The Middle Haddam Historic District is a small residential area in Middle Haddam, a village in the southwest corner of East Hampton, a town in central Connecticut. Established as a river port on the slope of the eastern bank of the Connecticut River in the early eighteenth century, it consists of a network of seven roads and contains a high concentration of historic residential and public buildings dating from 1732 through the early twentieth century. Middle Haddam was established in the early 18th century as –East Middletown,– an outpost of Middletown for agricultural and trading purposes. In 1739 it became its own ecclesiastical society, conjoined with the Haddam Neck section of Haddam and took the name –Middle-Haddam.– A Congregational meeting house was built by 1744 at the southern end of Hog Hill. A village grew up around the church and the community thrived for about 70 years, providing raw materials to Middletown and beyond via docking station at the Landing1, active from the 1730–s. Middle Haddam separated from Middletown and was incorporated into the township Chatham in 1767. As it stands today, the Historic District affords protection for approximately 180 structures dating from as early as 1691 up through modern-day construction. Remarkably, almost 70% of the village–s historic structures predate 1835. Of the 64 historic structures remaining, 14 originate in the Colonial Period to 1788, 23 from the Federal Period (1789-1828), 17 from the Pre Civil War Era (1829-1865) and 6 from the Post Civil War Era (1866-1886). Other notable historic structures included in the district–s rich history are a cemetery, stone bridge and 2 dams. [NR and 3]

Architecture, Archeology-historic, Transportation, Ship building and Maritime trade-Middle Haddam Historic District is a well-preserved New England river port village whose primary significance lies in its direct association and participation in the first one hundred and fifty years of the maritime development of the United States (1730-1880). Merchant shipping from the port was primarily involved in the coastal and West Indies trade. But ships built in Middle Haddam yards in the nineteenth century for international travel also sailed from other ports to Europe, China and whaling voyages that circumnavigated the globe. A significant and distinguishable entity, the Middle Haddam Historic District contains an outstanding concentration of well-preserved, historic domestic and public buildings illustrating the historic development of the village from 1732 to the 1880s. As the majority of these buildings "are associated through their historic owners with ship building and the maritime trade, the Middle Haddam Historic District retains a distinctive sense of time and place, further enhanced by the integrity of its setting and excellent state of preservation. Examples of most of the major architectural styles are represented in the district with a particularly high concentration of well-preserved, excellent examples of the Federal style, reflecting its early-nineteenth century prominence as a river port. Because of the existence of numerous, relatively undisturbed, historic archaeological sites and standing structures, concentrated along the principal watercourse and the banks of the Connecticut River, the Middle Haddam Historic District has great potential for intensive archaeological study and excavation as a self-contained eighteenth and nineteenth century shipbuilding river port. [NR]

[1] District information retrieved from the town website http://www.easthamptonct.org/pages/index.
[2] Middle Haddam Historic District, Report of the Historic District Study Committee, September 1976, SHPO Library, Hartford.
[3] Middle Haddam Historic District Handbook, accessed in the town website, http://www.easthamptonct.org/Pages/EastHamptonCT_BComm/MHHDHandbook2011.pdf.
[4] GIS and Assessors information retrieved from the website http://www.mainstreetmaps.com/CT/EastHampton/.
[NR] Cunningham Jan, Middle Haddam Historic District, National Register Nomination Number- 84001112 NRIS, National Park Service, 1983 - http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Text/84001112.pdf; http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Photos/84001112.pdf.

The Middle Haddam National Register Historic District includes the major portion of the state-mandated local historic district but it is not coterminous with its boundaries, except at the southern border on Moodus Road. [NR]