Stoddard Hill State Park II

Ledyard, CT

My time at Stoddard Hill State Park in Ledyard, CT afforded some fine reflections on this overcast, winter day in December.  With this picture, I've exhausted my supply of recent reflections and so this weekend, I'll be on the lookout for some more reflections to share here as well as with Weekend Reflections.  Enjoy your weekend and thanks for looking.

Package Store

Colchester, CT

This package store is located right next to the antique shop featured in yesterday's blog post.  It's obvious by looking at these two buildings side by side that they once served  a far different purpose.  Some hints to the previous lives of these buildings can be seen in the photo below.  

Together these buildings made up the end of the line for a railroad spur that connected the town of Colchester to the Airline Railroad.  The package store was once  a passenger station, while the neighboring antique store was once a freight depot.  If you look closely to the left of the street light post, you can see the switching signal still there. The Airline Railroad was built in 1873 as the shortest route between New York and Boston and has fascinating history the details of which I'll leave for another time.   In 1875, the town of Colchester paid $25,000 to lay track from the town to connect to the Airline Railroad, and for over 80 years passengers and freight were carried down this spur to these twin depots.   Today the old Airline Railroad is now a linear state park trail.

Life at 85 mm

Colchester, CT

I recently purchased a Nikkor 85 mm f/1.8 G lens to add to my collection.  As an exercise this past weekend I used only this lens on a photo outing.  I have used the Nikkor 16-85mm DX f/3.5-5.6 for many of my previous photos, and have relied on that zoom lens to frame my pictures, many times at a focal length of 85 mm.  I guess I never really appreciated just how telephoto 85 mm is.   With the new lens, I didn't have the luxury to zoom in and out to get proper framing, so I had to work a little harder to get good framing.  Oftentimes I found myself way too close to the subject which led me change my composition or choose some detail to focus on as a subject.  Many times I couldn't include the entire scene before me.  It was an interesting exercise.  The lens did provide some nice close up images.  Later this week,  I'll tell a little more about this interesting antique store in Colchester, CT.

  

Snow and Benches

New London, CT

It's been a hard winter all around this part of the country.  I think even the benches can't wait for spring to arrive.  Although it was warm this weekend, more cold weather is in the forecast for later in the week.

Tire

New London, CT

While on a recent visit to New London I came across this tire on the facade of this building.  The building itself looks in pretty good shape, and now housed a woodworking business.  I doubt the tire shown here has anything to do with woodworking, and must have been held over from a business which might have previously occupied this building.  My guess is that at one time this building either was a car dealership or a service station of some kind.  

The Day

New London, CT

New London's daily paper is The Day, with offices right in the downtown area.  The paper was founded in 1881 and today is held in public trust remaining an independent newspaper to this day.  Profits support various non-profit organizations within the primary circulation area of southeastern Connecticut.  I think that is a very unique arrangement for a newspaper publishing company.

The sculpture serving as The Day logo contains the Latin phrase Mare Liberum, which can be roughly translated as Freedom of the Seas, or The Free Seas.  Captured in this logo is the long history New London has with the sea.

Norwich and Worcster RR

Norwich, CT

There is a rich history of the railroads in New England,  characterized by many regional routes, leases, mergers etc, which make it pretty hard to  follow exactly what happened to any individual line.  I know there was passenger service to Norwich, probably as late as the early 1970's, but today, as far as I know only freight trains use the tracks through Norwich.  This memorial marks the site of a freight house destroyed by the great hurricane of 1938 that was part of the Norwich and Worcester Railroad. Nearby there is this great old building looking like a train station, and still is kept in pretty good shape, although I'm not sure for what purpose.

Recently there has been a proposal put forth to restore passenger service connecting New London, CT to the south, through Norwich continuing on up through central New England.  It sounds like a great idea and maybe this station could be put to use once again. 

Stoddard Hill State Park

Ledyard, CT

Located in Ledyard, CT, Stoddard Hill State Park is a small state park which isn't quite as magnificent as the more popular state parks I have featured in previous blog posts.  The park consists of about 55 acres with some trails and a boat launch which provides access to the Thames River.  The park has about 2000 feet of frontage along the river and provides some great views of the river, including this reflection.  If you like this reflection, please check out other fine reflections from around the world at Weekend Reflections.

Courthouse Clock

Norwich, CT

Old Theater?

Norwich, CT

I'm wondering if this building was ever a movie theater?  I'm not sure if it's being used now or not.

The Wauregan

Norwich, CT

Built in 1855, The Wauregan was, at one time,  the finest hotel between New York and Boston.  While on a campaign trip in 1860, Abraham Lincoln stayed at a room here.  The building came very close to demolition, but a preservation movement saved the building and restored it to its former glory.  The building now houses modern apartments but like a number of buildings in downtown Norwich, is still struggling financially.  

Looking up Union St

Norwich, CT

Post Office Buildings

New London, CT

Norwich, CT

You don't see post office buildings like this much anymore.  I thought it would be interesting to compare the post offices from both Norwich and New London.  I would guess they were built about the same time.  They are both beautiful structures, and although I haven't been inside the Norwich Post Office, I can say that if you ever visit New London, you should really visit the post office there.  There are some magnificent murals inside, and it's like taking a step back in time.   Recently postal rates went up to 49¢ to mail a letter first class.  I would like to think that a small portion of that insures that these old buildings will still be maintained. 

Buckingham Memorial

Norwich, CT

I'm not a native to Connecticut, so I'm constantly learning about the history of the state.  On my photo walks, I'll photograph sites, buildings and other things that I find interesting.  I'll then try to find out something about these photos to share with my readers here.  Many times in my research,  I'll come across some fascinating facts, and I'll find other historic sites that I file away for a future photo walk.  I had often wondered about the building being guarded by this canon on my trips through Norwich.  A quick search via Google turned up a wealth of information. The building is pictured below and currently houses a number of city offices, and is also home to the Norwich Historical Society.

At one time, this was the home of William Alfred Buckingham who served many terms as mayor of Norwich, was the governor of Connecticut from 1858-1866 and was a US Senator from 1869 until his death in 1875.  The house was later purchased by the Sedgewick Post No 1 of the G.A.R

You can read a much more thorough history of this building at the excellent blog, The Distracted Wanderer written by Linda, who knows a lot more about Norwich history than I do.  There you'll find some additional pictures, as well as many other places within Norwich that I'll need to visit on future photo walks.  

One More Bank Building

Norwich, CT

This bank building is one of the more distinctive buildings in downtown Norwich.  It was built in 1895 and originally was home to the Norwich Savings Society, which was bought out by Peoples United Bank.  Sadly after having a bank at this site for 118 years, People's United Bank decided to close this downtown branch this past year.  The building is currently for sale, and has been appraised at $1.33 million dollars.  The limestone building was designed to wrap around the corner and seamlessly integrate to other buildings to the right.  For some reason, those buildings were demolished years ago, so now this building now looks incomplete.  You can see the side or back of this building below.  I wonder what this corner in Norwich looked like before the buildings were demolished.

Unfortunately this building is pretty typical of a number of historic buildings in Norwich and represents the latest business to leave the downtown area.  I sure hope this building finds a new owner that will maintain it and preserve it.  But I have my doubts.