This little eastern Connecticut town is in Danbury‘s southern outskirts, rolling out into the countryside of Fairfield County. The quaint and pedestrian-friendly Greenwood Avenue is Bethel’s main artery and has real historical clout, not least as the birthplace of the famed 19th-century showman P.T. Barnum. The Bethel Historical Society has plotted a couple of walking …
Southbury in New Haven County is the only community in the entire United States with this name. The town points this fact out in its motto, “Unica Unaque”, which I learned means “The One and Only”. With a population slightly below 20,000, the town has a dispersed, rural feel and lays claim to some staggering …
Named for the Irish city, the town of Waterford in New London County occupies a tab of land surrounded on three sides by water. Side-by-side on Long Island Sound there’s a rare natural beach, a stately Renaissance Revival mansion in formal gardens and the O’Neill, America’s foremost organization for the development of new works in …
The story of this town in south-eastern Connecticut begins well before the first Europeans arrived. Montville was the place where the Mohegan tribe broke away from the other Native American Pequot people in the region, which had violent repercussions in the middle of the 17th century. The base of the Mohegan tribe can be visited …
Home to just under 20,000 people, this town in affluent Fairfield County is mainly residential and within an easy commute of New Haven and Bridgeport. Monroe exudes small town charm, and has more than its fair share of well-equipped local parks as well as inspiring and remote natural spaces. The quieter northern part of town …
Folded into the Connecticut Valley on the west bank of the river, the small town of Rocky Hill has much to offer. The oldest operating ferry service in the whole of the country departs from the riverbank for Glastonbury May through October. Rewind 200 million years and the tracks of a carnivorous dinosaur have been …
The small town of Ansonia is in the lower Naugatuck valley, close to the confluence with the Housatonic River. The Revolutionary War Colonel and friend of George Washington, David Humphreys (1752-1818) was born in Ansonia, and his birthplace, dating back to the 1690s, has been kept as a museum. From the 19th century until not …
This quiet industrial and residential town is at the geographic heart of Connecticut. Berlin may not be a honeypot for tourists, but has some stupendous natural landscapes. There’s also a lot of fun things to do for families, especially around the Berlin Turnpike. My favorite thing about Berlin is the Metacomet Ridge, a 100-mile basalt …
In the rolling hills of the Western Highlands, Watertown is a north-western suburb of the city of Waterbury. To my mind, Watertown’s strength comes from its plentiful open space, culminating in high rocky ledges. These give you the kind of views that belong in 19th-century landscape paintings. In the two state forests within Watertown’s boundaries …
A city steeped in maritime history, New London is on the natural harbor of the Thames River just before it flows into Long Island Sound. Two hundred years ago New London was one of the top whaling ports in the world. During that heyday in 1839 it was also the landing point of The Amistad, …