New London's Greek Revival custom house, designed by Robert Mills and built 1833-1835

The New London Custom House, designed by federal architect Robert Mills and built 1833-1835

In 1833 Mills was commissioned to design custom houses for four New England ports: New London, Connecticut; Middletown, Connecticut (razed 1918); and New Bedford and Newburyport, Massachusetts. In Altogether American: Robert Mills - Architect and Engineer, Rhodri Windsor Liscombe notes that Mills's elevations "depict the appropriately dignified facades in which federal authority was expressed" (New York and Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1994.)