Essex Town Hall

29 West Avenue
Essex CT 06426

Phone: 860-767-4340

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Description:
The area of Essex called Essex Village was originally named Potapoug Point. It bordered the Connecticut River, and part of it was a peninsula with two large coves on either side. Main Street on the "point" was not laid out until 1748, and up to that time only a few people resided here. However, with the outbreak of the War of the Revolution, a dramatic cultural and demographic switch occurred in town. Captain Uriah Hayden was commissioned by the Colony of Connecticut to build the "Oliver Cromwell," the largest ship ever constructed in the Connecticut River Valley, and the first ship to be built and financed by the Colony.

This established Essex Village as a place to build the wooden sailing ships required by our new nation for trade. The protected coves and the short distance from Long Island Sound were important geographical features. Between the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, over 600 vessels of various types were produced here. Essex Village expanded greatly, eclipsing Centerbrook as the center. Two ropewalks were built, to accommodate the needs of the shipping industry for rope, as shipyards emerged along the shorelines.

Essex was unusual, for it was an area where artisans were able to flourish and become entrepreneurs. These were people who had highly defined skills and put them to work in their own businesses. This was in contrast to some northern parts of the Connecticut River Valley, where so-called "River Gods" flourished. They were the landed gentry with direct connections to the Congregational Church, thereby dominating their (primarily) agricultural sub-cultures. Actually, Essex could be referred to as one of the places where the capitalist system really got started. Ships produced here were completed in a pre-industrial manner, for no two vessels were alike.

The very success of shipbuilding locally led to one of the great disasters in the history of Connecticut. Due to the embargo instigated by President Jefferson and the following British blockade of the river during the War of 1812, ships were not being sold. In Essex, it was not the cargo hauled by the vessels that was so important, but the sale of the vessel itself. They were the primary medium of trade. In retaliation to the blockade, privateers were being built in Essex. These ships were designed to prey upon slow moving British merchantmen, and bring captured spoils back to port for resale. The British spied on the Essex shipyards, saw what they were accomplishing in terms of building privateers, and early in the morning of April 8, 1814, attacked Potapoug Point. They destroyed 28 ships worth about $200,000.00 (a veritable fortune at the time), and inflicted a massive defeat on the Americans. It remains one of the great financial losses of that conflict.

Essex is really a "child of three rivers," the Connecticut, the Falls, and the Mud. These three waterways have played vital roles in the evolution of Essex, at different times, due to the demands of agriculture, pre-industrialization, or industrialization. These rivers have also been the source of chaos, due to flooding and other severe weather conditions

The town today is losing many of the hallmarks of the past. In many ways, it is becoming one town, rather than three villages.