Norwich bulletin., 1921-06-22
NORWICH TOWN GREEN
 IN COLONIAL TIMES

Some of the interesting historical points about the green at Norwich Town are recalled in one of the essays writ ten by Margaret Lucy Mahoney, one of the 1921 graduating class at the Town street school
 The following was the essay upon Nor wich Town Green in Colonial Times:
 On my way to school one day it oc- cured to me that the old houses l Was just passing and also the Green must have some history that would be well worth hearing. "The Town Plot, the old est part of Norwich, originally consisted of one irregular street winding around the hills and following the course of tine Yantic river. It still retains the same outline with but little variation from it's first laying out. The streets, the house lots and garden plots are the same and parts of the old walls and fences still remain" Near the center . is an open square or plain hedged Tn on the north by a range of high ground. rocky and precipitous. This plain or Green was the place where traders, mer- chandise, public business, military ex- ercises, show, sports. festivals and the general enterprise of the town found center.
 The county jail stood on the north side at the foot of the hill. The court house was in the open area. The post office two printing offices within a stones throw and the taverns, schools and shops alternated with private dwellings around the borde-. In the center of the Green was lofty pole called the Lib erty Tree. This pole was decked with standards and appropriate devices and crowned with a cap. A tent or booth was erected under it called the pavilion Here almost daily people assembled t. hear the news, make speeches and en- coura ge-each other in the determinatio to resist all oppression.
 l Detachments from the Continental ar my frequently passed through the town
 In 177S a body of French troops en route to Providence halted there for ten ol fifteen days, on account of sickness
 among them. They had tents spread upon the Green while the sick were guar tered in the court house. About twenty died and were buried each side of thu
 lane that leads into the old buria ground No stones were set up and tht 1 ground was soon smoothed over so as te leave no trace of the narrow tenement' below. A boulder engraced by the Daughters of the American Revolution now marks the place. and memorial ex ercises are held there every year.
 The Tavern of the Cross-Keys was or the easterly side of the Green, the house next to the store is the same building Two large keys hung from the limb O
 an old elm tree In front of the tavern
 John T. Waite sat in the window O this house in his boyhood and watched the militia drilling on the green whici practice beginning in 176S continued fol years.
 ] Another old tavern on the easterly sid
 of the green is now owned by Mir. Fen
 ton. This tavern was one of the thre icelebrated taverns on the green. Som old people still remember the large eln tree which stood directly in front of thi
 house, among the boughs of which wa
 built a platform approached by woodei
 walk from one of the upper windows O
 the tavern. From this high station tn
 orators of the day held forth on publi
 occasions and here tables were set an' Y refreshments served. These old tavern
 were noted for their good dinners an.
 gay times.
 The old Robinson house is one of tn
 few salt box houses in the country Ebeneezer Jones, a cooper. lived her 150 years ago In plying the cooper trade he is pictured as sounding re
 ve.lle, with his tools, that echoed througl
 the neighborhood.
 Carpenters store lately purchased b!
 the United Workers has never been al