City: Litchfield, CT

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (860) 567-4501

Address: 82 South St.

Insider Pick:

Description: This large taupe house rambles back to a barn, with a small building the size of a one-room schoolhouse on the side. And in a way, that is what it is. In 1773 Tapping Reeve and his new wife, Sally Burr, settled in Litchfield, where Reeve began practicing law. He instructed several men from town, established a reputation, and soon began America’s first formal law school. You can “attend” the school as a young student from Revolutionary times, a really fun experience in living history. From here, walk the streets of this 1720 hill town on the great old-fashioned sidewalks that sit well back from the road. Check out the Oliver Wolcott Library just to the south of Tapping Reeve, marvel at the huge sycamores and beeches, and don’t forget to take a picture of the huge Congregational church on the green. It’s the most frequently photographed church in Connecticut, and one of the most photographed in America. Stop by the Litchfield Historical Society on the opposite corner, then walk north of the green on the west side of Route 3, past the 19th-century mansions, up to the place where Lyman Beecher’s house stood. Here he wrote his criticisms of slavery that helped spark the abolition movement.