The Talcottville Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. Portions of the content on this web page were adapted from a copy of the original nomination document. [‡]
Description
The Talcottville Historic District is located in the southwest corner of Vernon, Connecticut, and it consists of about 92 acres of land. The village of Talcottville is set on a plateau slightly above the western plain at the confluence of the Tankerhoosen and Hockanum Rivers. The Tankerhoosen River bisects the northern portion of the Talcottville Historic District, flowing westerly from Dobson Road and the Talcottville Gorge through the mill pond to the property of Cuno, Inc., and Hartford Turnpike. The land rises steadily from the village main street to the railroad right-of-way on the eastern edge of the district.
The village street pattern is a simple T, consisting of two streets, with Main Street running from south-to-north, terminating in a cul-de-sac on the north shore of the Tankerhoosen Pond, and Elm Hill Road running from west-to-east uphill to, and across, the railroad right-of-way.
The Talcottville Historic District, including the village, the mill pond and the iron bridge, the Talcottville Gorge, dam and headrace, and the Mount Hope Cemetery, is representative of both nineteenth-century architecture and industrial community development. The Talcottville Historic District is remarkable for its integrity of design, setting, feeling, and association, which convey the image of a small manufacturing village.
The Talcottville Historic District contains 38 contributing primary resources, six of which are sites or structures other than buildings, and three contributing secondary resources. Further, the Talcottville Historic District contains 17 non-contributing resources consisting of 2 primary and 15 secondary buildings. The non-contributing primary resources (2 of 40) equal 5% of all primary resources within the district. (The 17 non-contributing primary and secondary resources equal 29.3% of all resources within the district.) The primary resources within the Talcottville Historic District attain a moderately high level of integrity of design, materials, and workmanship. Alterations are minimal; intrusions are few.
The Talcottville Historic District developed primarily between 1802 and 1913 with two periods of intense development. The first, between 1835 and 1840, followed purchase of the mill site and its environs by Nathaniel O. Kellogg; the second, between 1854 and 1870, followed purchase of the mill village by the Talcott brothers, Charles D. and Horace W. Talcott.
The earliest extant building, the John Warburton House, c.1802, at 19 Main Street, is a vernacular Federal style house, constructed of brick with a center chimney plan and a symmetrical facade. It is located on the north shore of Tankerhoosen Pond between the iron bridge and the dam.
Several buildings remain from the decade of development under Nathaniel Kellogg. These are located on Main Street, south of its intersection with Elm Hill Road. They include numbers 76, 82, and 86 Main Street and are exemplified by the Greek Revival house, c.1840, at 79 Main Street. These 1-1/2-story houses are marked by prominent entry porticos with Doric pilasters, a projecting cornice, and sidelights. All have a second-story window at the street-facing gable which is flanked by Doric pilasters and crowned by a projecting cornice.
The Nathaniel O. Kellogg House, c.1840, at 85 Main Street, is set prominently on a large lot on the west side of the street. It is a 2-1/2-story Greek Revival house with pedimented gables, a three-part entablature, and Doric pilasters. It features a Queen Anne veranda and a south-facing angled window bay, which date from the late nineteenth century. It has a 1-story detached frame garage, constructed in 1971, which is located on the south side of the house, toward the rear of the lot, to minimize its intrusion on the streetscape.
Scattered houses, constructed by area farmers, also represent the Greek Revival period. 17 Main Street, c.1840, is a Greek Revival double house which features a shallow-pitched roof with cornice returns, frieze windows, and Doric entry trim. It has an entry porch, facing southeast, which appears to date from the late nineteenth century. South of the cluster of Kellogg houses, on the east side of Main Street, are three Greek Revival houses constructed by or for Elliot Palmer and his family. Two of these houses, numbers 90 and 100 Main Street, c.1835, are 1-1/2-story L-shaped houses with the entry at the ell. They feature shallow-pitched roofs with cornice returns and smooth friezes. The Elliot Palmer House, c.1835, at 110 Main Street is a 2-1/2-story house featuring a shallow-pitched roof with pediments at both gables and a three-part entablature at the eaves.
Following the Talcott brothers' purchase of the mill village in 1856, several buildings were added to the village housing stock. Chief among these are the Talcott brothers' homes set on the east side of Main Street overlooking the mill and the Tankerhoosen Pond.. The Charles D. Talcott House, at 36 Main Street, and the Horace W. Talcott House, at 48 Main Street, were constructed in 1865 in the Italianate style. While the Charles D. Talcott House was altered substantially in 1920 to conform to the Spanish Eclectic style, the Horace W. Talcott House retains its original character and most of its original detail including the rooftop belvedere, the projecting, bracketed cornice and frieze windows, and the broad, wraparound veranda with three-part entablature and Doric posts. Outbuildings at these houses include two multi-car brick garages constructed in 1936 which are located behind the primary buildings, again to minimize their intrusion on the streetscape.
The largest building constructed during this period is the Talcott Brothers Mill, 1870, at 47 Main Street. The central portion of the building was built following a fire in 1869 which destroyed Kellogg's earlier mill building. It is a 2-1/2-story wood frame and brick masonry building with a shallow-pitched roof with cornice returns, and a central stair-and-bell tower with an open belfry. Both the original headrace and tailrace have been filled. Numerous additions, reflecting the growth of the Talcott Brothers Company, and the evolution of woolen manufacturing processes, complete the mill complex, as follows: (a) a 2-story wood frame and brick masonry addition at the south end of the, mill, c.1880; (b) a 3-story wood frame and brick masonry addition at the west side of the mill, c.1880; (c) a 2-story wood frame and brick masonry addition with monitor roof at the north end of the mill, c.1900; and (d) a tall 1-story steel frame and brick masonry addition with monitor roof at the north end of (c) above, c.1920.
Following the sale of the Talcott mill and the village in 1940, the mill complex was enlarged further by several twentieth-century additions, the last of which was completed in 1963. These are primarily block-like 1-story concrete masonry additions which are located, along the east and west sides of the original building and/or its earliest additions. A 1-story concrete masonry outbuilding, located to the south of the main building, a small concrete bridge across the Tankerhoosen River, and the concrete dam at the outlet of Tankerhoosen Pond complete the mill complex.
The Talcottville Historic District attained its present character with dwellings and public buildings constructed between 1860 and 1920. Included among the notable structures and buildings of this period is the Romanesque Revival style school building built in 1880 at 97 Main Street. The original building retains its steeply pitched gable roof with a bracketed cornice, its round-arched classroom windows and entry door, and its tall 2-1/2-story bell tower. Its entry is protected by a bracketed Stick style hood with a king post and collar tie above the door. Two 1-story additions, constructed in 1969 and 1973, are located at the northwest corner of the original building set back but not remote from the original facade.
A small-span wrought-iron lenticular truss bridge, c.1891, carries Main Street across the Tankerhoosen River at its northern end. The bridge was designed and erected by the Berlin Iron Bridge Co., Berlin, Connecticut, and it retains its decorative iron railings and orb-like castings at the end posts.
Two early twentieth-century buildings complete Talcottville's representative collection of building resources. The John G. Talcott House, 1905, at 26 Elm Hill Road is an excellent example of the Colonial Revival style. It features a hip roof with attic dormers and a Palladian window centered on the symmetrical facade. Its 1-story wraparound veranda retains a three-part entablature and round Doric posts. The Talcottville Congregational Church, 1913, at 56 Main Street, at its intersection with Elm Hill Road, is a Gothic style church building, constructed to replace an earlier church which burned in 1912. It retains its original slate roof and it features a 3-story central tower with a crenelated parapet.
Finally, the district includes the Talcottville Gorge, located in the northeast corner of the district, between Dobson Road and the Tankerhoosen Pond. As the site of Peter Dobson's first cotton mill and its successors, the Talcottville Gorge has the potential to yield information pertaining to the early development of the textile industry in Connecticut. No structures are visible, but a stone dam and headrace are extant.
The Talcottville Historic District appears today much as it did in the first half of the twentieth century when the Talcott Brothers Company was producing fine woolens. With the relocation of the state highway, Hartford Turnpike, from Main Street in the 1930's, the preservation of the village was begun. The village was further isolated by the post-war construction of the Wilbur Cross Highway and by the 1980-1983 reconstruction of the highway (I-84). Few buildings have been radically altered from their original appearance, and even fewer have been added or demolished. Twentieth century intrusions are limited primarily to detached garages and other outbuildings, most of which are constructed of materials, such as wood siding, which blend well with the prevailing character of the district.
Significance
Talcottville is an exceptionally well-preserved example of a nineteenth century factory village. The Talcottville Historic District encompasses the site of an early cotton-spinning factory and is associated with John Warburton and Peter Dobson, pioneers of the cotton manufacturing industry in Connecticut. The early development of the manufacturing village is reflected in the Greek Revival style of the majority of the residential buildings. The maturation of industrial development and the social organization of the village through the second half of the nineteenth century may be traced through the buildings added by the Talcott brothers, who bought the village in 1854. The village contains a representative collection of residential and public buildings, as well as an exemplary mill building. Among these are significant examples of the Greek Revival, Italianate, Romanesque Revival and Colonial Revival styles as well as excellent vernacular examples of Greek Revival and late-nineteenth century workers' housing. Because the Talcott family continued to hold the entire village land, mill, houses, and public facilities for nearly a century, Talcottville has survived as a rare example of a nineteenth century New England planned industrial community.
The manufacturing village, first introduced by David Humphreys at Humphreysville in Derby, Connecticut in 1808, was a uniquely American response to the early stages of the Industrial Revolution. Paternalistic in concept, these first planned communities, often named for their founders, were intended to avoid the exploitation and degradation of workers prevalent in so many English factory towns. Taking Humphreysville as a model, the American manufacturers often assumed a nearly parental responsibility for their workers, providing housing, churches, schools, libraries and company stores. Sometimes they also undertook the task of supervising their workers' moral character and behavior as well. Forsaking the English suffix "ford" or "burg," these villages frequently added the French suffix "ville," reflecting the post-Revolutionary enthusiasm for all things French, to their name. The social and industrial organization of the manufacturing village and the philosophy behind it are particularly well-expressed in Talcottville, the village which developed around the site of one of the earliest cotton-spinning mills in Connecticut.
Mechanized cotton spinning was introduced in Connecticut in 1795 by John Warburton, an English immigrant, who had been employed by the influential Pitkin family of East Hartford in 1794 to make cider screws. Shortly after beginning to work for the Pitkins, Warburton persuaded them to allow him to install cotton-spinning machinery in a snuff mill they owned on a fall of the Hockanum River in North Manchester (then a part of the town of East Hartford). Warburton was a mechanic of considerable ability and had been employed in the construction, and possibly the operation, of cotton-spinning machinery in England. He was familiar with the Arkwright system, used so successfully by Samuel Slater, and about 1795 had in operation a water-powered cotton-spinning mill. In 1802, Warburton left the Pitkins, and in partnership with Daniel Fuller of Bolton, bought land on the Tankerhoosen River in Vernon (then known as North Bolton). There Warburton built a dam, mill, and two dwelling houses and put into operation the first successful cotton-spinning factory in Connecticut. This was the nucleus of what was to become the manufacturing village of Talcottville. One vernacular brick house remains from this early development.
In 1809, Warburton was joined by another English immigrant, Peter Dobson. Dobson worked for Warburton for a time and then bought land and built another mill east of the Warburton and further upstream on the Tankerhoosen River. The product of Dobson's mill was stocking yarn, which was sold to Suffield peddlers and put out to farmers' wives to be woven into coarse cloth. In 1811, Peter Dobson, along with a Vernon farmer, Delano Abbott, initiated the first manufacture of satinet in Connecticut. This was an inexpensive woolen cloth which had a cotton warp and a woolen weft, and was a significant development in the fledgling woolen industry just getting underway in Connecticut.
The site of Peter Dobson's first cotton mill, the Ravine Mill, and a later mill built by Dobson to manufacture woolen goods, known as the Vernon Woolen Company, was the subject of an archaeological survey done in 1979-80 in connection with a state highway project. The Vernon Woolen Company had burned to the ground on October 12, 1909, and the mill was never rebuilt. None of the mill buildings were left standing and the site had been left undisturbed except for the removal of large pieces of machinery by the Talcott Brothers Company who purchased the property in 1926. During the archaeological survey, all of the buildings in the complex were identified and the site gridded. During the course of the survey, a considerable number of small machinery parts, such as, pieces of heddles and reeds, weights, gears, and frames, were recovered from all gridded squares. Many of these artifacts were found to be in an excellent state of preservation. The site is significant for its association with Peter Dobson, an important pioneer of textile manufacturing in Connecticut, for the archaeological integrity of cultural artifacts uncovered in the survey, and for the association of the site with the early development of textile manufacturing in Connecticut.
The Warburton Mill changed hands several times in the early nineteenth century. In 1835, it came under the sole proprietorship of Nathaniel O. Kellogg, and it was Kellogg who developed the first manufacturing village there known as Kelloggville. Kellogg operated the mill for twenty years, adding several more dwellings and a new three-story mill building. Six of the houses built by Kellogg are extant.
When Nathaniel Kellogg died in 1854, the management of the factory was entrusted by his executors to the brothers Horace Wells Talcott and Charles Denison Talcott, who had been working in the mill for several years. In 1856, the Talcotts bought the property, renamed it Talcottville, and brought to completion the manufacturing village so typical of the early nineteenth century textile industry in Connecticut. The remainder of the buildings in the district were built by the Talcott brothers and their descendants or were adjacent farms acquired, by them as they expanded their holdings between 1856 and 1918.
Between 1854 and 1869, the Talcott brothers added four more Greek Revival houses to the village and built their own identical Italianate mansions on the hill opposite the mill. These houses are extant, but one Talcott house was substantially altered in 1920 to conform to the prevailing fashion for the Spanish Eclectic style. Between 1870 and 1880, the Talcotts built five more vernacular two-family dwellings to house the mill workers. In this same period, the Talcotts built more elaborate Italianate and Gothic Revival homes for nephews Emerson W. Moore and Morris Hathaway Talcott, who were associated with the business. A Colonial Revival house was built in 1905 for John G. Talcott, who was a descendant of Horace Wells Talcott and was associated with the management of the mills. Six adjacent Greek Revival farmhouses ultimately were incorporated into the village. Some were converted to mill housing, but the Talcotts also continued to cultivate the farmland and supply their workers with produce and dairy products.
The Talcotts continued to operate in the original mill buildings until they were destroyed by fire in 1869. Like many other woolen mills of this period, they produced satinet. Following the fire and the rebuilding of the mill, production was converted to "union cassimeres,"[1] and finally, in 1907, to fine woolens. The present complex dates from the rebuilding in 1870. The main 2-1/2-story brick and frame vernacular mill building was built in 1870 and has been added to over the years. Major additions consist of a c.1880 2-story frame and brick addition at the south end, a c.1880 3-story frame and brick addition at the west side, a c.1900 2-story frame and brick addition with monitor roof at the north end, and a c.1920 steel and brick addition with monitor roof at the north end. Other additions added in the later twentieth century are within the complex and between these additions. The additions reflect the growth and change in woolen textile manufacturing over the period 1854 to 1940, when the mill was owned and operated by Talcott Brothers.
Industrial development is also reflected in the mill pond and dam that are extant adjacent to the mill complex, and the wrought-iron lenticular bridge that spans the river at this point. The bridge was built by the Berlin Iron Bridge Company in the early 1890's. The town of Vernon is studying the feasibility of retaining and preserving this historic structure, which presently serves only three houses and is not strong enough to sustain the weight of modern emergency vehicles.
Like the many other manufacturing villages that dotted the Connecticut countryside in this period, Talcottville was modeled on David Humphrey's ideal of the planned industrial community. The Talcott brothers provided their workers with not only housing, but also a church, school, library, social hall, and store. A Talcott-owned farm provided dairy products and produce as well. It was the stated purpose of the owners to operate an orderly and well-regulated industrial village. A contemporary historian provided the following description of the village in 1888:
"Talcottville is admirably located, beautiful in appearance and cleanly almost beyond comparison. The similarity of design, color of ornament, and general appearance of its residences, is sufficient evidence that the aggregate are under the control of one corporation. Mill, store and dwellings are of Puritanical whiteness, and the window-blinds are of the regulation and time-honored green. Not a fence of any description mars the beauty of the well-kept lawns."[2]
The social organization of the village is reflected in its extant public buildings. The original church built by the Talcotts burned and was replaced in 1913 by the present church. The parsonage built in 1880 by the Talcotts is extant, but has been moved from its original location to Elm Hill Road and is now privately owned. The original schoolhouse was moved and converted to residential use, and a new Romanesque Revival schoolhouse, built in 1880 and considered a "model," replaced it. About 1870, the Talcotts added a building which served as the social center for the village. The first floor housed the store and post office and the second floor served as a social hall. This Gothic Revival style building has been converted to apartments. In 1867, the Talcotts gave land for Mount Hope Cemetery, which was dedicated June 30, 1867. At the left of the entrance to the cemetery stands a memorial to Civil War veterans a brownstone shaft with four names inscribed on it.
Few of the 203 manufacturing villages that developed in nineteenth-century Connecticut survived into the twentieth century,[3] but Talcottville remained intact until 1940, when the mill was sold and converted to other manufacturing processes and the land divided and sold to individuals. New owners have made some changes, but the Talcottville Historic District retains much of its architectural integrity. Most houses now have garages, but they are detached, and placed well back on deep lots where they do not intrude on the streetscape. Some buildings have been adapted to different uses, but without much exterior alteration. Setbacks have been maintained. The mill is still used for manufacturing purposes, though not for textiles. Overall, the village of Talcottville saw no major changes after 1913, and appears much as it did at the height of its development in the late nineteenth century.
Talcottville retains a remarkably intact collection of buildings which represent the spectrum of nineteenth century architectural styles and construction methods.
The Nathaniel O. Kellogg House, c.1840, is an excellent example of the full two-story Greek Revival house, characterized by Doric corner pilasters, a three-part entablature, and pedimented gables. The Kellogg legacy includes several fine examples of vernacular Greek Revival workers' housing exemplified by the house at 79 Main Street, c.1840.
The Horace W. Talcott House,. 1865, is a well-preserved example of the Italianate style, characterized by broad verandas, bracketed cornices, and a roof-top belvedere. The Charles D. Talcott House, constructed in 1865 and altered extensively in 1920, survives as an example of the Spanish Eclectic style of the early twentieth century overlaid on a mid-nineteenth century Italianate structure and plan.
The Talcott Brothers Woolen Mill, constructed in 1870, is a well-maintained example of a mid-nineteenth century frame and masonry mill building. Its well-preserved central tower is linked to the Italianate mansions of its owners by bracketed cornices, round arches at the belfry, and other decorative features. The mill structure is linked both to the Greek Revival workers' houses via shallow-pitched roof and cornice returns and to the Rockville mills of the period by its timber frame and masonry construction. Its numerous additions document the growth of manufacturing in Talcottville, as well as changing construction technology between 1880 and 1920.
The Talcottville School, 1880, is a good vernacular example of the Romanesque Revival style, characterized by round-arched windows, articulated masonry, and a tall central bell tower. The John G. Talcott House, 1905, is an excellent example of the Colonial Revival style, characterized by a broad veranda, a symmetrical facade, and a steep hip roof. The Talcottville Congregational Church, 1913, designed by Russell P. Barker, is a good example of the late Gothic Revival style, typical of turn-of-the-century ecclesiastical and institutional buildings. Several fine two-story double houses, c.1880, represent vernacular workers' housing at the end of the nineteenth century and complete the Talcott brothers' legacy.
Endnotes
References
Bagnall, William R. "Sketches of Manufacturing Establishments in New York City, and of Textile Establishments in the United States." Edited by Victor S. Clark. 4 Vols. 1908. Vol.II, Microfiche Edition, Museum of American Textile History, 1977.
Bagnall, William R. The Textile Industries of the United States. First Ed. 1893. New York: Augustus M. Kelley, 1971.
Brookes, George W. Cascades and Courage: History of the Town of Vernon and the City of Rockville, Connecticut. T.P. Rady & Co., 1955
Cogswell, William T. History of Rockville from 1823 to 1871. Rockville Journal, 1872.
Commemorative Biographical Record of Tolland and Windham Counties, Connecticut. Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1903.
Cole, J. History of Tolland County, Connecticut Including Its Early Settlement and Progress to the Present Time. New York: W.W. Preston & Co., 1888.
Dwight, Timothy. Travels in New England and New York. 4 Vols. Vol.II. London: Charles Wood, 1823.
Grant, Ellsworth Strong. Yankee Dreamers and Doers. Chester, Connecticut: Pequot Press, 1974.
Roth, Matthew. Connecticut: An-Inventory of Historic Engineering and Industrial Sites. Society for Industrial Archeology, 1981.
Smith, Harry Conklin & G. Denison Talcott. Summary of Vernon's History and Centennial Observance. Privately published, 1908.
Other Sources:
Map of Vernon, 1853, Richard Clark, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Map of Vernon, 1869, Baker and Tilden, Hartford, Connecticut.
Map of Talcott Brothers Property, 1918, C.H. Olmsted, Engineer. Vernon Land Records.
Photograph Collection, Vernon Historical Society, Vernon, Connecticut.
Interview with John G. Talcott, Jr., March 11, 1981.
"Vernon, Connecticut: A Survey of Architectural and Cultural Resources. Vol.II. Connecticut Historical Commission.
Warner, Frederic W. "An Archaeological Survey of 1-86 Relocation: Manchester-Vernon, Connecticut." New Britain, Connecticut: Connecticut Archaeological Survey, 1980.
"The Forgotten Mill," Connecticut News Newsletter of the Archaeological Society of Connecticut, Inc. No.140, Summer 1979.
‡ S. Artis Abbott, consultant, and Robert B. Hurd, architect, Vernon Historical Society and John Herzan, Connecticut Historical Commission, Talcottville Historic District, Vernon CT, nomination document, 1988, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, Washington, D.C.
Street Names
Elm Hill Road • Hartford Turnpike • Main Street • Route 30