long wall tells us someone with money lived in a mansion on the land above...

while these small foundations show us where the families of textile mill workers lived

...and there's that sewage pipe again!

Not only is that more of the mill owner's stone wall, that is also more of the sewage pipe sticking up out of the ground

This former textile mill is now condo units

Just down river from Yantic Falls is an old textile mill. Water from the river was diverted to provide power to the mill and down river from that the water often varied in color depending on which dye they were using that day. Pollution is not a new thing.

Remnants of an old mill

View of the gorge and park at Yantic Falls

Yantic Falls also known as "Indian Leap"

I've seen a lot more water coming over these falls in past years. The lack of rainfall in 2019 really shows here. However, when the paper and cotton mills were running, people saw barely a trickle fall over the dam, because the water was diverted to flow through the mill, providing power. The footbridge above led to mill housing across the river. The footbridge is still open to the public today. Behind that is the freight railway that transported goods (and passengers) from Norwich Harbor to Worcester, MA. Later the railway extended north to  Boston and then Canada.

One more view

No one could survive a leap across this gorge

The history of Yantic Falls aka "Indian Leap" (to their death) - Interesting history

More mill housing

While walking along the Sachem St. section of the Heritage Trail, we learned that in 1872 Louise Comfort Tiffany married Mary Woodbridge Goddard of Norwich. Then we stopped at a monument for Uncas, Sachem of the Mohegan tribe. Supposedly Uncas is buried here, but according to our historian, the Mohegans say he is not buried there. They know where he is buried, but they aren't telling!

Uncas monument

Royal Mohegan Burial Grounds

At the corner of Sachem and Washington streets is the Royal Mohegan Burial Grounds. At one time a Masonic Temple was built on top of this site, but the Mohegan Tribe regained rights to this ancient site and tore the building down, creating this sacred memorial in 2008.

The Carow house on Washington St.

One more Norwich claim to fame - Edith, the daughter of merchant Charles Carow (1825–1883) and Gertrude Elizabeth Tyler (1836–1895), was the second wife of President Theodore Roosevelt. She served as First Lady from 1901-1909.

Americas on the Wharf

Once back at Christ Episcopal Church, we continued along the Heritage Trail on our own.  Behind the church, a short walk took us along a paved path, under the E. Main St. bridge and back to where we had parked at Howard T. Brown Memorial Park. The park is located across the east branch of the Yantic River from the troubled Americas on the Wharf in Chelsea Harbor.

It was a nice day for a walk and fun to be part of a group interested in Norwich history. Check out the Walktober events calendar here!

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