History Articles

Gen. William Hart, the wealthiest and most famous of the five Hart brothers, made his fortune with his fleet of merchant trading ships. They…

General William Hart (Jr.) was a young cavalry officer, a wealthy post-war shipping magnate, land speculator and unsuccessful 5-time candidate for governor of CT. …

When Connecticut officially became one of the first 13 states in 1788 it consisted of 3.5 million acres of land along Long Island Sound,…

Elisha Ely Morgan was Old Saybrook’s most famous sea captain. He formed friendships with many wealthy and famous men including English novelist Charles Dickens. …

The remains of the luxurious steamship Granite State lie in shallow water at the entrance to Old Saybrook’s North Cove. What’s left of the…

The founders of the Saybrook settlement in 1636 had no banks and no colonial currency. In fact there were no banks in all of…

Why George Fenwick returned to Saybrook in 1639 is not clear. His departure is easier to understand than his arrival. Read the story of…

The sandbar at the end of the Connecticut River has influenced the character of Old Saybrook from its beginning until today. Early on it…

Read about a multi-millionaire’s gamble in 1910 on a trolley through Saybrook, and why he lost his bet.   Read Full Article

John Winthrop the Younger was the unlikely founder of Saybrook because he had no intention of founding the settlement.  How did he and George…

The Old Saybrook Historical Society has perhaps the finest portrait of the town’s unlikely founder, John Winthrop the Younger (1606-1676). The painting is more…

Read about the two other land investments that preceded Saybrook that held more interest and greater profit potential for the “investment club.” One was…

Why did an English “investment club” establish the Saybrook Colony?  Who were Lord Saye and Sele and Lord Brooke and why were they handing out land grants at the end of a river in a land on which they would never set foot?

The Bushnell Farm in Old Saybrook is a notable time capsule; a private, historic preserve generously shared by the owners. Who were the Bushnells and how did the farm come to be saved by a couple from Essex? Read more about the history of this 1678 family farm and the two people who saved it.

A charming summer chapel in Fenwick is emblematic of the many Fenwick structures built in the late 1800s. It was a peaceful, neutral refuge during a turn-of-the-century period of social rivalries and a family feud. Used only two months out of the year for Sunday services, it endures today in its original character.

Bob Childress was an Old Saybrook neighbor. He is best remembered for his illustrations of the venerable Dick and Jane series of elementary school readers. But his career as an American Illustrator spanned several decades and a much broader body of artistic work than just the Dick and Jane readers.

Read more about Bob and the history of American Illustrators.

Who named Saybrook? Spoiler alert: no one really knows. Readers of history should always keep two axioms in mind: “History is written by the victors,” and “History is the story told most often.” Both of these sayings are germane to the naming of Saybrook.

Learn more about what is known and what is conjecture about the naming of the town. Read about Dutch mapmakers’ linguistic tug-of-war between English names and Dutch names, especially along the Connecticut coast.

Read Part II, Tammany Hall and Fenwick Hall. It’s a story about Ned Stokes’ notorious crime and his hotels, one of which was in Fenwick, the other in New York City. His life and his Fenwick neighbor were emblematic of the life of the robber barons. This was the Gilded Age mixed with dubious Victorian sensibilities and Tammany Hall power-politics and corruption. Cary Grant was cast as Ned Stokes in the 1937 movie, “The Toast of New York.” Ned Stokes’ crime made New York tabloid history. His New York hotel was world famous. His ownership of Fenwick Hall was a problem for the town of Old Saybrook. Read more in Part II of the Fenwick Hall history.

In the summer of 1870 a group of Hartford investors decided that Old Saybrook would be an excellent location for developing a summer resort for wealthy Hartford residents. They named their company the New Saybrook Company. The centerpiece of their resort would be the grand Fenwick Hall hotel. 318 lots surrounding the hotel were offered for sale. Hartford was the most affluent city in America in 1870. What could possibly go wrong with this investment opportunity? Read more about troubled Fenwick Hall and the New Saybrook Company in Part I of this story.

The colonists had left a continent that was replete with libraries, universities, hospitals, cathedrals, public water supplies, paved roads, art museums, and impressive public clocks mounted on cathedral towers and town halls. They immigrated with nothing more than the sundial. Their arrival in the colonies was definitely a step back in timekeeping.

The Obed Heights neighborhood in Old Saybrook is presumably named after an Indian named Obed. The legend is that he was the son of…

This chronology is a composite of numerous magazine and newspaper articles about the Castle Inn and its owners, as well as historical and genealogical records, postcards and photographs. There are a fair number of conflicting stories about the home and its builder. This history tries to clarify some of these stories.

By Tedd Levy. Download Story

by Donna DiBella Over the years, I have met so many interesting people through the Society and today would like to share a special…

CH-1814.080 Indenture of Elizabeth Stannard to Stephen Chalker This Indenture Witnesseth, that I Elisha Sill of Saybrook in the County of Middlesex, in the…

“If I am Dead and Gon”: Oliver Graham of Saybrook, Connecticut and Elizabethtown, Upper Canada (1758–1838) –Pamela Vittorio, Professional Genealogist, Brooklyn, NY The Old…

Photo courtesy Tedd Levy. The back of this old postcard showing Sentinel Cedar reads in part: “This historic landmark is one of the original…