Connecticut Sites Named Among 10 National Historic Landmarks

Two Connecticut properties are among 10 nationwide being designated as historic landmarks.

The James Merrill House in Stonington and the Steward's House in Cornwall are among the 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 other sites are in Wyoming, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Mississippi, Florida, New York and Ohio.

The 10 landmarks include properties honoring the nation's civil rights and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history, federal officials said.

"These 10 new national historic landmarks reveal important pieces of our nation's diverse heritage through art, architecture and stories of community and identity," U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell from Washington, D.C. "Today's designation ensures future generations can trace, understand and learn from these properties, which join more than 2,500 other landmarks nationwide."

The James Merrill House was home to writer James Merrill, who won every major U.S. award for poetry and wrote about gay life.

The Steward's House, also called 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 other historic landmarks announced Wednesday are Ames Monument, in Albany County, Wyoming; Athenaeum, also called Das Deutsche Haus, in Indianapolis; Gaukler Pointe, also called the Edsel and Eleanor Ford House, in Macomb County, Michigan; Man Mound, in Sauk County, Wisconsin; the Mississippi State Capitol, in Jackson, Mississippi; the Norman Film Manufacturing Co., in Jacksonville, Florida; St. Bartholomew's Church and Community House, in New York; and the Zoar Historic District, in Zoar, Ohio.

St. Bartholomew's Church, federal officials said, is "a pivotal example" of the work of architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue and "an outstanding example" of early 20th-century ecclesiastical architecture.