The Morton Freeman Plant Hunting Lodge is the centerpiece of a hunting retreat at 56 Stone Ranch Road in
East Lyme
East Lyme is a town in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The town is part of the Southeastern Connecticut Planning Region. The population was 18,693 at the 2020 census. The villages of Niantic and Flanders are located in the town.
...
,
Connecticut
Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...
. It is a large two-story Bungalow style house, designed by Dudley St. Clair Donnelly and built in 1908 by financier
Morton Freeman Plant
Morton Freeman Plant (August 18, 1851, in Branford, Connecticut – November 4, 1918, in New York City) was an American financier.
Biography
Morton Freeman Plant was the son of Henry Bradley and Ellen Elizabeth (Blackstone) Plant. His father was a ...
, and is one of the only early 20th-century purpose-built hunting lodges in the state. It was the heart of a large private game preserve that Plant stocked with game birds. The property, now reduced to , is surrounded by town conservation land and a state military reservation.
The property was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
on December 12, 1988.
Description and history
The Morton Freeman Plant Hunting Lodge is located in an isolated rural setting in western East Lyme. The lodge stands on 105 acres of land, nearly completely surrounded by town conservation land and a state National Guard training center, all land that was once historically associated with the lodge. There are two buildings on the lodge grounds, which are entirely wooded except for the clearing in which they stand, and Stone Ranch Road, which provides access. The lodge is a 1-1/2 story frame structure with a broad hip roof that creates an overhanging porch in the front, supported by stone piers. Dormers pierce three of the roof faces, and a single-story service ell extends to the rear of the main block. The interior of the building retains original finishes, including two concrete fireplaces built to resemble those found in 16th-century European manor houses.
[
Morton Freeman Plant's father, Henry Plant, made the family fortune by developing railroads in ]Florida
Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...
. He took over his father's business in 1899. Born and raised in southeastern Connecticut, Plant began purchasing land in East Lyme and Lyme as a hunting retreat in 1907, which grew to about 2400 acres by 1914. The lodge was built in 1908 to a design by Dudley St. Clair Donnelly, a regionally prominent architect who executed a number of commissions for Plant. Plant died in the 1918 influenza pandemic
The 1918–1920 flu pandemic, also known as the Great Influenza epidemic or by the common misnomer Spanish flu, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the Influenza A virus subtype H1N1, H1N1 subtype of the influenz ...
, and the property was broken up by his heirs.[
]
See also
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References
{{National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places in New London County, Connecticut
Buildings and structures completed in 1908
East Lyme, Connecticut
Buildings and structures in New London County, Connecticut
1908 establishments in Connecticut
Hunting lodges in the United States