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Killingworth, Connecticut: A Farmer's Folk-Art Automata

Killingworth, Connecticut

Schreeder Pond, Chatfield Hollow State Park
— Magicpiano (User:Magicpiano), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

European settlement began in 1663 as a plantation called "Homonoscitt," named after the Hammonasset people; the General Assembly incorporated it as Kenilworth in 1703, and the name gradually became Killingworth. It traces to Kenilworth, England, the former home of early settler Edward Griswold, with the town named in 1667. Killingworth's original lands reached Long Island Sound and included present-day Clinton, which separated in 1838. The town's most notorious 18th-century citizen was Abel Buell, an inventor and convicted counterfeiter who engraved one of the first maps of America made by an American. In the 1890s, farmer Clark Coe built life-sized folk-art automata on his Green Hill Road farm; surviving figures are now held by the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the American Folk Art Museum.

Getting there

Killingworth is a car-first inland town with no rail station and no interstate of its own — you arrive on the two state highways that cross near the town center, CT Route 81 (Town Hall is at 323 Route 81) and CT Route 80 (Chatfield Hollow State Park is at 381 CT-80). The nearest passenger rail is Shore Line East at Clinton or Madison, south toward the shoreline.

Chatfield Hollow and Parmelee Farm

Chatfield Hollow's valley was used by Native people for hunting and shelter in its rock recesses, and later held a stream-powered grist mill; the Civilian Conservation Corps built the earth-and-stone dam that created Schreeder Pond in 1934, and the land became a state park in 1949. Parmelee Farm, a 132-acre town-owned property the town bought in 2000, keeps an 18th-century farmhouse, a stone barn and a historic one-room schoolhouse open to walkers dawn to dusk.

What's here

Questions

How do I get to Killingworth?

By car — Route 81 and Route 80 cross near the town center. There is no rail station or interstate in Killingworth; the nearest passenger rail is Shore Line East at Clinton or Madison, to the south.

What is Chatfield Hollow State Park?

An 18-mile trail network around Schreeder Pond, created by a 1934 Civilian Conservation Corps dam and made a state park in 1949. It offers swimming, fishing at a designated Trout Park, hiking and cross-country skiing; open daily 8 a.m.–sunset, free for in-state vehicles.

Is there a hotel in Killingworth?

No hotel, inn, motel or B&B could be verified operating inside Killingworth. The nearest verified option is Saybrook Point Resort & Marina, 2 Bridge Street, Old Saybrook, a Shore Line East station stop.

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Same region