The boarding house that became the birthplace of American Impressionism. In the summer of 1899, a New York landscape painter named Henry Ward Ranger took a room at a quiet boarding house on Lyme Street. The house had been built in 1817 by a sea captain named Robert Griswold and was run, by 1899, by his unmarried daughter — Florence Griswold, then 49, supporting herself and a sister with what was left of the family property. Ranger had just returned from Europe, and he saw in the soft summer light along the Lieutenant River something that reminded him of Barbizon, the French village where 19th-century painters had once gathered to paint outdoors from life. He wrote to his New York dealer: "I want to start an American Barbizon here." He returned the next spring with friends. Over the next 38 years, until Florence Griswold's death in 1937, more than 200 American painters lived and worked in that boarding house and the surrounding village. The Lyme Art Colony became the most famous art colony in the United States — and the first in America to adopt Impressionism. The painter Childe Hassam arrived in 1903 and shifted the colony's palette from Ranger's misty Tonalist browns and greens to vivid Impressionist light. Willard Metcalf, Robert Vonnoh, William Chadwick, Matilda Browne, and Henry Rankin Poore followed. They painted the Old Lyme Congregational Church across the green, the Lieutenant River through the trees, the marshes, the orchards, the dirt lanes. They also painted the boarding house itself — 41 panels directly onto the dining room and hallway doors of Florence Griswold's home, a tradition that began in 1900 as a joking paint-off between Ranger and Henry Rankin Poore and grew into a competitive honor. Membership in the colony came to mean leaving your mark, literally, on a door. The panels are still there. Willard Metcalf's 1906 painting May Night, depicting the Griswold house at twilight with Florence Griswold herself walking the path, became the first contemporary American painting purchased by the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington. The Griswold House was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1993. The artists are gone, the boarding house is a museum, and the paintings hang in the Met, the National Gallery, the Smithsonian. But the river is still there. The light is still there. And on a summer evening looking down Lyme Street from the church, the village still looks the way Hassam painted it.
Today Old Lyme is celebrated for its shoreline, art heritage, and suburban neighborhoods. Its story reflects Indigenous presence, colonial roots, and cultural continuity. Our Old Lyme designs embody this layered identity, pairing the clam shell motif with vintage styling. They invite you to explore the Old Lyme collection and carry forward a reminder of Connecticut's resilience. Retro in tone, the logo reflects authenticity and pride. Old Lyme's emblem honors both shoreline roots and suburban growth, making it a vintage symbol of Connecticut heritage. Explore the collection and share in Old Lyme's story of pride.
Why People Visit Old Lyme Connecticut
- Tour the Florence Griswold Museum, artists colony home with galleries and riverside grounds.
- Visit Lyme Art Association, historic galleries showcasing regional painters.
- Relax at Sound View Beach, sandy shoreline with gentle surf and boardwalk blocks.
- Walk the Town Green, churches and historic homes along tree lined Lyme Street.
- Enjoy White Sand Beach, neighborhood cove with seasonal access and calm waters.
