Imagine yourself as an artist arriving at the Griswold boardinghouse.

If you were one of the hundreds of artists to make the journey from New York to Old Lyme to stay in the Griswold boardinghouse, your arrival might just fit the model below.

After your journey by train from the grit of New York City, you cross the Connecticut River via the ferry Colonial to the green countryside of Old Lyme. You arrive at the house by foot or by carriage with your traveling trunks and painting supplies. You enter the cool and shadowed hall of the house and are shown to your room to unpack your belongings.

 “Amid a setting of sycamores, cedars, elms, and willows, with a swift running brook in the foreground, the most beautiful house of all appeared, like a Greek temple, among the trees.”

~ Artist and Author Arthur Heming in his unpublished manuscript,
The Lions in the Lady’s Den

After settling into your room, you begin to meet your fellow artists. You might study some of the recently completed paintings that are hanging in the center hall, now a make-shift gallery.

Art Colony Bedroom, 2006
Photograph by Joseph Standart

Miss Florence shows you the parlor while recounting last evening’s musicale and warns of tonight’s rematch of the artists’ wiggle game competition.

You stand in the back hall waiting to escort Miss Florence in to lunch.

On your way to the dining room, you stop while Miss Florence searches her bedroom for a missing kitten, one she’ll surely convince you to adopt.

You enter the din of the dining room and gape at the colorful painted panels that surround the room. Silence. Miss Florence introduces you, and the artists shuffle their chairs around to make room at the table.

Welcome to the boardinghouse for artists.

Learn more about the Griswold boardinghouse by clicking the choices below:

• Intro
• Imagine Yourself
• Inside the House
• Outside the House
• Who's Who
• Painted Panels