District Overview Inventory List District Map

Little Plain 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:
Norwich
Year of Establishment:
1970
District Authority:
Norwich Historic District Commission
Link to Commission or Municipal Website:
District Character:
Town Green/ Urban Neighborhood
Features:

Buildings, Park

Architectural Style:

Federal, Greek Revival, Victorian, Georgian, Italianate, Gothic Revival,

Era:
18th Century, 19th Century

The late 18th and 19th century homes of the Little Plain area reflect a shift in fashionable residential building locations from the Bean Hill section and the area around the old Norwichtown Green, both of which abound in fine buildings of the Colonial era, to the area around lower Broadway and Union Street closer to the center of the growing port city of Norwich. The rich variety of post-Revolutionary housing types of this area are living reminders of the prosperity brought to Norwich, first from trade and later from the many manufactories of the region. Little Plain Park, historically known as Everett Lot, is the focal point of a fine residential neighborhood developed during the first half of the 19th century by merchants and the ship owners that were responsible for the town's substantial growth during the period. [3 & NR]

The rich variety of post-revolutionary housing types in the Little Plains area are living reminders of the prosperity brought to Norwich first from trade and later from manufacturing in the area. The Little Plain Historic District is unusual because within a small area of about thirty acres are documented most of the architectural styles which prosperous Americans preferred for their domestic buildings between 1775 and 1875. It is an area of distinguished homes, unified and harmonious despite its variety, thanks to the open space provided by the triangular Little Plain Park and the narrow green about which the residences of Huntington Place cluster. Although several distinguished houses may be singled out, it is the totality which makes the impression and this is a result of the combination of Victorian, Greek Revival, and Federal style buildings which compose the district.Thus the Little Plain Historic District is important historically and aesthetically because it documents 19th century taste in domestic architecture, because it is an interesting and pleasing aesthetic whole which is focused on a small park, and because it serves as a reminder of the social and economic history of the town recalling the prosperity of a growing merchant class in the late 18th and 19th centuries. [NR1]

[1] District information retrieved from the town website http://www.norwichct.org/.
[2] Proposed Little Plain Historic District, Report of the Historic District Commission, 1969, SHPO Library, Hartford.
[3] Assessors information and GIS Info retrieved from the websites www.visionappraisal.com and http://host.appgeo.com/sccog/Map.aspx.

[NR1] Luyster Constance, Little Plain Historic District, National Register Nomination Number- 70000718 NRIS, National Park Service, 1970 - http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Text/70000718.pdf; http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Photos/70000718.pdf.

[NR2] Plummer Dale S., Little Plain Historic District Boundary Increase, National Register Nomination Number- 86003541 NRIS, National Park Service, 1986 - http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Text/86003541.pdf; http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Photos/86003541.pdf.

The local historic district is contained within the National Register Historic District. The following street numbers along Huntington Place - 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,11 ,12,17,18 & 22 as mentioned in the Study Committee Report have been replaced by 3,7,11,15,19,21,25,29,33,36,32,28,24 & 20, as plotted on the online GIS map (http://host.appgeo.com/sccog/Map.aspx).

Date of Compilation:
11/30/11
Compiler:
Manjusha Patnaik, CT Trust for Historic Preservation