The primary destination was Comstock, Cheney & Co., a large mill complex on the Falls River. Essex had built a reputation as a manufacturer of buttons and combs made from bones and bovine horns. It had deep-port access to the ocean and water power from the Falls. And in 1799 Phineas Pratt had patented a machine to cut comb teeth, streamlining a laborious process that had been done by hand.
Add the Victorian Age requirement that every young lady learn to play piano, and the stage was set for the large-scale manufacture of ivory piano keys and actions, along with combs, billiard balls, knitting needles, and toothpicks. In its heyday, Comstock, Cheney & Co. employed about 1,000 people. It created the quintessential factory town with a school, library, company store, social hall, and housing appropriate to the status of its employees.
Ivoryton is one of three villages of Essex. Remnants of the former factory town include Victorian mansions along Main Street once occupied by company executives, modest homes built for workers, a library that has changed little since 1889, and the Ivoryton Playhouse, erected in 1911 as a social and meeting space for Comstock, Cheney & Co. With its flat land suitable for farming, the village of Centerbrook drew the earliest settlers, in the late 1600s, when the area was called Potapoug. Today, Centerbrook is regaining its economic prominence, with an influx of stores, banks, and small industrial parks. Essex Village, with its shipbuilding legacy, historical homes, museums, and shops, lures the most visitors.
The past and present will be on display Saturday through May 6 in a photo exhibit titled ''Images of Essex" at the Essex Art Association, 10 North Main St., Essex Village. Sponsored by the Ivoryton Library Association, the multimedia exhibition will include old and new photos, a slideshow of some 300 old postcards, and a movie ''Tied to the River."
