Rheumatoid Arthritis Support

Old Lyme is a community of about 7500 permanent residents, in addition to several thousand seasonal vacationers who occupy a seaside community of summer residences. It is located on the east bank of the Connecticut River at its confluence with the Long Island Sound, across the river from Old Saybrook on the west bank. The town is marked by independence, volunteerism, and a long-standing commitment to the arts. Numerous examples of Colonial and Federal architecture can be found throughout the town.

The town of Lyme was set off from Saybrook (now known as Deep River), which is on the west bank of the river mouth, on February 13, 1665. Old Lyme was later incorporated from Lyme in 1855, but Old Lyme contains the oldest-settled portion of the ''Lymes''. Old Lyme occupies about of shoreline, tidal marsh, inland wetlands and forested hills. Its neighbor to the north is the Town of Lyme and to the east, East Lyme. Other placenames from the same root are Hadlyme, Connecticut (north of Lyme) and South Lyme (a beach resort area of Old Lyme). The placename ''Lyme'' derives from Lyme Regis, a small port on the coast of

Dorset, England from which it is believed the early settlers migrated in the 17th Century. The picturesque Old Lyme Cemetery contains the graves of the original settlers.

The Florence Griswold House in Old Lyme housed an art colony for many years in the early 20th century to many prominent American Impressionist painters. The Lyme Art Colony included Childe Hassam, Edward Charles Volkert, Willard Metcalf, Wilson Irvine, and Henry Ward Ranger, among many others. These artists made Old Lyme a thriving art community, which still continues today. The Griswold House was transformed into an art museum, the Florence Griswold Museum, or affectionately called "Flo Gris", by residents of Old Lyme. Many American Impressionist paintings of the era are of subjects in and around the Griswold House and are featured in the museum, along with many other works and personal possessions of the artists who frequented there. The building of the Old Lyme Congregational Church is known for the many paintings that have been made of it, most notably by Childe Hassam.

The ''Lyme'' in Lyme disease was named after the town. It was discovered in 1975 after a mysterious outbreak of what appeared to be juvenile rheumatoid arthritis in children who lived in Lyme and Old Lyme, Connecticut.


Adapted from the Wikipedia article Old Lyme, Connecticut, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki