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Today the colony's afterlife is the town's main draw. The Griswold House at 96 Lyme Street is the Florence Griswold Museum — 13 acres on the Lieutenant River, the restored boarding house with its painted panels, a modern gallery, and gardens running down to the water. The Lyme Art Association, founded by the colony's painters, still exhibits in its 1921 gallery next door. Sound View and White Sand beaches fill on summer weekends along Long Island Sound, Rogers Lake anchors the town's northern half, and the sea captains' houses still line Lyme Street under the elms — the view down the street from the Congregational Church remains, recognizably, the one the Impressionists painted.
The Loving Parting. Old Lyme began as the east bank of Saybrook Colony, founded in 1636 at the mouth of the Connecticut River. In 1665 the settlers on the two banks divided the colony in what the records call the "Loving Parting" — one of the gentlest town separations in colonial America — and the east side became Lyme. For the next two centuries the village at the river's mouth lived on farming, fishing, shipbuilding, and trade with the West Indies; the Federal-style mansions of Lyme Street, many built for sea captains, date from that maritime prosperity, and the Lyme Street district — 109 acres of it — was listed on the National Register in 1971. The shoreline village incorporated as its own town, South Lyme, in 1855, and took the name Old Lyme in 1857. In 1975, Yale researchers investigating a cluster of illness in the Lyme towns identified the disease that now carries the name.
Why People Visit Old Lyme Connecticut
Old Lyme balances arts heritage with beaches and greens. Visitors find quiet museums, sculpture paths, and easy seaside stops. It is graceful, creative, and restful. Travelers find year round appeal in parks, paths, and public spaces. The setting combines natural beauty with accessible neighborhoods and landmarks. History and everyday culture sit side by side in a welcoming way.
