Shaw Mansion (New London, Connecticut)
The Shaw Mansion (also known as the Shaw-Perkins Mansion and as the Shaw Mansion Museum) is a historic mansion and historic house museum at 11 Blinman Street in New London, Connecticut. Built in 1756, it is a well-preserved example of a wealthy merchant's house, made further notable as the location of the state's naval offices during the American Revolutionary War. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. The headquarters and museum of the New London County Historical Society have been located in the Shaw Mansion since  1907. Description and history. The Shaw Mansion stands overlooking New London's southern downtown waterfront, on the north side of Blinman Street at Bank Street. It is a large three-story granite structure, whose main block is six bays wide, with a single-story porch extending across its width. A three-story granite wing extends the main block to the right at a recess. The interior follows a central hall plan, with a two-stage staircase in the central hall that has a fine mahogany banister and balustrade. The house was built in 1756 for Captain Nathaniel Shaw, probably with  the labor of Acadians who had been brought to New London as refugees from the English Expulsion of the Acadians from Nova Scotia. The house survived the destruction of New London in 1781 during the Battle of Groton Heights in the Revolutionary War. It suffered the loss of a wood-frame wing, which was afterwards rebuilt in stone. The single-story porch across the front was added in the mid-19th century. The house remained in the Shaw family until 1907, when it was acquired by the New London Historical Society.