Welcome to the Stories 1-5 page!
a Freeman builds a house… life at 14(26) Hill Street
the Celestials move in on Bradley Street
crooked or smart? a young couple arrives in New London and starts a new life
a warm welcome on John Street
cab drivers see it all
image locations and people are designated with a red heart
This is a map of what we have today stretching from State Street north to the bridge. 26 Hill Street is the red heart in the middle of the Thamesview Apartments.
courtesy CONL
and here we are back in 1954 though the street layout has remained the same over the previous 150-200 years.
Sanborn map courtesy the Library of Congress
Good day to you, sir… good day to you, ma‘am.
When you get to my age, you do a lot of looking back, looking back on your life and on the people around you. Now you don‘t set out thinking, you‘re going to outlive everyone… be the last man down anf under, but there you have it.
Consider this if you would: I was born a slave in 1799, in north Florida, and am finishing up my days in 1908, in New London, Connecticut… from horse and wagon to the age of automobiles, telephones, phonographs, and flying machines! These hundred and some odd years were the best of times, and I can tell you why.
You start with need… direction, and the Lord‘s intervention.
Like I said, I was born into slavery. My mother and father were born into slavery. My younger sister was not. We‘ll get to Bertha later. Anyway. there was a divine thread holding us together. You see, as a boy, Master Seton was grooming me to be the house boy in his country estate down in southeast Georgia. The Missus was especially interested in training me.
The Seton family country estate in Georgia looked much like the home above.
courtesy Georgia Historic Society
