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Top Attractions in Old Saybrook

The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center

The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center is a theater in Old Saybrook, Connecticut that opened in 2009. It is the only theater in the world that is named for Katharine Hepburn, the 4-time Academy Award winning actress. The building in which the venue is housed dates from circa 1910 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007 as Old Saybrook Town Hall and Theater. The property is also known as The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center and Theatre. The 250 seat theater has the full backing of the Hepburn Estate and the actress's family. Cynthia McFadden of ABC News, an executor of the Hepburn Estate, is an honorary capital campaign committee member. Hepburn's brother-in-law, Ellsworth Grant, is currently instrumental in helping the Board of Trustees honor the actress with his knowledge of Hepburn and her family. Grant is an author and former Mayor of West Hartford, Connecticut. The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center is a non-profit performing arts organization located in a historic theater/town hall on Main Street in Old Saybrook. Originally opened in 1911 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Center has been renovated with public funds from the Town of Old Saybrook and donations raised by the Trustees of the Center. It includes a 250-seat theater and a small museum honoring Katharine Hepburn, Old Saybrook’s most celebrated resident. As befits an organization born of such a public/private partnership, programming is eclectic, offering something for all ages and income levels on the Connecticut shore and in the lower river valley. Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell has said the following about the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center: "It is my pleasure to recognize that one of Connecticut's own is being honored in the naming of an historic building that will perpetuate her legacy. Katharine Hepburn contributed much in her long career in film and theater, not only to Connecticut, but throughout the world. To remember her in this manner is most fitting and I salute the efforts of all those involved." Connecticut U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd has also recognized the theater in saying: "I commend everyone participating in this grand effort to restore the old Town Hall building in Old Saybrook to create in its place the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, I'm honored that I can lend my name in support of what will be a meaningful and inspiring tribute to our Connecticut treasure, Katharine Hepburn." The building was designed by New London architect James Sweeney, and "is a fine example of the Colonial Revival Style." The general contractor was William L. Roe, Jr., of New London.

Jedidiah Dudley House

The Jedidiah Dudley House, also known as the John Whittlesey Jr. House, is a historic house on Springbrook Road in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. It is one of several Dudley and Whittlesey family houses clustered at a ferry landing in Old Saybrook, where lived operators of the ferry. It is a 1-1/2 story wood frame structure, five bays wide, with a steeply-pitched gable roof, and rests on a rubble fieldstone foundation. It was built c. 1750 by Jedidiah Dudley, but was lost and the family's financial condition ruined by disputes over the collection of customs revenues by Dudley. The house is a good local example of a vernacular Georgian house. The house is located about 200 feet north of Exit 68 of Interstate 95, and is identified as one architectural resource that might possibly be affected by an I-95 modification.

Lynde Point Light

The Lynde Point Light or Lynde Point Lighthouse, also known as Saybrook Inner Lighthouse, is a lighthouse in Connecticut, United States, on the west side of the mouth of the Connecticut River on the Long Island Sound, Old Saybrook, Connecticut. The first light was a 35 feet wooden tower constructed by Abisha Woodward for $2,200 and it was completed in 1803. A new lighthouse was eventually needed and a total of $7,500 was appropriated on July 7, 1838. Jonathan Scranton, Volney Pierce, and John Wilcox were contracted to build the new 65-foot octagonal brownstone tower. It was constructed in 1838 and lit in 1839. The lighthouse was renovated in 1867 and had its keeper's house from 1833 replaced in 1858 with a Gothic Revival gambrel-roofed wood-frame house. In 1966, the house was torn down and replaced by a duplex house. The original ten lamps were replaced in 1852 with a fourth-order Fresnel lens, and with a fifth-order Fresnel lens in 1890. Lynde Point Lighthouse used whale oil until 1879 when it switched to kerosene. It was electrified in 1955 and fully automated by the United States Coast Guard in 1978. In 1990, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places and is significant for its "superior stone work in the tapering brownstone walls".

Ambrose Whittlesey House

The Ambrose Whittlesey House is a historic house at 14 Main Street in Old Saybrook, Connecticut that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. The house was built in two sections. The first section was one story high, built in 1765, measuring 16 feet by 30 feet . This is now at the rear of the house. Around 1800, a two-story main block measuring 30 feet by 34 feet was added. The main block has a relatively plain facade, but it has a Georgian style portico to accent it. The columns holding up the portico are consistent with Georgian proportions, but the fanlight over the door is more related to Federal architecture in style and design. The interior of the 1800 section of the house is generally consistent with Federal-style architecture. This section contains a massive center chimney, dating back to Colonial architecture in its simplicity. The chimney contains flues for six hearths, three on each floor. The house has architectural influences indicating a transition between Georgian architecture and Federal architecture. There are only a few such buildings remaining in this section of Old Saybrook. The actual identification of architectural styles is complicated by the mix of elements such as the large central chimney, reminiscent of colonial-period architecture; the Georgian-style portico, and the Federal-style detailing in the interior. Since there are few other Georgian-style details in the house, it appears likely that the portico was added later. The owner, Ambrose Whittlesey, was the great-great-grandson of John Whittlesey, who was an early settler of the Saybrook Colony in the 17th century. The Whittlesey family was involved in farming, the merchandise trade, and shipbuilding. Ambrose started his career as a sea captain at age 21, trading with the West Indies. He later went on to voyages to Spain and Portugal after the War of 1812. When he died in 1827, his house was inherited by his youngest son, also named Ambrose, although his mother had an encumbrance on the property until her death in 1838. In 1839, his surviving siblings granted him full ownership via a quitclaim deed. The house remained in the Whittlesey family until 1967.

William Tully House

The William Tully House, also known as Hartsease or Heartsease, is a historic house at 135 North Cove Road in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. The house has also been associated with the name Heartsease. There is no documentation why this name came about, but it could be in relation to the flower Viola tricolor once growing in the yard. It could also be related to its use as a summer house for working girls. The house is a 2-1/2 story wood frame structure, four bays wide, with a central chimney and centered doorway. It was built circa 1750. The exact construction date is not documented, but William Tully's father divided his land holdings in 1745. This event, and the 1779 American Revolutionary War incident described below, guided architectural historians to date the house at about 1750, assuming that William Tully built the house soon after receiving the land. The house was the site of a small incident on August 8, 1779, in which Tories from Middletown sought release of some of their own goods to sell to the British, but two were killed and they retreated. The house was later owned by Dr. William Tully (the fourth with that name), described as one of Connecticut's leading scientific doctors of the first half of the 19th century. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

Connecticut Valley Railroad Roundhouse and Turntable Site

The Connecticut Valley Railroad Roundhouse and Turntable Site is a former railroad facility located in Fort Saybrook Monument Park off Main Street in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. The roundhouse and turntable were built in 1871 by the Connecticut Valley Railroad, which was later acquired by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. The rail line operated from its founding until 1922. The rail facilities are built partly on the archaeological remains of Fort Saybrook, the main fortification of the 17th-century Saybrook Colony, and are the only surviving remnant of what was once a large facility, with an icehouse, coal bin, steamboat dock, depot, and signal tower. Archaeological remains of these other facilities are believed to lie under other parts of the park and adjacent properties. The exposed facilities were excavated in 1981-2. Both structures were added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 28, 1994.
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