F foH- Of FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH » (Fifth Meeting House) * The Marvin House (see page 6) i The McCurdy House (see page 6) Hi!! !!!niFI!I!!lll lllllllllllllf illlPllllliliiilllliilllll Landmarks of OLD LYME THE BEGINNINGS OF THE TOWN LD LYME was originally part of Saybrook when the latter Owas founded in 1635. However in the years following quite a number of Saybrook settlers acquired land and established homes east of the Connecticut River; amongst them were the Lay, Noyes, Champion, Griswold, Marvin, DeWolf, Lord and Ely families. On February 13, 1665, at a ceremony known as "The Loving Parting," the friendly separation of Saybrook and Lyme took place, and Lyme became an independent "plantation"; two years later, on May 9, 1667, a decree of the General Court at Hartford authorized the change of name to that of Lyme. There is a tra­ dition that Lyme was named after Lyme Regis in Dorset, Eng­ land, based on an unconfirmed legend that the Griswolds and/or the Sills came from that town. Others believe that the fact that the Lees of Lyme came from Lyme, Cheshire, England, may have had something to do with this town being so named. Lyme originally comprised an area of 80 square miles. In 1835 the eastern section became an independent town known as East Lyme; and in 1855 the south-west portion withdrew and became legally Old Lyme. In connection with setting the boundaries of Lyme, the story runs that there was much controversy about a strip of land be­ tween Bride Brook and the Niantic Rive*, also claimed by New London. Finally the two towns decided to "leave it to the Lord" but appointed two champions from either side to settle the dis­ pute by "fighting it out." Legend has it that Matthew Griswold and William Ely were chosen as the Lyme champions and that they won the contest and the^isputed land. There is no legal record of this decision in the town annals; however a decision of the General Court is recorded, alloting the disputed strip. During the earlier days there was fear of trouble with the Nehantic Indians living on the land at the mouth of the Con­ necticut River; crops were gathered with sickle and rake, but the trusty musket was always within quick reach. On Sundays look-outs stationed on Meeting House Hill kept a wary eye out for possible attacks from these Indians. In point of fact no local fighting with the Indians is recorded, rather the records show that not a few of the settlers have held, through the years, prop­ erty deeded to them by the Indians. The Indians lingered OR for some time: a letter written by Governor Talcott states that in 1775 there were no less than 163 Nehantics within the township of Lyme, and among them were several who joined the Congre­ gational Church. Old Lyme has always made its contribution of soldiers to the armed forces of our country. But the only time the local militia seemed likely to be needed to protect its own territory was dur­ ing the War of 1812 when a contingent of Royal Marines from a British warship lying at the mouth of the River, rowed up as far as Essex and burnt 28 ships; at which time earthworks were hastily thrown up in Lyme, on the heights of Mather's Neck and the trained bands were on the alert for possible further attack from the British. INDUSTRIES During one period Lyme was noted as a shipping center. Many of the men of Lyme were competent shipwrights who applied their craft to building ocean-going and coastal vessels for Lyme's merchants, John McCurdy, N. L. and G. Griswold and Captains John and Thomas Sill and others. The sturdy and exact craftsman-ship of these shipwrights is also found in many of the fine old houses. Throughout the years there have been other industries in Old Lyme: iron works, grist mills, fulling mills for treating woolen goods, mills for weaving cloth and other materials, and lumber mills. In connection with the last-named industry, tradition has it that immense logs were floated down the Connecticut River from the forests of New Hampshire and Vermont and up the Lieutenant River to the Sill Log Landing and there conveyed overland to the saw mills in Laysville, where they were cut up into building material and shipped out again. In earlier days the fisheries were also a profitable industry, and from 1746 Lyme had a state monopoly for the manufacture of salt. THE STREET "THE STREET," from earliest times Old Lyme's main thorough­ fare and now officially Lyme Street, extends northward from The Green 1M miles, through a broad avenue of arching elms and maples, to the Peck Tavern, where it forks into Sill Lane to the west and to the Boston Post Road to New London eastward. Along, and adjacent to, this street a number of the original found­ ers of Lyme and their descendants have for over two and a half centuries made their homes. THE GREEN, a fairly ample triangular space at the south end of the Street, occupies a sort of crossways, with Ferry Lane running west and the Country Road, now the Shore Road to New London, branching eastward diagonally opposite. From earliest times The Green was a focus of civic life and the scene of outstanding events in the town's relatively tranquil history. Here the trained bands were mustered and drilled; here the harsh justice of those earlier days was publicly meted out at the whipping post, that stood in one corner of what is now the church yard, and in the stocks which stood in front of the McCurdy House. In the days preceding the Revolution especially, The Green was a veritable nursery of rebellion, and much secret plotting is accredited to the surrounding householders. Here Lyme staged its own little "Boston Tea Party," on March 16, 1774, when a peddler from Martha's Vineyard arrived on horseback with a hundred pounds of tea in his saddle-bags. He was arrested, examined, and that same evening the local Sons of Liberty assembled and just above where the present church stands, burned the peddler's entire stock. Later, after the Battle of Lexington, feeling in Lyme ran so high that one hundred men were raised in one day and set out from the Green to march to Roxbury. And later still, July 27, 1778, this same Green wit­ nessed the arrival of General Lafayette, in command of a detachment of troops going eastward. Here they were fed from nearby Parsons Tavern, and encamped in the adjacent fields. The Green in earlier days was doubtless smaller than now. Some of the older houses have been moved back from the street, and the newer ones have been purposely more withdrawn. The present FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, facing the Green at the southwest corner of Ferry Road, is a replica of one of New England's most famous early churches. The original structure was erected on this site in 1816-1817, at a modest cost of $8,000. by Col. Samuel Belcher, architect, from plans of a Lon­ don church, of a much earlier date, designed by Sir Christopher Wren. The corner-stone was laid June, 1816. The timbers of the frame were brought down the River from the northern Vermont woods and were of huge size. There has been com­ ment on the unequal spacing of the front columns but few people realize that this is due to the fact that the central col­ umns support the weight of the steeple. As first constructed the church was furnished with very high, old-fashioned square pews; and the first pulpit was high and circular, reached by steps from each side. In 1836 the pulpit was lowered and in 1850 was removed altogether and replaced by a platform, and modern pews were substituted for the square ones. In 1887 the interior was re-decorated and an apse added by Henry R. Marshall, architect. After standing for ninety years this church, Lyme's loveliest landmark, was destroyed by fire on July 4,1907. In the ruins was found a shapeless mass of molten metal, from which five hundred little dinner bells were made and sold for $1. each to start a fund toward rebuilding the church. Within a year the present struc­ ture was built, faithfully reproduced from drawings, plans and photographs. On June 19, 1910, the new church was dedicated. AJ^^/J^f - Few New England*churchesTiave so frequently been reproduced? : yK<L- in paintings, etchings and illustrations. Probably the most famil- * iar are Childe Hassam's paintings of the church, one of which-r hangs in the Smith College Art Gallery. -^V^CCIIM. 4 History. The present church structure is the Fifth Meeting House in the-t^^^^*'-* history of "Ye prime Society of Lyme." Although not organized until ^tiWt 1693, this society had its nucleus in the early settlers who had crossed the v-y^w^^t« Connecticut from Saybrook prior to the year 1665, when the agreement between the two sides of the river known as "The Loving Parting" estab­ lished Lyme as a separate township. In 1666 the Rev. Moses Noyes, bringing with him about twenty-five or more families, settled in Lyme as its first minister. The First Meeting House was erected not later than 1666 on the brow of what is still known as Meeting House Hill, where an old Indian trail crossed the ridge. Tradition says this first building was a sim­ ple oblong log cabin.