STONINGTON — Two historic Connecticut properties are being designated as national historic landmarks.
The James Merrill House in Stonington and the Steward’s House in Cornwall are among 10 properties recognized as having exceptional value to the nation. They were announced Wednesday by the U.S. Department of the Interior and the National Park Service.
The 10 landmarks include properties honoring the nation’s civil rights and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history.
The James Merrill House was home to writer James Merrill, who won every major U.S. award for poetry he wrote about gay life.
The Steward’s House, one of three buildings that make up the Foreign Mission School, provided an evangelical education to students from about 30 countries in the 19th century and prompted debate about interracial relationships. The school is described as being “the first and last experiment in a domestically located ‘foreign’ mission and represents educational and social politics concerning racial tolerance, Asian and Native American migration, and American identity in the early 19th century.” It’s significance, according to the Department of the Interior, which gave the honor: “The interracial marriages of two FMS students with local white women evoked a substantial public response and brought early 19th-century assumptions about race-mixing into the open, providing a context for national conversations on race and religion in the early 19th century.
The other sites are in Wyoming, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Mississippi, Florida, New York and Ohio. For a full list click here.
Gov. Dan Malloy released a statement on the exciting news:
Connecticut has a long and rich history as a cultural destination, with a revolutionary spirit that has led the nation and continues to this day. The designation of these two sites today as national historic landmarks is particularly notable, given our state’s history as a leader on issues concerning civil rights – especially in regards to racial justice and equal rights for our LGBT brothers and sisters. We are proud of this revolutionary spirit, and are grateful to have this history acknowledged and celebrated for years to come.
