In 1669, William Lord-( son of Thomas Lord, who, with Hooker, founded Hartford)- purchased a large parcel of land from the locally famous Cheif Joshua Attawanwood.
The Lord family eventually became very involved in the overseas trade, and had ships coming and going out of Essex for many years. At some point in the seventeen-hundreds, they had a brilliant idea: why not bring the ships into their own dock ? Hamburg Cove was a wonderful place to do this. So, the townsfolk took advantage of a small river that ran into Hamburg Cove from where the Sterling City area exists, and they developed a sluiceway system, bringing sand down to fill in the swampy land and built a bulkhead- creating "Cove Landing" as a physical landmark !!! Big schooners brought goods like molasses and rum from the Carribean and nice fancy textiles from far away! In return, they loaded barrel staves, wooden coffin handles and wooden nails, and tinware. They shipped railroad ties "down east" to create the earliest railways and brought back granite. It was a very busy place! Some ships were actually built here, floated out to the deeper outer cove on barrels! There are several photographic records in the late eighteen hundreds, showing the landscape filled with goods to be shipped. The yard slowed to an eventual halt sometime in the early nineteen-hundreds, and became what it is now- a boatyard for pleasure boats. In 1941, William and Frances Lagel bought the property and continued the storing and upkeep of fine yachts. John R. Leonard bought Cove Landing from Frances in 1978, and here the history continues...
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