Tag: Connecticut

Stories in Stone: Captains of Industry

Post author By Michael Kleen
Post date November 18, 2021
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Almost untouchable in life, today anyone can visit the final resting places of these wealthy and powerful figures.

America’s cemeteries are filled with rich and poor alike. In life, these wealthy industrialists were among the most powerful men alive. Yet today, their sometimes humble monuments can be found scattered among a sea of granite stones. A name and date carved into stone tells so little about the incredible lives they must have lived. Here are a few of their stories.

Monument to George Mortimer Pullman (1831-1897) in Graceland Cemetery, at 4001 N. Clark Street in Chicago, Illinois, the city’s premier burial ground. George Pullman invented the Pullman sleeping car. He’s perhaps best well-known for the town he created for his factory workers in Illinois. When his workers went on strike in 1894, President Grover Cleveland intervened and sent several thousand troops to Chicago to break the strike. The violence left 30 dead. Pullman died in 1897 and he is buried in a lead-lined coffin sealed in cement to prevent desecration.

Tags cemetery, Connecticut, Illinois, Ohio

Photography

Stories in Stone: William C. Skinner

Post author By Michael Kleen
Post date September 2, 2021
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Monument to Florence C. Roberts Skinner (1857-1904), wife of William C. Skinner (1855–1922) in Cedar Hill Cemetery, 453 Fairfield Avenue in Hartford, Connecticut.

Monument to Florence C. Roberts Skinner (1857-1904) and William C. Skinner (1855–1922) and their family in Cedar Hill Cemetery, 453 Fairfield Avenue in Hartford, Connecticut. William C. Skinner was vice president and then president of Colt’s Manufacturing Company from 1909-1911 and 1916-1921.

Tags cemetery, Connecticut

Photography

Stories in Stone: Mark Howard

Post author By Michael Kleen
Post date July 22, 2021
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Howard Pyramid Mausoleum in Cedar Hill Cemetery, 453 Fairfield Avenue in Hartford, Connecticut.

English-born Mark Howard (1817–1887) was president of the National Fire Insurance Company and helped organize the Republican Party in Connecticut. His family and he are interred in the Howard Pyramid Mausoleum in Cedar Hill Cemetery, 453 Fairfield Avenue in Hartford, Connecticut. The Egyptian-revival mausoleum is 20 feet tall and made from pink granite.

Tags cemetery, Connecticut

Photography

Most Charming Cemeteries in New England

Post author By Michael Kleen
Post date June 17, 2021
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These historic rural cemeteries are a treasure-trove of art, architecture, and sculpture.

Not only are the New England states among the most progressive in America, they were also the birthplace of the rural cemetery movement. These cemeteries were designed by some of the most prominent landscape architects of their day to be parks as well as sanctuaries for the remains of loved ones. Wealthy citizens contributed millions to create beautiful funerary art and sculpture that you can still see today.

Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Mount Auburn Cemetery, at 580 Mt Auburn Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was the country’s first rural cemetery. Designed by landscape architect Alexander Wadsworth, it opened in 1841 and quickly became one of the most visited destinations in the country. Rural cemeteries were laid out like gardens, with winding paths, ponds, and hills, and many, like Mount Auburn, also serve as arboretums. Mount Auburn was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2003. It is 200 acres and is the final resting place for approximately 70,000 people.

Tags cemetery, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont

Roadside America

Three Brothers Diner in Danbury, Connecticut

Post author By Michael Kleen
Post date November 26, 2019
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Three Brothers Diner, at 242 White Street in Danbury, Connecticut, is a 1990 DeRaffele model diner. I love the red-trim stainless steel exterior. The letters that spell “diner” on the sign change color. It is open 24 hours on the weekend and is a favorite of students from nearby Western Connecticut State University.

Look for a new diner every Tuesday in 2019! Click to expand photos.

Diner Resources

Tags Connecticut, diner

Historic America Photography

In Shadows Lies Utopia

Monument to Dr. Horace Wells (1815-1848) in Cedar Hill Cemetery, 453 Fairfield Avenue in Hartford, Connecticut. Though he died a relatively young man, Wells made a lasting mark on medicine with his experiments with nitrous oxide. He is considered the discoverer of anesthesia.

Tags cemetery, Connecticut

Historic America

Fort Griswold Battlefield State Park

Post author By Michael Kleen
Post date September 25, 2019
3 Comments on Fort Griswold Battlefield State Park

If patriot-turned-traitor Benedict Arnold’s reputation wasn’t already bad enough, the massacre of American forces at Fort Griswold earned him a particularly reviled place in American historical memory.

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The Battle of Fort Griswold (or Battle of Groton Heights) was fought on September 6, 1781 in Groton, Connecticut, between the American garrison commanded by Lt. Col. William Ledyard and British forces commanded by Patriot-turned-loyalist Brig. Gen. Benedict Arnold and Lt. Col. Edmund Eyre during the Revolutionary War. The battle was a British victory; Fort Griswold was seized and New London burned, but the British did not achieve any long term gains. The British surrender at Yorktown, Virginia a month later effectively ended the war in the Continental US.

Brig. Gen. Benedict Arnold’s raid on New London, Connecticut was an attempt to divert General George Washington from attacking Lord Cornwallis’s army in Virginia. Arnold, who was from the area, believed Fort Griswold, across the Thames River from New London, was only partially constructed and would not be difficult to seize. By the time he realized his mistake, Lt. Col. Edmund Eyre’s assault force had already engaged the fort and it was too late to recall them.

Eyre attempted to persuade the fort’s 150 defenders to surrender, but they vowed to fight. The first British assault was scattered by artillery. Major William Montgomery then stormed the fort at a sparsely-defended point, but was killed by a freed slave named Jordan Freeman. Montgomery’s men opened the gate from the inside, and the garrison attempted to surrender.