Lyme, Connecticut facts for kids

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Lyme

Town

Town of Lyme

First Congregational Church

Seal

New London County and Connecticut

Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region and Connecticut

Country

Region

Lower CT River Valley

Settled

1645

Incorporated

February 13, 1667

Government

• Type

Selectman-town meeting

Area

• Total

34.5 sq mi (89.4 km²)

• Land

31.9 sq mi (82.5 km²)

• Water

2.6 sq mi (6.8 km²)

Elevation

26 ft (8 m)

Population

(2020)

• Total

2,352

• Density

68.17/sq mi (26.309/km²)

Time zone

UTC-5 (Eastern)

• Summer (DST)

UTC-4 (Eastern)

ZIP code

06371 (Old Lyme PO) and 06439 (Hadlyme PO)

Area code(s)

860/959

FIPS code

09-44210

GNIS feature ID

0213453

Lyme is a town in New London County, Connecticut, United States, situated on the eastern side of the Connecticut River. The town is part of the Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region. The population was 2,352 at the 2020 census. Lyme is the eponym of Lyme disease.

History

Marinas at Hamburg Cove in Lyme.

In February 1665, the portion of the territory of the Saybrook Colony east of the Connecticut River was set off as the plantation of East Saybrook, which included present-day Lyme, Old Lyme, and the western part of East Lyme. In 1667, the Connecticut General Court formally recognized the East Saybrook plantation as the town of Lyme, named after Lyme Regis, a coastal town in the south of England. The eastern portion of Lyme (bordering the town of Waterford) separated from Lyme in 1823 and became part of East Lyme. The southern portion of Lyme (along Long Island Sound) separated in 1855 as South Lyme (renamed Old Lyme in 1857). Both changes were consistent with the then-existing laws of the state of Connecticut.

Geography

Moulson Pond on the Eightmile River.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 34.5 square miles (89 km²), of which 31.9 square miles (83 km²) are land and 2.6 square miles (6.7 km²), or 7.63%, are water.

The Village of Hamburg in 1868.

Principal communities

Hadlyme
Hamburg (town center)
North Lyme

Other minor communities and geographic areas are Becket Hill, Bill Hill, Brockway's Ferry (also known as Brockway Landing), Brush Hill, Elys Ferry, Grassy Hill, Gungy, Joshuatown, Lord Hill, Mt. Archer, Pleasant Valley, Rogers Lake West Shore, and Sterling City.

Principal bodies of water

Coves along the Connecticut River

Hamburg Cove.
Lord Cove (a brackish tidal marsh, fed in part by Lord, Deep, and Mack creeks).
Selden Cove.
Whalebone Cove (aka Hadlyme Cove or North Cove).

Lakes and ponds

Cedar Lake ( formed by the damming of Cedar Pond Brook).
Joshua Pond – a.k.a. Lower Pond (east of Brockways Ferry Rd; formed by the damming of Joshua Creek).
Moulsons Pond (formed by the damming of Eightmile River).
Norwich Pond (formed by the damming of Falls Brook).
Rogers Lake (partly in Lyme; formed by the damming of Mill Brook).
Uncas Pond (formed by the damming of Falls Brook).
Upper Pond (along Tantumorantum Rd; formed by the damming of Joshua Creek).

Rivers, creeks , and brooks

Eightmile River; a federally designated "Wild and Scenic River."
Beaver Brook (a tributary of Eightmile River).
Broad Swamp Brook (a tributary of Grassy Hill Brook).
Cedar Pond Brook (a tributary of Beaver Brook).
Cranberry Meadow Brook (a tributary of Eightmile River).
Deep Creek (a tributary of the Connecticut River).
East Branch Eightmile River (a tributary of Eightmile River).
Falls Brook (a tributary of Eightmile River and Hamburg Cove).
Grassy Hill Brook (mostly in Lyme, but crosses into Old Lyme before feeding into Rogers Lake).
Hemlock Valley Brook (a tributary of Whalebone Creek).
Hungerford Brook (a tributary of Whalebone Creek).
Joshua Creek – a.k.a. Rams Horn Creek (a tributary of the Connecticut River).
Lord Creek (a tributary of the Connecticut River).
Mack Creek (a tributary of the Connecticut River).
Mill Brook (enters Rogers Lake in Lyme and exits the lake in Old Lyme; a tributary of the Lieutenant River).
Roaring Brook (a tributary of Whalebone Creek).
Selden Creek (a tributary of the Connecticut River).
Whalebone Creek (mouth is located at the head of Whalebone Cove).

Demographics

Historical population
Census	Pop.	%±
1820	4,069	—
1850	2,668	—
1860	1,246	−53.3%
1870	1,181	−5.2%
1880	1,025	−13.2%
1890	977	−4.7%
1900	750	−23.2%
1910	746	−0.5%
1920	674	−9.7%
1930	546	−19.0%
1940	717	31.3%
1950	857	19.5%
1960	1,183	38.0%
1970	1,484	25.4%
1980	1,822	22.8%
1990	1,949	7.0%
2000	2,016	3.4%
2010	2,406	19.3%
2020	2,352	−2.2%
U.S. Decennial Census

2010 and 2020 censuses

As of the 2010 census, Lyme had a population of 2,406. Its racial and ethnic makeup was 96.5% non-Hispanic white, 0.1% non-Hispanic black, 0.1% non-Hispanic Native American, 1.0% Asian, 0.1% non-Hispanic from some other race, 0.6% from two or more races and 1.7% Hispanic or Latino.

Voter registration

Voter registration and party enrollment as of November 1, 2022.
Party		Active voters	Inactive voters	Total voters	Percentage
	Republican	464	6	470	23.81%
	Democratic	742	15	757	38.35%
	Unaffiliated	699	20	719	36.42%
	Minor Parties	28	0	28	1.42%
Total		1,933	41	1974	100%

The number of Lyme residents registering with the Democratic party has grown in recent years, from 541 in 2015 to 757 in 2022.

Ancestry/Ethnicity

According to the United States Census Bureau, as of 2017 the largest (those over 1% of the population) self-identified ancestry/ethnic groups in Lyme were:

Largest ancestries (2017)	Percent
English ancestry	30.5%
Irish ancestry	19.8%
German ancestry	14.2%
Italian ancestry	11.7%
American ancestry	7.3%
Polish ancestry	6.3%
Scottish ancestry	4.9%
French-Canadian ancestry	3.5%
Swedish ancestry	2.4%
Norwegian ancestry	1.6%
Swiss ancestry	1.5%
Russian ancestry	1.2%

Public facilities

Civic and fraternal

Hadlyme Public Hall (63 Ferry Road)
Lyme Consolidated School (478 Hamburg Road)
Lyme Grange Hall (2 Sterling City Road)
Lyme Public Hall Association (249 Hamburg Road)
Lyme Public Library (482 Hamburg Road)
Lyme Volunteer Fire Co. Hadlyme Station (Norwich Salem Road)
Lyme Volunteer Fire Co. Lyme Station (213 Hamburg Road)

Governmental

Hadlyme Ferry Boat Launch (154 Ferry Road)
Hadlyme Post Office (1 Ferry Road)
Lyme Town Hall (480 Hamburg Road)

Religious

The First Congregational Church of Lyme (Sterling City Road)

Points of interest

State parks and forests

Selden Neck State Park and Becket Hill State Park Reserve are wholly located in Lyme. Nehantic State Forest and Gillette Castle State Park are partly located in Lyme.

On the National Register of Historic Places

Cooper Site, added November 15, 1987.
Gillette Castle (partly in Lyme), added July 31, 1986.
Hadlyme Ferry Historic District, added December 21, 1994.
Hamburg Bridge Historic District (Joshuatown Road and Old Hamburg Road), added April 10, 1983.
Hamburg Cove Site, added November 15, 1987.
Lord Cove Site, added November 15, 1987.
Selden Island Site, added November 15, 1987.

Public transportation

The Estuary Transit District provides public transportation throughout Lyme and the surrounding towns through its 9 Town Transit Service. Services include connections to Old Saybrook station, served by Amtrak and Shore Line East railroads.

Lyme in literature, art, and film

Sleep, Andy Warhol's 1964 movie, was filmed in Lyme.

Notable people

Robert Ballard (born 1942), lives in Lyme; oceanographer
Joan Bennett (1910–1990), buried in Lyme; film and television actress
Hiel Brockway (died 1842), born in Lyme; founder of Brockport, New York
Zebulon Brockway (1827–1920), born in Lyme; penologist; "Father of prison reform" in the United States
Daniel Chadwick (1825–1884), born in Lyme; lawyer and politician
Donald Barr Chidsey (1902–1981), lived in Lyme for many years; novelist and historian
Wequash Cooke (died 1642), buried in Lyme; Native American leader
William Diard (1924–2009), retired to Lyme and died there; operatic tenor
Dominick Dunne (1925–2009), owned a house in Lyme (Hadlyme); author, journalist, and film producer
John Ely (1737–1800), born in Lyme; surgeon and colonel in the American Revolution
Walker Evans (1903–1975), lived in Lyme 1940s to 1975; photographer
Gladys Kelley Fitch (1896–1971), lived in Lyme; artist; member Old Lyme Art Colony
Matthew Griswold (1714–1799), born in Lyme; governor of Connecticut (1784–1786)
Roger Griswold (1762–1812), born in Lyme; son of Mathew; US congressman (1785–1805), governor of Connecticut (1811–1812)
Roger Hilsman (1919–2014), lived in Lyme; member Lyme Democratic Committee; World War II hero, diplomat, and author
Harry Holtzman (1912–1987), lived in Lyme; abstract artist
Stephen Johnson (1724–1786), minister Lyme First Congregational; pamphleteer
Ezra Lee (1749–1821), born in Lyme; commander of the Turtle submarine during the Revolutionary War, and world's first submariner
Beatrice Lillie (1894–1989), lived on Grassy Hill Rd, Lyme in the 1970s; Canadian-born actress
Abijah Perkins Marvin (1813–1889), born in Lyme; minister, writer, and teacher; member of the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1853
Dudley Marvin (1786–1856), born in Lyme; New York congressman
Charles J. McCurdy (1797–1891), born and died in Lyme; Lt. Governor of Connecticut
William Brown Meloney (1905–1971) and Rose Franken (1895–1988), lived in Lyme; husband-wife writing and play production team
Robert Mulligan (1925–2008), died at home in Lyme; film director; directed To Kill a Mockingbird
Jonathan Parsons (1705–1776), Lyme clergyman
Samuel Holden Parsons (1737–1789), born in Lyme; brigadier general in the Continental Army during the American Revolution
Jedediah Peck (1748–1821), born in Lyme; "Father of the Common School System" in New York state
John Sill Rogers (1796–1860), born in Lyme; physician and politician
Timothy Rogers (1756-1834), born in Lyme; Quaker leader and founder of Newmarket and Pickering, Ontario in Canada.
Sewell Sillman (1924–1992), lived in Lyme and died there; painter, educator, and art print publisher
Ansel Sterling (1782–1853), born in Lyme; congressman from Connecticut
Micah Sterling (1784–1844), born in Lyme; congressman from New York
Allen Tucker (1838–1903), born in Lyme; Medal of Honor recipient in the American Civil War
Henry Matson Waite (1787–1869), born in Lyme; Chief Justice of Connecticut Supreme Court
Morrison Remick Waite (1816–1888), born in Lyme; Chief Justice of the United States