Friday, December 30, 2011

Preview: The Town I Grew Up In

And in which my family lived for more than 200 years

Yesterday I was taken to lunch by a friend in Guilford, the town I grew up in, settled in 1639. It's next door to where I live now, but I rarely walk or ride my bike the 8-9 miles to get there. It's an absolutely gorgeous, classic New England town. I forget how much I miss it until I go there. Madison is pretty, and it's a really nice town—I'm so fortunate to live here—but the center doesn't really have the historical look and feel that Guilford does. Guilford's center is an 11-acre town green, one of the largest in New England. Homes, churches and retail stores border it, and it's a protected historical center. I say "preview" in the headline because I was there only long enough to snap these quick photos. I plan on spending a few hours there next week and I'll take much more detailed and interesting photos then!

The First Congregational church is on the right in the photo above. I have a very small piece of the steeple my mother collected after the devastating 1938 hurricane. Each September, Guilford has a 3-day country fair, and my family and I usually sat on the steps of that church for the parade each year.

The stone Episcopal church is in the center of this photo. The Town Hall is the brick building on the left.

Private homes line the Green, along with restaurants, retail shops and churches.

Looking for all the world like the church it once was, the white building in the center of the photo once housed a playhouse, too. I'm not sure what it is today. I'll find out for the next post!
  • Guilford's Chamber of Commerce website, here.
  • The Wiki on Guilford, here.

5 comments:

  1. Casey, lovely town. What a history you and your family have there. Being from "new" towns in the midwest, I can't imagine towns this old...I am looking forward to a more in depth look. Fascinating. Is this where your family home resides? (the one your Uncle sold I believe??? I need to go back and look up some of the older posts and revisit a few of the many interesting places you have posted)
    Am staying out of traffic (as per your suggestion to Annie..:)
    Mare

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  2. Hi Mare!
    Our house was about 3 miles out of town, in an area known as Leete's Island. It may have been an actual island at high tide, at one point centuries ago, but it's more of just an area beyond a causeway now. I'll see if I can get around to photographing that area, too. William Leete, back in the early 1600s, was granted that part of the Connecticut shoreline by the British King at the time, (I have no idea his name!) and Leete went on to become an early governor of the Connecticut colony. There are still Leetes that live, and own, most of that area, to this day. At one point my family owned thousands of acres, but every generation whittled it down until my uncle sold off the last in the mid '80s just before he killed himself.

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  3. That might have been King Charles I who was around during the English Civil Wars...

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  4. I'D GIVE ANYTHING TO LIVE BACK NORTH. THE TOWNS ARE SO MUCH NICER THAN HERE. HISTORY AND MORE HISTORY IN THOSE OLD BUILDINGS.

    GRANNY

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