The Parade

The Parade—the open triangle of space at the foot of State Street—has long been a focal point for intense activity.  Initially serving as a market square, by the middle of the 19th-century it came to function as New London’s transportation hub. 

As civic leaders began to perceive the Parade as the gateway to downtown New London, the area also became the focus of beautification schemes and a site for community-wide commemoration efforts.  This trend started in 1896 with the erection of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, but it has continued more recently with the relocation of the Nathan Hale Schoolhouse to the site.

While civic leaders controlled the physical evolution of the Parade, the meaning of the Parade—what it says about New London and the intended audience for that message—has been the subject of lively debate.  Sometimes this discussion has been overt (as in recent public deliberations about a proposed pedestrian bridge).  More often, however, the debate has been implicit in promotional images that carefully disguised the Parade’s proximity to New London’s “skid row.”

View of New London from Fort Griswold (1853)

E. C. Kellogg, after drawing by Joseph C. Ropes (1812-1885)
American, Lithograph, New London County Historical Society

Ropes focuses on the commercial activity at the city’s busy harbor, but is careful to include the traditional seats of authority as well.  The courthouse and several church steeples (particularly that of the First Congregational Church) are the most easily recognizable components of this townscape.

Union House Fire on Bank Street (1854)

Frederick L. Allen (1820-1872)
American, Oil on canvas, Lyman Allyn Art Museum

 Although the dramatic events that Allen depicts occurred on Bank Street, the artist also documents the south side of the Parade as it appeared in the middle of the 19th century.  Behind the liberty pole is an 1840s brick building known since the 1880s as the Winthrop Hotel.  The fire illuminates the façade of a brick building that housed clothiers Lyon and Robbins on the corner of State and Banks streets.  Originally known as the Hancock Building, this building also appears in Beatrice Cuming’s 1946 painting, 130 State Street.

New London, Connecticut (1876)

O. H. Bailey and Co., Boston
American, Lithograph, Lyman Allyn Art Museum

 This bird’s-eye view of Victorian State Street does a good job of capturing the monumental scale that recent buildings had introduced to State Street’s commercial district.  This is particularly true of Bacon’s Marble Block (built in 1868; number 41 on this view) and the Crocker House (built in 1872; numbers 38 and 39).  This view also incorporates a remarkable level of architectural detail, including the second-floor bay window of Edward T. Avery’s photography studio (number 44) and the galleries and carriageway of the City Hotel (across the street from number 24).

 View of Bradley Stree from the Parade.  Bradley Street was known for it bars and rowdy nature, but the street is no longer in New London anymore.

Views of the Parade Throughout the Years

Parade in 1887

View of Parade and Union Station

Panorama View of Parade in 1908

Parade looking towards the Courthouse