Top Things to do in Mystic Country
Top Hotels in Mystic Country
- 1. The Whaler's Inn
- 2. Hyatt Place Mystic
- 3. Hyatt Place Mohegan Sun
- 4. Hampton Inn & Suites Mystic
- 5. Hilton Garden Inn Preston Casino Area
- 6. Bellissimo Grande Hotel
- 7. Holiday Inn New London - Mystic Area, an IHG Hotel
- 8. Microtel Inn & Suites By Wyndham Uncasville
- 9. Taber Inn And Suites
- 10. Howard Johnson by Wyndham Mystic
Top 10 Historic Sites in Mystic Country, Mystic Country
Discover the best top things to do in Mystic Country, United States including Prudence Crandall Museum, The Hempsted Houses, Lyme Art Association, Thames River Heritage Park, Thomas Lee House, Captain Nathaniel B. Palmer House, Florence Griswold Museum, Connecticut Impressionist Art Trail, New London Ledge Light, The Trumbull House.
Restaurants in Mystic Country
1. Prudence Crandall Museum
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 16 reviews
Prudence Crandall opened this school for young ladies in 1831 but was forced to close it in 1834 after it changed to an academy for black girls.
2. The Hempsted Houses
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 8 reviews
This landmark property tells the story of three great populations whose paths collided in early New London. They are the Native Americans who were here from the beginning, the Europeans who arrived in the 1600s, and the Africans who were enslaved and brought here about the same time. The site features two houses. One was built in 1678 by the son of one of New London's first European settlers after the defeat of the Pequots. The other was built in 1759 by a Hempsted descendant. Two enslaved people lived in the older house in the 1700s and very early 1800s. Other residents of the houses have included: -- A Revolutionary War hero of the Battle of Fort Griswold (1781) -- Some of the city's leading abolitionists from the 1840s.
3. Lyme Art Association
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 14 reviews
The Lyme Art Association is a vibrant art center with a diverse series of juried exhibitions throughout the year featuring representational art, with all works for sale by member artists. We have a busy schedule of affordable art classes and workshops. The architect of the gallery, built in 1921, was Charles A. Platt, designer of the Freer Gallery. In 1986 the building was named to the National Register of Historic Places and is situated in the hear of the Historic District of Old Lyme, Connecticut. Step through our iconic blue doors often - there is always something new on the walls at the Lyme Art Association!
Reviewed By paaronson - Santo Domingo, Caribbean
We visit about once a year. Exhibits rotate frequently and it's always a top quality. It's right next to the Florence Griswold Museum, which is another terrific destination and across the street from the Old Lyme Inn where we often stay to enjoy a dinner and a jazz performance at the Side Door Club located at the Inn.
4. Thames River Heritage Park
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 18 reviews
Hop aboard the Thames River Heritage Park Water Taxi! Our historic naval vessels transport riders to 3 landings on a hop on-hop off loop. Dogs and bikes are welcome! You may bring alcohol on board, but no glass, please. Adult round-trip tickets are $10 and children's tickets are just $5. Learn more and purchase your tickets here: bit.ly/TRHP_WaterTaxi We also offer a number of themed boat tours, including "Submarines, Battlefields & Betrayers: Military Stories on the Thames," "Suffragettes, Puppeteers, & Patriots: Women of the Thames," and "Revolutionary War Ghosts on the Thames." Tickets may be purchased here: bit.ly/BoatTours_TRHP The Thames River Heritage Park is a collection of cultural and historic landmarks in Groton and New London, Connecticut.
Reviewed By H9747AMjanc - Preston, United States
If you are a history buff, don’t miss this 90 minute tour. Learned more about the Groton/New London area during this tour than in all my years in school.
5. Thomas Lee House
6. Captain Nathaniel B. Palmer House
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 28 reviews
A National Historic Landmark located within walking distance to Stonington Borough. This 14-room Victorian Mansion built in 1852 gives visitors a fascinating view into mid-century shipbuilding, international trade, family life, and more. Captain Palmer is credited with sighting Antarctica. Visitors are welcome to stroll the entire property, tour the home, and climb the steps into the cupola for a spectacular view. Only $5 for adults; $3 for kids 17 and under. Open Fridays & Saturdays 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Reviewed By Seaside447595
The friendly and knowledgeable tour guide will tell you everything about everything in the house filled with history of a Captain who at 21 and on a small boat claims to have found Antarctica and his competitive younger siblings and some of their family who inhabited the house - a couple of nefarious ones too! The tour guide made this tour compelling and interesting for all ages including my two teens. Don’t forget to ask about the spirit who may still inhabit the house. And make sure you take a selfie with the large penguin that greets you by the front door.
7. Florence Griswold Museum
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 245 reviews
A 12-acre museum campus with a historic home museum, a modern art gallery with changing exhibitions, and gardens and river frontage along the delightful Lieutenant River. Visitors enjoy seasonal events including June's GardenFest and October's Wee Faerie Village. Discovery Sundays (April - September) give visitors of all ages the opportunity to take a mini-lesson in landscape painting and create their own masterpiece on the extensive grounds of the Museum. Visitors can enjoy lunch on the veranda at the outdoor Cafe Flo (May-October), and find unique gifts, exhibition catalogs and more at the Museum Shop. The Museum is named for Miss Florence Griswold, who at the turn of the 20th century opened her home as a boardinghouse which quickly became popular with American artists including Childe Hassam and Willard Metcalf. Museum docents share tales of the Lyme Art Colony and this home of American Impressionism. Check FlorenceGriswoldMuseum.org for a calendar of events and exhibitions.
Reviewed By kzsull01 - Windsor, United States
My husband and I visited the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut on Thursday, March 11, 2021. We enjoyed both the Special Exhibits and the Florence Griswold House, which are both very impressive and definitely worth seeing. This time we particularly enjoyed touring the Florence Griswold House because of the friendly docent/interpretive staff member at the house who provided great details about the house, including its restoration and its contents, about Florence Griswold and about interesting places to see while we were visiting the area. The information that she provided was quite helpful making the tour seem like a walk back through time. . We have come to the museum and house many times and have always enjoyed both the temporary Special Exhibits and the exhibits from the Permanent Collection, which change on an on-going basis. As always, we found our visit to be quite enjoyable, being informative, interesting and educational. Our current experience viewing the Special Exhibits and house is described in more detail in separate sections below. We recommend the museum and house and we hope that you have the opportunity to enjoy them as much as we have for a very nice mixture of art, history and nature, especially as reflected in the rural landscape paintings of New England. It is definitely worth the visit and we will go back again. All the overviews/write-ups within the museum, the house and other areas of the grounds are well done and nicely explain what is on exhibit. In the spring, the grounds are quite nice to walk around, and are a great place for artists to come and paint as Impressionists artists did in the past. But this was even true at the time of our visit, which was in early March. There are new trails to hike, including a River Walk and a Hedgerow Walk that we have not had the opportunity to explore but will during a future visit. Details about these trails are in the Visitors’ Guide. . Our visit this time took a little over an hour. There was plenty of free parking in the designated parking area. Please refer to the below for further details about our visit. Although there was no orientation film to watch before our visit at this time as there has been in the past, the write-ups in the house as well as the docent/interpretive staff member provided a very good overview from a historical perspective of Florence Griswold, her home and about the Old Lyme Art Colony. We thank the museum for being open during their normal hours throughout the pandemic and for not having reduced hours as many other museums have had. The only issue we had was with the Timed Tickets. The on-line process was a bit complex. Also, we prefer more flexibility in terms of the time we have to arrive at the museum to visit. We got tickets for 10:30 a.m.. We left our house in order to arrive early but due to construction on Route 9 we were delayed for about 25 minutes and arrived in the later part of the 15 minute time slot that the tickets applied to. This was a bit stressful and we would have preferred more flexibility, perhaps having the time range for the tickets apply to a longer period of time. Although we had no issues being admitted into the museum, we did not like the stress of having to arrive at the museum by a specific time because we didn’t want to be late. Special Exhibits: The Special Exhibit: ‘Expanding Horizons; Celebrating 20 Years of the Hartford Steam Boiler (HSB) Collection’ expanded on the museums focus on landscape paintings by American Tonalist and Impressionist artists from the Old Lyme Art Colony to include canonical American portraits, still lifes, figurative compositions, narrative scenes and landscapes painted by Connecticut artists working in other locations. The exhibit interestingly illustrated new methods of research and interpretation and the importance of connecting the narrative lessons of historical works of art with changes that happened in our contemporary world. Hence, the exhibit addressed issues very relevant to current times. New methods and approaches to American Art, including Ecocritical Approaches; Thing Theory; “New Materialism”; new ethical museum practices for structural transparency in museums; and new ways of looking at landscape paintings, identity, and hidden histories in art are all presented in the exhibit with very informative overviews/write-ups and very nicely done corresponding artwork. This exhibit is well done and quite educational. Interesting, intriguing, and thought-provoking concepts were explained within the different sections of the exhibit. Below I mention some of the information that I got from the overviews/write-ups pertaining to each section, to give you an idea of what these concepts are based on my understanding of them, but the write-ups say a lot more than what I mentioned below and should be definitely read if you have the opportunity. Please note that this information is just from the overviews and not from the individual pieces of art. So there is really a lot of information to absorb!!. . ‘Thing Theory’ examines subject-object relationships in art based on the assumption that objects – their materials, construction, physical lives – hold knowledge about human history, culture and nature. Examining works of art based on this theory can take a variety of forms with the goal of a more nuanced understanding of objects within their historical context. Ecocritical Approaches to American Art is interdisciplinary, studying the physical environment and its relationship with other aspects of society and culture. This approach can be applied to historical art and ideas to learn about their environmental significance, both in the past and present. The ‘Revealing Hidden Histories’ Section raises awareness surrounding ethical museum practices and the need for structural transparency in museums. Prior to the HSB Collection the museum had articles primarily created from the largely male Lyme Art Colony. The HBS Collection showcases artwork from more diverse populations in Connecticut, which is a priority of the Museum going forward. New collaborative research has expanded art historical inquiry, allowing the potential for multiple perspectives, interpretations and meanings to surface all within one picture. This section taps on histories of land ownership, labor, food and music that intersect with issues of race. The ‘New Lenses on Landscape’ Section interestingly provides background on how Art History has historically included understanding concepts of place, property and national identity with recent studies focusing on social and environment frameworks. Definitions of “American Art” landscape painting are being expanded to a more global approach reflecting the nuances of artists’ international travels, networks and exchanges, The exhibit shows paintings created abroad that focus on issues of artistic process, public taste and histories of colonialism while the paintings created in Connecticut focus on narratives about land ownership, war, urbanization, and fine art’s intersection with mass culture. The ‘Inquiring into Identity’ Section explains how Identity is a construction shaped by culture, individuals and images created by artists and non-artists. As we become more aware of social disparities, inequalities and injustices, it is useful to look to historical art for the cues, roots and lessons of those narratives. This specific section analyzes identity through considerations of landscape, portraiture and still life to help better understand history, its people and experience and the need for works of art to require contextualization. The Special Exhibit: ‘Centennial of the Lyme Art Association Gallery’ is a very nice tribute to the historical significance of the gallery, and to the role that the original Lyme Art Colony largely male members, Florence Griswold, and women painters, among others, played in the creation of the Lyme Art Association Gallery. Revisiting the origins of this art gallery allows an examination of the economics of art and tourism, local history, the impact of World War I and reactions to modernism, and even censorship as the former artists chose what and who should be represented in this gallery. This gallery definitely has a very interesting history and the exhibit nicely depicts that. What I found of particular interest is the evolving role that women played in the gallery, including that Florence Griswold transitioned from art colony matron to be the L.A.A. first gallery manager!! This exhibit was very interesting and well done. . The Florence Griswold House: We then went to the Florence Griswold House, which was built in beautiful Late Georgian architecture. As mentioned previously, the interpretive staff member/docent within the house was very friendly and provided helpful information about what was on display in the house as well as helpful hints about interesting places to visit in the area. . The multiple rooms in the house on the first floor are well restored to the time period of the Art Colony, nicely depicting what the artists would have experienced during their stay. The rooms include Florence Griswold’s bedroom; the Art Colony parlor; an Art Colony member’s bedroom; the Dining Room; a cupboard room with beautiful dishes; and main entry hallway and staircase with each room very nicely arranged and having an informative write-up about it. The furnishings in the house are from the time period of the Art Colony and are beautiful, but are not all actually authentic to the house. The series of wall and door panels painted by the artists of the colony are very impressive and all well preserved. What we missed, but have seen during previous visits, was the film shown in the room on the right as you enter the hallway to the house which included actual footage of Florence Griswold walking through her gardens while she was living in the house in 1935, when she was eighty-five years old. This film was quite unique and nice to see. The second floor of the house has multiple rooms with Impressionist, Tonalist and miniature paintings and sketches painted by members of the Art Colony, with the art representing a subjective interpretation of nature and the surrounding Lyme landscapes, providing a very nice touch of spring. These paintings have harmonious colors, with delicate effects of light, showing rural life with great sensitivity and personal feeling. There is a room devoted to Florence Griswold and information on the restoration of the house and gardens which was quite interesting. Touring the house is like a walk back through time. All the write-ups within the house are quite educational and nicely explain the art on display and reflect the historic significance of the house and the Art Colony. I particularly liked the write-ups about each room in the house as well as those about the ‘Art Colony of Old Lyme’, including the corresponding picture of its members; the ‘Welcome to Florence Griswold’s Boardinghouse for Artists’; ‘Childe Hassam and the American Impressionists’, ‘Henry Ward Ranger and His Tonalist Circle’; ‘the Painted Sketch’; ‘the Landscape of Lyme’; and ‘Replanting an Old-Fashion Garden’.. We enjoyed this museum. It had a lot to offer and provides a good perspective of what the artists would have experienced during their visits to the Art Colony. Again, we recommend a visit to this museum and definitely will go back again soon, as we have always done in the past. We only wish that we lived closer to this museum! A library pass may be available at your local library for free admission into this museum, a rather nice bonus! This time we used the ‘CT Art Trail’ Passport Booklet.
8. Connecticut Impressionist Art Trail
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 3 reviews
Established in 1993, this trail is comprised of 12 museums and historic sites around Connecticut where one can view American Impressionist paintings.
9. New London Ledge Light
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 34 reviews
The Ledge Light Foundation is an all-volunteer non-profit organization that has been responsible for restoration and preservation of Ledge Light for 30 years. In 2014, dedicated volunteers from the Foundation wrote the application to the GSA/NPS for the New London Maritime Society to obtain ownership in an effort to keep Ledge Light in local hands. The Ledge Light Foundation continues its work under this new ownership. The Foundation continues the upkeep, restoration and preservation of Ledge Light maintaining an Interpretive Center within the lighthouse complete with historic and photographic exhibit panels in most rooms, a theater showing a compelling documentary about its history, a furnished keeper's room and a gift shop. Tours run to the lighthouse and visit INSIDE during the summer months in partnership with Project Oceanology using their boat. The tours are run solely by the Ledge Light Foundation and are the only tours that take visitors inside the light. As the Maritime Society owns the building, that's as a landlord only. They have nothing to do with the restoration work which is all-volunteer and done by the Ledge Light Foundation. The Maritime Society is only the landlord. Please direct any inquiries to our website. The Maritime Society knows nothing about the tours or the work done. Visit our website tour page for information about the Foundation and to purchase tickets for tours.
10. The Trumbull House
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 3 reviews
The home of Connecticut's Revolutionary War governor.
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