The Old Lyme Witness Stones Project will install eight new Witness Stones—historical plaques commemorating the lives of enslaved and indentured African Americans and Native Americans who labored in the historic town of Lyme. In 2021 & 2022, the Project installed 30 plaques on Lyme Street and McCurdy Road. To deepen this untold story, Witness Stones this year will honor George, Cornelia, Neptune, Phyllis, York, Jack Freeman, Hagar Jeffrey, and Prince Griswold Crosley. The plaques will be placed in late May in the Black Hall section of Old Lyme.

The community will gather on the lawn of the Old Lyme Library to celebrate the third installation of Witness Stones in Old Lyme. The program offers music, poetry, and words from community partners. Guest speakers include Connecticut’s Poet Laureate Antoinette Brim-Bell; author, anthropologist, and genealogist Vicki Blue Sky Welch; and community historian and genealogist John Mills, as well as the Lyme-Old Lyme High School Select Singers.

THE OLD LYME WITNESS STONES PARTNERSHIP:  The Old Lyme Witness Stones Partnership’s goal is to expand the understanding of local history and honor the humanity and the contributions of those formerly enslaved in our community. The partnership’s founding members include the Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library, the Florence Griswold Museum, the Lyme-Old Lyme Schools, and the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme. Community partners include the Roger Tory Peterson Estuary Center, St. Ann’s Episcopal Church, Lymes’ Youth Service Bureau, and the Old Lyme Historical Society. The Partnership has received generous support from a Health Improvement Collaborative of Southeastern Connecticut (HIC) Partnership Grant for Racial Equity.