Southport, Connecticut

Southport became a leading coastal port on Long Island Sound, its ships carrying produce and goods back and forth to New York City. A measure of Southport's success is the fact that throughout the 1800s it possessed the only two banks in town. However, competition from steamboats and the railroad took its toll on prosperity. Resourceful shippers teamed with local farmers and businessmen to keep the port going.

The Southport Onion, a high quality onion, was developed and grown on Westport's and Fairfield's hills and shipped in Southport market boats. These boats were mostly sloops that carried 50 tons and more in some cases of cargo [8] keeping the harbor profitable until the end of the century. The federal government supported repairs to the harbor in the 1840s.[9] During the 1840s the greatest agricultural innovation in Fairfield became the cultivation of onions.[10] From 1840 to 1890, 200,000 tons yearly were shipped out of Southport. Designed to be easily stored, during The Civil War sales spiked, its high vitamin C content prized by the U.S. Navy to prevent scurvy.[11] The U.S. Army prized it to treat gunshot wounds, at one point to the extent that General Ulysses S. Grant refused to move his troops if they were not supplied with onions.[12]

In the 1890s, 100,000 barrels of locally grown onions, carrots, potatoes, and other goods were shipped annually from Southport harbor.[6]

Image from page 12 of "Catalogue of seeds & plants, spring 1901-1902" (1902)

The shipping industry was the economic foundation of the village of Mill River. The village, as it became a large port, eventually changed its name to South Port, later Southport. Local farmers transported their Southport Globe onions and other crops via the growing shipping fleet housed in the harbor and, by 1836, it became larger than the New York City and Boston ports. The ships sailed to destinations as far as the West Indies, but often went to New York City, where larger vessels in a deeper port headed to more distant foreign destinations. During the 150 years between 1750 and 1900, the shipping industry grew dramatically, but died out as the railroad industry and steamship industries took over. The increased use of large shipping containers also decreased transport costs and eventually drove the need to use ports deeper than Southport Harbor. The local produce was transported to New York and Boston via train, to deeper water ports where larger vessels were docked.[13]

D. M. Ferry Seed Catalogue, Detroit, MI, ca. 1900

During the peak of the shipping era, Southport had four shipyards in old Mill River, and many of Southport's first families built their wealth in the lucrative shipping trade that grew in response to local farmers wanting a more convenient port than Bridgeport and Norwalk Harbors. Numerous area parks and streets are named after prominent sea captains, including Bulkley Avenue, Sherwood Island State Park, and Sturges Highway. Capt. Zalman Wakeman owned Wakeman Farms, which is still operating today.[14]

Hand Wheel Hoe and Seed Drill

Today, much of the old village area is part of a town historic district, first established in 1967, where buildings from three centuries are protected for future generations. The boundaries of the town historic district are the railroad on the north; the Mill River and Southport Harbor on the south; Church Street; and Old South Road and Rose Hill Road on the west and east, respectively, including all properties on both sides of the roads.[15] Strict historic zoning regulations apply in the district and have been upheld by the Connecticut Supreme Court.[15][16] The Southport Historic District is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The community's public library is the Pequot Library, an independently owned and operated special collections library, founded by Virginia Marquand Monroe and Elbert Monroe in 1887. A Richardsonian Romanesque building, it was designed by the architect Robert Henderson Robertson and is a contributing property to the National Register Southport Historic District.[20]

The library has a large collection of manuscripts, rare books, and archives.[7] Of the approximate 30,000 items in the Special Collections,1800 items are held on long-term loan at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University.

The collection at Pequot Library includes the first printed cookbook, De Honesta Voluptate et Valetudine,by Bartholomaeus Platina (1475); autographs of all American Presidents and the cosigners of the Declaration of Independence, including the rare Button Gwinnett autograph. Among the titles in the Special Collections are Epistola de insulis nuper inventis by Christopher Columbus, translated into Latin by Leandro di Cosco and printed in 1493; two of the three contemporaneous histories of the Pequot War in New England; the Saybrook Platform which was the first book published in Connecticut in 1710.[21] Also included in the collection is Phillis Wheatley's Poems on various subjects, religious and moral from 1786 as well as the typescript of the last four chapters of Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind.[22]

The library's annual summer book sale featured more than 140,000 volumes on sale in 2007.[23] In 2006, the Pequot Library invested in a restoration project to address the condition of the elaborate metalwork set throughout their stacks. Robert Robertson designed each shelf in the library to be supported by cast iron structures. Each row of shelving is framed by columns and the stairways linking the two stories are made with balusters of garlands and vines in copper plated cast iron. During the course of restoration, over 6,000 metal pieces were individually treated. The project was carried out by Newmans’ Ltd.[24]

Pequot Library baseboard before restoration

Pequot Library baseboard completed by Newmans' Ltd