Newsletter Articles – Page 6 – New London County Historical Society

Installed in 1973, Captain’s Walk was a bold attempt to revitalize State Street as shoppers began to abandon downtown stores in favor of automobile-oriented malls. From Washington Street to Main Street (renamed Eugene O’Neill Drive), this pedestrian mall was fitted out with planters, benches, kiosks, and awnings all carefully designed to enhance the shopper’s experience.

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Within a few years, however, there were serious concerns about the mall’s efficacy. A 1977 poll found most city residents in favor of reopening the street to automobile traffic—something that eventually happened in 1990. Although many of its traces are still visible today—especially in street paving—Captain’s Walk is often blamed for having “killed” State Street.

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If Captain’s Walk looms large in State Street’s history, it was not the first attempt to manage the impact of vehicles on the urban environment. From the 1920s on, city officials implemented a wide range of technologies to control the presence of automobiles on State Street.

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Long residential in character, the upper end of State Street was transformed into a green and leafy bower in the second half of the 19th century. While lower State Street accommodated the commercial activities and avenues of vice that Victorians associated with the masculine realm of the city, upper State Street was devoted to respectable pursuits that complemented the female sphere. Religion (in the form of the First Congregational and First Baptist churches), culture (in the form of the Public Library of New London and the Lyric Hall) and genteel recreation (housed in the private Thames Club, the YMCA, and the YWCA) were all well represented on upper State Street.

In the early 20th century, this character began to change, as commercial blocks continued to march steadily up the hill. While structures like the Plant (now Dewart) Building housed professional offices, they nonetheless brought a distinctly urban character to upper State Street, a process that reached its peak in 1926 when the Williams house was demolished to make way for the Garde Theater.

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