Old Lyme, Connecticut
—  Town  —
Old Lyme, Connecticut Location within the state of Connecticut
Coordinates: 41°19′02″N 72°18′11″W / 41.31722°N 72.30306°W / 41.31722; -72.30306
Country	United States
State	Connecticut
NECTA	Norwich-New London
Region	Connecticut River Estuary
Incorporated	1855
Government
- Type	Selectman-town meeting
- First selectman	Timothy C. Griswold
Area
- Total	28.8 sq mi (74.6 km2)
- Land	23.1 sq mi (59.8 km2)
- Water	5.7 sq mi (14.8 km2)
Elevation	20 ft (6 m)
Population (2005)
- Total	7,488
- Density	324/sq mi (125/km2)
Time zone	Eastern (UTC-5)
- Summer (DST)	Eastern (UTC-4)
ZIP code	06371
Area code(s)	860
FIPS code	09-57040
GNIS feature ID	0213483
Website	http://www.oldlyme-ct.gov/

View of the Connecticut River in Old Lyme near its mouth at Long Island Sound.

May Night, painting of the Florence Griswold House by Willard Metcalf, 1906, in the collection of the Corcoran Gallery of Art.

Old Lyme is a town in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The Main Street of the town is an historic district. the town has long been a popular summer resort and artists' colony. The town is named after Lyme Regis, England.

The US headquarters of Sennheiser is located in Old Lyme, as is Callaway Cars, the Florence Griswold Museum (including the Florence Griswold House), the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts, and the Lyme Art Association. Old Lyme and its neighboring town Lyme are the namesake for Lyme disease.

The town of Old Lyme contains several villages, including Black Hall, Laysville, Lyme, Soundview, and South Lyme. The population was 7,406 at the 2000 census.

Background and history

Old Lyme is a community of about 7500 permanent residents, in addition to several thousand seasonal vacationers who occupy a seaside community of summer residences. It is located on the east bank of the Connecticut River at its confluence with the Long Island Sound, across the river from Old Saybrook on the west bank. The town is marked by independence, volunteerism, and a long-standing commitment to the arts. Numerous examples of Colonial and Federal architecture can be found throughout the town.

The town of Lyme was set off from Saybrook (now known as Deep River), which is on the west bank of the river mouth, on February 13, 1665. Old Lyme was later incorporated from Lyme in 1855, but Old Lyme contains the oldest-settled portion of the Lymes.^[1] Old Lyme occupies about 27 square miles (70 km²) of shoreline, tidal marsh, inland wetlands and forested hills. Its neighbor to the north is the Town of Lyme and to the east, East Lyme. Other placenames from the same root are Hadlyme, Connecticut (north of Lyme) and South Lyme (a beach resort area of Old Lyme). The placename Lyme derives from Lyme Regis, a small port on the coast of Dorset, England from which it is believed the early settlers migrated in the 17th Century.^[2]

The Florence Griswold House in Old Lyme housed an art colony for many years in the early 20th century to many prominent American Impressionist painters. The Lyme Art Colony included Childe Hassam, Edward Charles Volkert, Willard Metcalf, Wilson Irvine, and Henry Ward Ranger, among many others. These artists made Old Lyme a thriving art community, which still continues today. The Griswold House was transformed into an art museum, the Florence Griswold Museum, or affectionately called "Flo Gris", by residents of Old Lyme. Many American Impressionist paintings of the era are of subjects in and around the Griswold House and are featured in the museum, along with many other works and personal possessions of the artists who frequented there. The building of the Old Lyme Congregational Church is known for the many paintings that have been made of it, most notably by Childe Hassam.

The Lyme in Lyme disease was named after the town. It was discovered in 1975 after a mysterious outbreak of what appeared to be juvenile rheumatoid arthritis in children who lived in Lyme and Old Lyme, Connecticut.

The 2006 independent film The Big Bad Swim was filmed in Old Lyme.

Rogers Lake

Rogers Lake is a natural Lake located in the towns of Old Lyme and Lyme Connecticut.

The level of the lake is regulated by a dam. The surface area is 265 acres (1.07 km²). Grassy Hill Brook and Broad Swamp Brook feed into the lake. The lake’s watershed is 4,833 acres (19.56 km²) of woodland. The outlet is Mill Brook, which is a tributary of the Lieutenant River, which is a tributary of the Connecticut River.

Rogers Lake is stocked every year with brook and rainbow trout.

Roger: The Rogers Lake Monster

Roger is believed to inhabit the natural freshwater of Rogers Lake. Like the Loch Ness Monster and Lake Champlain’s famed Champ, many authorities regard Roger as pure myth while others believe in his existence, possibly being a relative of the plesiosaur, an extinct group of aquatic reptiles. Roger has been spotted numerous times and has not only become a Connecticut legend but a tourism draw for the towns of Lyme and Old Lyme.

Connecticut Native American tribes referred to the creature as "Caca-togo".

According to the Connecticut Association of Cryptozoology (CAC), famed local artist Florence Griswold reported the very first documented sighting of Roger in 1878. According to their report, Ms. Griswold was setting up a canvas on the north east side of the shore when she witnessed a large long-necked grey-skinned dinosaur like creature emerge 20 feet above the surface of the water and quickly submerge. She recounted to her family that she did not sense Roger as a threat but was merely intrigued by the beast. Oddly enough, for years after the incident, Florence Griswold painted Roger into the backgrounds of most all her paintings. Humored by her work, Art Historian, Herbert Watt said, “If Picasso had his red period and Monet had his blue period then that would have been Griswold’s Lake Monster period.”

On the National Register of Historic Places

• Bennett Rockshelter (added August 31, 1987)
• Florence Griswold House and Museum — 96 Lyme St. (added May 19, 1993)
• Lieutenant River III Site (added August 31, 1987)
• Lieutenant River IV Site (added August 31, 1987)
• Lieutenant River No. 2 (added August 31, 1987)
• Natcon Site (added August 31, 1987)
• Old Lyme Historic District — Lyme Street from Shore Road to Sill Lane, Old Boston Post Road from Sill Lane to Rose Lane (added November 14, 1971)
• Peck Tavern — 1 Sill Lane (added May 12, 1982)
• Springbank — 69 Neck Road (added September 17, 2001)

Notable people, past and present

• Robert Ballard (1942- ), Oceanographer who is famous for finding the wrecks of the RMS Titanic,and the battleship Bismarck.
• Jim Calhoun (1942- ), head coach of the University of Connecticut's men's basketball team, which won two national championships, and who was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2005, began his career as a coach in town at Lyme-Old Lyme High School.
• Walker Evans Evans lived in Old Lyme until his death in 1975.^[3]
• Elsie Ferguson (1883-1961), actress and resident
• Roger Tory Peterson (1908–1996), naturalist and resident
• John McCurdy (b.1724) George Washington stayed at his home during the Revolutionary War. He was also the grandfather of Connecticut Supreme Court judge Charles McCurdy. His home was the resting place for General Washington on April 10, 1776 while traveling to New York City to take on the mighty British Army and formidable Navy. (source: Papers of George Washington, Connecticut State Library)
• Ella T. Grasso (1919-1981), politician (D) and resident, first female governor of Connecticut, first woman to be elected governor in the United States who was not the wife or widow of a governor, awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1993.
• Elisabeth Gordon Chandler (1913-2006), sculptor, resident, and founder of the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts
• Luanne Rice (1955- ), novelist and resident
• Albert Einstein had a summer home on the Old Lyme shore.
• Sally Jessy Raphael (1935- ), talk show host and resident
• Edward Charles Volkert (1871–1935), American Impressionist, stayed in the Florence Griswold House as part of the Old Lyme Art Colony
• Herb Chambers (1941- ), Owner and CEO of Herb Chambers Companies, contributor to Lyme Academy: College of Fine Arts.
• Henry Ward Ranger (1858-1916), American Impressionist, stayed in the Florence Griswold House as part of the Old Lyme Art Colony
• Childe Hassam (1859-1935), American Impressionist, stayed in the Florence Griswold House as part of the Old Lyme Art Colony
• Wilson Irvine (1869-1936), American Impressionist, stayed in the Florence Griswold House as part of the Old Lyme Art Colony
• Ellen Louise Wilson (1860-1914), first wife of president Woodrow Wilson, came as an art student to the Florence Griswold House
• Willard Metcalf (1858–1925), American Impressionist, stayed in the Florence Griswold House as part of the Old Lyme Art Colony
• Diana Muir, writer and historian
• Chris Elliot, actor and screenwriter. Known best for his supporting role in the 1998 comedy There's Something About Mary.
• Peter Karter, founder of early recycling company

Geography

Barefoot tourists

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 28.8 square miles (74.6 km²), of which, 23.1 square miles (59.8 km²) of it is land and 5.7 square miles (14.8 km²) of it (19.85%) is water.

Principal communities

• Black Hall
• Laysville
• Lyme Station
• Old Lyme center
• Sound View
• South Lyme (06376)
  • Edge Lea, Hatchetts Point, Point O'Woods

Other minor communities and geographic features in the town are: Between the Rivers, Black Hall Pond, Brighton Beach, Ferry Road, Flat Rock Hill, Four Mile River, Griswold Point, Hall's Corners, Hawk's Nest Beach, Homestead Circle, Johnnycake Hill, Miami Beach, Mile Creek, Neck Road, Old Colony Beach, Old Lyme Estates, Old Lyme Shores, Rogers Lake, Sill Lane, Smith's Neck, Tantummaheag, Tuttles Sandy Beach, Whippoorwill, White Sand Beach.

Demographics

Relaxing behind the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, CT

As of the census^[4] of 2000, there were 7,406 people, 2,958 households, and 2,153 families residing in the town. The population density was 320.6 people per square mile (123.8/km²). There were 4,570 housing units at an average density of 197.8/sq mi (76.4/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 97.37% White, 0.26% African American, 0.28% Native American, 1.16% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.32% from other races, and 0.59% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.95% of the population.

There were 2,958 households out of which 30.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 63.2% were married couples living together, 7.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.2% were non-families. 22.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.50 and the average family size was 2.93.

Poetically beautiful waterfront

In the town the population was spread out with 24.0% under the age of 18, 3.6% from 18 to 24, 26.4% from 25 to 44, 29.2% from 45 to 64, and 16.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43 years. For every 100 females there were 97.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.6 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $68,386, and the median income for a family was $75,779. Males had a median income of $52,110 versus $39,158 for females. The per capita income for the town was $41,386. About 2.2% of families and 3.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 4.9% of those under age 18 and 1.8% of those age 65 or over.

Voter registration

Schools

1,602 children from Old Lyme are enrolled in the 5 schools of Regional District 18. The students are enrolled based on age. Both Lyme Consolidated School and Mile Creek School are pre-K to grade 2. Lyme Consolidated School also provides grades 3-5. From grades 3-5, Center School provides 298 Old Lyme students with education. In grades 6-8, 382 children enroll in the Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School, followed by subsequent enrollment in Lyme-Old Lyme High School. Old Lyme also has a number of students who travel to private schools, including nearby parochial schools such as Xavier High School, Mercy High School, and St. Bernards High School, and some students who go to college preparatory schools for high school. Regional School District 18 has an 11.3:1 faculty to student ratio, and spends around $9,489 per pupil.

Colleges

Founded in 1976 by Elisabeth Gordon Chandler as a figurative art academy for the teaching of sculpture, drawing, illustration and painting, the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts is a unique school dedicated to the fine arts offering a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in the disciplines of painting and sculpture. The college also offers Post Baccalaureate and a 3 year Certificate program. Over the years the College has earned a reputation as a forerunner in contemporary Fine Arts higher education, “…many in the art world believe the (Lyme) Academy has contributed to the renaissance of representational art." New York Times.

The College is the sole fine-arts-only art school accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. The Academy is also accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design, the State of Connecticut, and also is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design and the Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges.

It is known for its focus on teaching techniques and the history and tradition of representational art, centered on the study of nature and the figure. Its small student body offers a uniquely personal education amongst fine art colleges.

References

Connecticut portal

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Old Lyme, Connecticut

• LymeLine: An online community newspaper covering Old Lyme and Lyme
• Old Lyme homepage
• Lyme-Old Lyme Public Schools website (Regional District 18)
• Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts
• Florence Griswold Museum
• Mystic Country: The Eastern Regional Tourism District

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