American School for the Deaf

200th Anniversary Historic Bike Tour Route – Revised 11/11/16

Day 1 – Sunday June 18th, 2017

Hartford – Bloomfield – New Britain – Newington – Wethersfield - Hartford

Approximately 50 Miles (45 miles)

Start: American School for the Deaf, 139 North Main Street West Hartford

1st site: Hartford State Capitol - 210 Capitol Avenue, Hartford

Send off by State Senator Jonathan A. Harris. The organizational meeting of ASD, where its charter and by-laws were adopted and its first Board of Directors were elected, was held in the old State House on Main Street in 1816.

2nd site: Old City Hotel – 1st School - Currently Bushnell Towers – 1 Gold Street, Hartford (there is a plaque on Main Street)

This is the site of our first school, opened on April 15, 1817, with 7 students in attendance. Alice Cogswell was student # 1. John Brewster, Jr., a member of the first class was a famous traveling portrait artist, and the oldest regularly matriculated student at ASD.

3rd site: Wadsworth Museum of Art – Paintings of Clerc and Family – 600 Main Street, Hartford

Wadsworth Atheneum, founded by ASD Director, Daniel Wadsworth. ASD's Charles Willson Peale's portraits of Laurent and Eliza Clerc are on loan to the Atheneum and are on display there.

4th site: Center Church – Rev. Gallaudet’s Church - 60 Gold Street, Hartford

Founders Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Mason Fitch Cogswell and family were members. There is a beautiful stained-glass window in the church commemorating the work of Gallaudet and Cogswell in founding ASD. The ASD Museum has an 1820's manual of the Church, in which Gallaudet has written in his name as a member.

5th site: The Day House – 2nd School – 15 Prospect Street

Day House was ASD's second school. As the student body grew and the school needed more space, in 1818 they rented this mansion, and operated in both the hotel and mansion until 1821, when ASD built its own school on Asylum Hill.

6th site: Dr. Cogswell’s House – 38 Prospect Street, Hartford

Dr. Cogswell's house was where he, Gallaudet, the Rev. Nathan Strong and 7 others met in 1815 to consider starting a school for deaf persons in Hartford. At this meeting, Gallaudet agreed to go to Europe to learn the methods of teaching deaf children practiced there, and the ten committed themselves to raise a sum of money to finance the trip and get the school started.

7th site: Founders Memorial Statue – Alice Cogswell Statue – Asylum and Farmington Ave – will ride by this.

8th site: Hartford and The “Old Hartford” School – 3rd School – Currently Hartford Insurance Company - 690 Asylum Avenue, Hartford

In 1821, ASD built its first building, our 3rd school location, known today as "Old Hartford". The school occupied this site until the move to West Hartford in 1921/2. Known originally as the American Asylum for the Deaf (or some variation of that name), the school gave its name to Asylum Avenue, and to the Asylum Hill neighborhood. The Founders' memorial statue (Alice in hands) by Frances Wadsworth commemorates ASD's presence on that site.

9th site: Old North Cemetery – 25 students are buried at the Asylum Plot, Cogswell Family, Lewis Weld (2nd principal of the Asylum)

10th site: Spring Grove Cemetery - location of Lydia Sigourney, Harvey Peet, Laurent Clerc and family, Collins Stone (4th)(father) and Edward Stone (5th)(son) Principals at the Asylum.

11th site: Julia Brace’s Burial – Mountain View Cemetery (formerly West Hill Cemetery), 30 Mountain Avenue, Bloomfield

Julia Brace was the first deaf-blind person in America to be educated. A protégée of Gallaudet, Dr. Cogswell and Lydia Sigourney, Julia came to ASD in 1825, and remained a student and boarder here until 1860, when she went to live with a sister in Bloomfield. Success in training Julia Brace, who was a “celebrity” in her day, led directly to Samuel Gridley Howe’s work with Laura Bridgman and Anne Sullivan’s with Helen Keller.

12th site: Barney House, 11 Mountain Spring Road, Farmington

Alice Cogswell’s sister and brother-in-law, Elizabeth and John T. Norton, lived there. Cinque, leader of Amistad, often visited. Both Gallaudet and Clerc were active in opening up communication with the Amistad Captives. After they were freed by the US Supreme Court, they spent some months in Farmington while waiting to return to Africa. Among those who befriended them were Elizabeth and John T. Norton.

13th site: First Congregational Church, 75 Main Street, Farmington

This was the church of Elizabeth Cogswell Norton and John T. Norton, as well as Samuel and Mary Porter. Farmington raised money for the establishment of the American School for the Deaf, even though the town had no deaf children residing there at the time.

14th site: New Britain Museum of Art (John Brewster Paintings)

John Brewster and Mason Fitch Cogswell grew up in neighboring towns in eastern Connecticut. Displaying an early talent for painting in the “primitive” style of the day, Brewster (who was deaf) became an itinerant portrait painter. When ASD opened in 1817, Brewster was 51 years old. Nevertheless, wishing to acquire language, Brewster took 3 years off from his painting career to attend the new school – the oldest regularly matriculated student in the school’s history. His paintings are highly valued by collectors and museums today.

15th site: Central Connecticut State University

Thomas H. Gallaudet supported a number of educational and philanthropic causes in addition to Deaf education. A firm believer in the careful training of teachers for their profession, he laboured for the establishment of a professional teacher-training school (called “normal school” in those days) in Connecticut. Just before his death he convinced the state of Connecticut to establish such a school, called the State Normal School, and he delivered its inaugural address in 1851. Today, it is called Central Connecticut State University.

16th site: Newington Town Hall, CT

Julia Brace was the first deaf-blind person in America to receive instruction. She was born in the section of Hartford that is now Newington in 1807, and became deaf from disease in her fifth year. Admitted to ASD in 1825, she remained at the school, first as a student and then as a resident boarder until 1860. A celebrity in her day, her story was celebrated in countless stories and poems; and she was visited by traveling foreign dignitaries. ASD’s success in teaching Julia led to Samuel Gridley Howe’s work with Laura Bridgeman, and later to Ann Sullivan’s with Helen Keller.

17th site: Wethersfield Town Hall

Chaplain State Prison and Chaplain Hartford Retreat.

In addition to his pioneering work in deaf education and teacher training, Gallaudet was also a Congregational minister. As such, he was in the forefront of a number of benevolent reforms: the humane treatment of the mentally ill, and the reform of convicted criminals. Between his retirement as Principal of ASD in 1830 and his death in 1851, Gallaudet devoted himself to both these humanitarian causes. His reports on his work at The Retreat contain many suggestions that are now commonplace in working with the mentally ill, but were revolutionary in their day.

18th site: Cedar Hill Cemetery – location of: Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (1st Principal) and family

19th site: Trinity College Chapel (End of ride)

The elaborately carved pew-ends in Hartford’s Trinity College Chapel celebrate many pioneers in the fields of education and philanthropy, among them Thomas H. Gallaudet. Gallaudet’s oldest son, the Rev. Thomas Gallaudet, attended Trinity College, taught at the New York School for the Deaf (Fanwood), became an Episcopal priest, and, with John Carlin and others, founded the first church for deaf persons in America (St. Ann’s in New York) in 1851/2.

Omitted:

Institute for Living (formerly Hartford Retreat)

Reverend Gallaudet was chaplain there for many years.

ASD 200th Anniversary Historic Bike Tour Route

Day 2

Monday June 19th, 2017

Norwich – Scotland – Hebron – East Hampton

Approximately 50 Miles (49 miles)

Start: Norwich City Hall, 100 Broadway, Norwich

Lydia Huntley Sigourney’s Birthplace (Washington Street, Norwich Town). Lydia Huntley (later Sigourney, after her marriage to one of ASD’s founding Vice Presidents) deserves the distinction of being America’s first successful teacher of the Deaf. Mistress of a select school for girls in Hartford (1814-1819), Miss Huntley numbered among her pupils Alice Cogswell and Alice’s sisters. By means of the 2-handed British manual alphabet and an evolving body of home-made signs, Miss Huntley began to teach Alice. She also taught her other students to finger-spell and sign so that Alice could be integrated into the life of the entire class. By 1815, Alice was writing coherent paragraphs and charming little stories, some of which have been preserved. Miss Huntley’s success in teaching Alice helped confirm Dr. Cogswell’s idea of starting a school for deaf persons in America. Many of the organizational meetings of ASD in 1816 were held in Miss Huntley’s schoolroom. From its inception in 1817 until her death in 1865, Mrs. Sigourney was one of ASD’s most active supporters.

1st site: George Washington Lamb and Maria Bailey, 53 Lafayette Street, Norwich

Maria Bailey and her sister Harriet were amongst the first students to attend the American School for the Deaf when it opened in 1817. Even though they were already adults, at 20 and 18 years old respectively, they left their hometown of Norwich to receive a better education.

Maria stayed in Hartford at the school for seven years, and it is not clear how she met George Washington Lamb. Lamb was born in Groton and did not enroll at ASD until 1830, many years after Maria had ceased being a student. Somehow, through the Deaf Community they crossed paths and married in 1837, despite Maria being over a decade older than George.

They settled in her hometown and lived in this home. George used the carpentry skills he learned at ASD to work in the cabinetry business. Their son, George Washington Lamb, Jr. was born in March 1841 and later followed his father into the carpentry business. Remarkably, in the 1884 directory George W. Lamb, Sr. is listed as working at the A.W. Dickey & Company, at 20 Union Street at 71 years old.

2nd site: Scotland Town Green (Intersection of Rt 97/14)

The Rev. James Cogswell, Mason F. Cogswell’s father, was the Congregational Minister of the Scotland, CT parish in the era of the American Revolution. He was sometimes visited by a young deaf neighbor, John Brewster, Jr., who showed an aptitude for painting and drawing. Surviving diaries of the Rev. Mr. Cogswell refer to such visits. It is probably this connection that led Brewster, late in life, to become a student at ASD.

3rd site: Douglas Library, 22 Main Street, Hebron

Samuel Gilbert. Born in Hebron, Ct., in 1796, Gilbert was the son of Sylvester G. (deaf) and Patience Gilbert. He became an accomplished silversmith, and his work is highly prized by American collectors today. Though he never attended ASD, his younger sister Mary was ASD’s 12th student.

4th site: Augustus Fuller, 23 Knowles Road, East Hampton (End of ride)

Augustus Fuller {1812-1873} was born deaf in Massachusetts and attended the American School for the Deaf from 1824 to 1828. His brother Aaron also studied at ASD and married fellow alumni Sophia Smith. His hearing sister Hattie learned sign and communicated frequently with deaf people.

Fuller wrote extensively to his family and friends as he traveled across New England and New York. Throughout his travels, he returned to his family farm to help with cranberry crops. In April 1832, he wrote to his family that, “Chatham is a pleasant village about 20 white houses on the hill and often see the steamboats pass on the Connecticut River. Some persons work at the Garrison or red rocks, they have money much, I have good opportunity to stay here to paint about 5 or 7 portraits at no less than $10 each!”

Although he was talented artist, he struggled with alcoholism. As a result he socialized with unsavory characters and was arrested for public intoxication and other offenses. In January 1851, he served six months in Springfield, MA for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct. Fuller wrote to his brother George that no one who spoke sign language was available for his trial and that the judge refused to allow him to write out his answers. Therefore he could not adequately defend himself in court and he lamented to his brother, “God pity the poor, ignorant and the deaf mute…”

His family and friends worried about his well-being and wrote, encouraging him to stay closer to home. Fellow ASD student George Caldwell write to Fuller’s family after seeing him in Boston in 1840 that he should be brought home before he became a danger to himself. He managed to stay out of trouble for the remaining years of his life and returned home to Deerfield. In 1873, he died of consumption at his family farm.
ASD 200th Anniversary Historic Bike Tour Routes

Day 3

Tuesday June 20th, 2017

Guilford – Indian Neck/Branford – New Haven – Westport

Approx 50 Miles (51 miles)

Start: Sophia Fowler’s Birthplace – 2785 Boston Post Road, Guilford

There is memorial plaque mounted on large rock near the house.

Sophia Fowler was born deaf in 1798 and grew up in Guilford, Conn. She entered ASD in May of 1817 as our 15th student. Charming and intelligent, she and Gallaudet fell in love, and were married in 1821. She is the wife of one deaf educator and the mother of two. Her eldest son, The Rev. Thomas Gallaudet devoted his life to religious work among the deaf. Her youngest son, Edward Miner Gallaudet, became the founding principal of what is now Gallaudet University. For the first decade of its existence, Sophia Fowler Gallaudet assisted her son in the work of establishing the school in Washington, retiring in 1866.