Burnett's Corner Historic District
LHD boundaries as described are approximate and subject to change. Consult the LHD Study Report on file with the relevant local district commission or municipal authority to verify district boundaries and whether a specific property, particularly one in proximity of a boundary line, is within the district. Also note that LHD boundaries may differ from those of State or National Register Districts.
- Town:
- Groton
- Year of Establishment:
- 1974
- District Authority:
- Historic District Commission, Mystic
- Link to Commission or Municipal Website:
- District Character:
- Rural Village
- Features:
- Architectural Style:
Colonial/ Post medieval English, Mid-19th Century/ Greek Revival, Vernacular domestic
- Era:
- c. 1750- 1944; 18th- Century, 19th- Century, 20th- Century
Buildings, Cemetery; The district include a total 11 parcels- two colonial era buildings through 1775; three Federal era buildings, 1775-1830; two Revival era buildings, 1840-1900; one vacant land parcel assessed value $ 1000 or more and three Vacant land parcels, tax free or assessed value under $1000. [2]
Only a few houses near the intersection of Cow Hill and Packer Roads remain to indicate that a village once thrived along this section of thoroughfare that became the Boston Post Road. Burnett's Corner's was once an important manufacturing place with a variety of mills on its several brooks. The mills produced flour, textiles, lumber and marine goods. Small inland manufacturing and farming communities of this kind provided much of the food and articles of trade that made the maritime industries possible in Groton's shore villages. On the north side of Packer Road between Cow Hill Road and Connecticut Route 184, two modest houses overlook as old mill pond: #27 built around 1800 and #28 dating to about 1679. The Burnett house, a well-proportioned Greek Revival (29), circa 1830, once served as the village tavern. It is located on the south-west corner of the Cow Hill and the Packer Roads intersection. Diagonally opposite stands a two story frame house that was at one time Masonic Hall (30), circa 1800. A second handsome 1830 Greek Revival (31) occupies the southwest angle of the Cow Hill Road and Route 184 Junction. A large, two story colonial farm house (32), circa 1760 sets well back from Welles Road towards the eastern edge of the district. The most important of several small cemeteries within the district is the Wightman Burying Ground (33) on Cold Spring Road. This was the site chosen for its church by Connecticut's first Baptist Society, established in Groton in 1705. The grassy area (34) in front of the burial plot marks the location of the first church building. [2]
Architecture, Transportation, Social History: The district is significant because of National Register Criteria A (Property is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history) and Criteria C ( Property embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction or represents the work of a master, or possesses high artistic values, or represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components lack individual distinction. [NR]
[1] District information retrieved from the town website http://www.groton-ct.gov/.
[2]Groton Historic District Study Committee Report, 1974, SHPO Library, Hartford.
[3] Assessors and GIS information retrieved from the website http://maps.groton-ct.gov/GrotonViewer/.
[NR] Cunningham Janice P., Burnett's Corner Historic District, National Register Nomination Number- 97001468 NRIS, National Park Service, 1997- http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Text/97001468.pdf; http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Photos/97001468.pdf.The local historic district and the National Register historic district are similar in extent but not coterminous.
- Date of Compilation:
- 10/31/11
- Compiler:
- Manjusha Patnaik, CT Trust for Historic Preservation