Henry Whitfield State Museum of Guilford - Connecticut Living

Connecticut’s oldest house and New England’s oldest stone house dates back to 1639 when the Town of Guilford was settled.
Led by Rev. Henry Whitfield, 25 Puritan families settled on coastal land occupied by the Menuncatuck of the Quinnipiac tribe.
Indigenous tribes likely considered goods received in land purchases as goodwill gestures to share land, not as agreement to exclusive ownership.
Nathless, settlers made themselves a domain in Guilford and founded Connecticut’s 7th town.
The Whitfield home served as a fort (its walls are nearly 2 feet thick), a town meetinghouse and a place of worship.
Henry Whitfield was a Puritan minister who fled Anglican England due to religious persecution.
He lived here with his wife Dorothy and their 9 children.
In 1650, his failing health and harsh winters led Henry and his son John to return to England.
Improved political and religious circumstances in England were pretexts for Whitfield’s reinstatement into the Anglican Church.
He died on September 17, 1657 and was buried at Winchester Cathedral.
The Whitfield House was used as a Catholic parish in the 1860’s before St. George Church was built on Guilford Green.
Also known as the Old Stone House, it was first was remodeled in 1868.
The house opened to the public in 1900 as Connecticut’s first museum.
In 1904, the home was restored by architect Norman Isham and then again in 1930 by J. Frederick Kelly.
Made from local granite, the house is unique Colonial Revival architecture in a post-medieval English style.
The site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1997 and a State Archeological Preserve in 2006.
At the museum visitors have access to a scavenger hunt, information center, exhibit gallery, research library, gift shop and educational resources.
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