Life in our historic villages excites the imagination!
To learn more about town history, we invite you to explore our publications and other historical resources…
Follow the Falls
Geneology Research
Are you interested in learning more about your family’s provenance in Essex?
We maintain an extensive collections database with information on many families who settled in Essex.
If you are researching your family geneology or property history in Essex,
we can help you to search our extensive collections database to assist your research.
Scholarly Papers
The EHS archives contain many items and research products of interest to scholars of local history. Contact us for more information.
For classroom resources, check out our Students as Historians page.
“Follow the Falls” is a 3-part series of richly illustrated booklets written in collaboration with the Essex Land Trust. The publications explores in detail the histories of Ivoryton, Centerbrook, and the Falls River Cove. Together, they tell the remarkable story of how the Falls River binds together the three villages that make up the town of Essex.
Essex:
Where History Lives
This EHS publication similarly offers a brief overview of the last 350 years of life in Essex, with many historic paintings and photos.
To purchase…
Contact us for more information or to place an order for any of these publications.
Copies are also available for purchase at the Connecticut River Museum, at Pratt House (June-September), at Gracie’s Corner in downtown Essex.
Other Historical Resoures
Town History
T I M E L I N E
EARLY HISTORY
The Nehantic Indians are the first people known to live in the area now known as Essex, thriving on land of fertile soil and waters full of fish and crab.
CENTERBROOK EMERGES
Connecticut’s General Assembly grants permission for a Congregational Church in Centerbrook. The original building was completed in 1724 and was replaced by the current structure, now known as Centerbrook Meeting House, in 1790.
SHIPBUILDING EMERGES
COMSTOCK & CHENEY
1600s
1850s
EARLY SETTLEMENT
“Potapaug Quarter,” is designated as a part of Saybrook Colony in 1648 by an English surveying committee. A village begins to emerge around today’s Essex in 1664.
COMB MAKING PATENT
1700-30
1722
1750s
1776
1799
1814
POTOPAUG RENAMED
SHIPBUILDING DECLINES
1834
Dams are built on the Falls River, which will power mills and factories for over 200 years. Between 1700 and 1730, Centerbrook was established as the first “center” of town.
CONGREGATIONAL
CHURCH
The area’s economic focus moves toward today’s Essex, where shipbuilding and related businesses like blacksmithing begin to offer an alternative to farming.
The Connecticut General Assembly authorizes the purchase of the warship Oliver Cromwell, built in Essex by Captain Uriah Hayden. The ship’s success and fame puts Essex shipbuilding on the map.
Phineas Pratt, of Ivoryton, a deacon, receives a patent for a “machine for making combs.” This led to development of the ivory cutting industry along the Falls River.
To prevent the building of privateers that preyed on British merchant ships, British marines and sailors raid Potopoug Point, destroying 28 ships and damaging the town’s economy and reputation.
The name “Essex” is first applied when “Potopaug Point” becomes the Essex Borough of Saybrook.
COMSTOCK & GRISWOLD
1850-1900
Wooden sailing ships begin to be replaced by steamships and ironclad vessels, heralding financial decline in Essex and movement of economic center to Ivoryton.
1862
1868
Initially used as a recreation hall for the employees of the Comstock, Cheney factory, Milton Stiefel will convert the unused recreation hall into a theater in 1930. The Ivoryton Playhouse later became the first self-supporting summer theater in the nation.
1820
OLIVER CROMWELL
The firm of Comstock & Griswold is established, marking the beginning of a career in the production of ivory and piano-related parts for Samuel Comstock
Samuel Comstock and George Cheney found the largest manufacturing facility in the lower valley, responsible for making Ivoryton the piano parts center of the U.S.
IVORYTON PLAYHOUSE
BURNING OF THE SHIPS
3 VILLAGES BECOME ESSEX
In a series of state and local moves, Essex Borough splits from Old Saybrook, forming what is today Essex Village, and then today’s Centerbrook and Ivoryton are added, forming the current town.
ESSEX STEAM TRAIN
The Essex Steam Train, the only active steam train in Connecticut, is constructed.
1911
“It had long come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.”