This week’s photograph, provided by the and the Connecticut Historical Society, is described as a photograph of the, “crowds assembled for the Annual Peace Meeting held on grounds between High Street and River Road.”
They believe Edward Newbury, a Mystic businessman and photographer, took the photograph in 1894. According to the Seaport the hosted the peace meeting each year from after the Civil War to the 1890s, and business owners treated the meeting as a paid holiday for workers to attend.
Elm Grove cemetery on the Stonington side of the Mystic River is visible in the photograph, taken in the Peace Sanctuary off of River Road. Today, the owns and maintains the Peace Sanctuary, and it’s more likely you’ll come across joggers, walkers and owners with their dogs on the sanctuary’s wooded trails than anyone holding a meeting.
Send your historical photographs to bree.shirvell@patch.com.
