The Henry Whitfield State Museum stands as a Reminder of a Time Little Remembered in Connecticut’s Past

This year marks the 375^th anniversary of what began as a home for the Rev. Henry Whitfield in Guilford. He built a home and helped found a town.

It was 19 years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth when the Rev. Whitfield, leading a group of fellow Puritans arrived here with a desire to worship as they pleased. It would be the forerunner of journeys taken by so many others in succeeding generations.

The community they hoped to form would be an outpost from the deadly challenges back in England, a country tearing itself apart in what would become known as the English Civil War, a protracted period of sectarian strife. Today, as Connecticut Public Television has noted, the home is one of Connecticut’s Cultural Treasures.

His home, the Henry Whitfield State Museum, one of three museums owned and operated by the state, has a number of historic milestones to its credit. Among them:

The oldest home in Connecticut.
The oldest stone house in New England.
Connecticut’s first state museum, opened in 1899.

Accompany CPTV on this brief walk through an early part of Connecticut’s past.

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The Henry Whitfield State Museum

HOURS

January – April 22, 2014

Open by appointment Monday-Friday, 10:00-4:30.
Regular admission fees (no discount coupons or library passes accepted).
Call 203-453-2457 or e-mail whitfieldmuseum@ct.gov for details or to make a reservation.

May 1 – December 14, 2014