Originally called Potopaug by local Indians, Essex was named after England’s Essex County, from which some of its early settlers had come. As part of Saybrook colony, the Essex area was first settled in 1648 by John Lay, William Pratt, and William Hide. Long part of Saybrook township, Essex was incorporated in 1852. The village entered the West Indies trade in the latter 1600’s, with its first wharf built in 1656 on the site of the present Steamboat Dock building and a warehouse erected south of the dock in 1773. Essex became the main port of Saybrook and remained so until 1871. Shipbuilding began in 1733, and the Hayden shipyard became one of the most important in New England, building Connecticut’s first warship, the Oliver Cromwell, in 1775. Other yards helped make Essex a major shipbuilding center where packet ships, the first American transatlantic liners, were launched. Men from the Essex area became captains and seamen in large numbers and sailed all over the world on voyages lasting many months. During the War of 1812, the British raided Essex in 1814, burning twenty-eight vessels at anchor and under construction before retiring; with total losses amounting to $160,000, newspapers of the time called it the worst disaster to befall the new country since the war began nearly two years earlier. The steamboat era opened in 1823 with small boats running between Hartford and Saybrook, later with larger vessels between Hartford and New York. The Steamboat Dock building, the third landing place since 1656 to be used at the site, was built in 1878. Centerbrook and Ivoryton became part of Essex in 1859, and the meetinghouse of the Second Ecclesiastical Society, dating to 1722, still stands in Centerbrook while ivory piano keys, a long-time product of Ivoryton, continue to be made today.