Most museums tend to stay put, but in Norwalk, history has been on the move. Once housed in the former South Norwalk City Hall, the museum was part of the historic district that defined SoNo. Today the museum has returned to one of its original locations, in the former Lockwood house on East Ave. But wait, don’t be confused by the numerous former Lockwood houses throughout Norwalk, they were an impressive and prolific family. Which is a long way of saying that one of the best places to learn about Norwalk History is at the Norwalk Historical Society Museum.
The Mill Hill Town House complex features three buildings that were moved from elsewhere. The now red schoolhouse building, once stood on East Ave. as a small white building. It was built in 1826, long after the burning of Norwalk, and added to the Mill Hill Park in the 1970s. For more on that story, check out the Historical Society’s page. Another building represents the home of Governor Thomas Fitch. It is called the law office, but the building itself was the former kitchen of the Governor’s house. The great-grandson of one the founders of Norwalk, Thomas Fitch was the 14th governor of the Colony of Connecticut. The house itself was lost during the construction of I-95 in the 1960s.
The street that runs at the foot of Mill Hill is called Smith Street. Names after a Pottery factory that operated for decades in the 1800s, the remnant buildings at 1 Wall Street, and the brick building and barn on Smith Street are all that was left. Most of the destruction of the old factory occurred as a result of the 1955 flood. But the brick building by the late 1800s became the Norwalk lockup, or jail. It continued on until the 1940s as a jail, and then was converted into apartments. That lasted until 2010, when a fire gutted the building and the Norwalk Historical Society began its restoration.
For those into the genealogy research, a trip to one of the original Carnegie built libraries in Connecticut, the Norwalk Library on Mott Street offers the Norwalk History Room and a friendly staff to help your genealogical research.
Special programming occurs at the Mill Hill Town House, which was the site of the original meeting house that dates back to the founding of Norwalk.
website: norwalkhistoricalsociety.org
3 East Wall Street.
tel: (203) 846-0525
