Whale Oil Row

A block of four Federal-style houses built ca. 1830–1835, representing the maritime prosperity New London rebuilt after the Revolutionary War. The street name reflects the whale oil trade that made New London wealthy in the 18th century. The whaling and privateering economy of the Revolutionary era is the foundation of this later prosperity — ships outfitted as privateers in the 1770s were the ancestors of whale ships in the 1820s.