Built in the 1840s as one of five houses that abolitionist Savillion Haley built and sold at cost to free Blacks, 73 Hempstead Street became home to generations of leaders in New London's Black community. It was first purchased by John Parkhurst, whose wife Lavinia was the sister of abolitionist David Ruggles. Later owners included the nationally renowned organist and music teacher William Herbert Bush and Sarah (Sadie) Dillon Harrison, secretary of New London's United Negro Welfare Council. Harrison hosted W.E.B. Dubois there in 1929, when the house was known as The Hempstead Cottage. In 1930, she and Edwin Henry Hackley published the first guide for Black motorists, Hackley & Harrison's Hotel and Apartment Guide for Colored Travelers. The Hempstead Cottage appeared in The Negro Motorist Green Book from 1938 to 1950. It was also the childhood home of former New London NAACP President Linwood Bland, Jr. and Sara Chaney, who broke the color barrier in New London's banking industry.