Main Street in the Late 1800s
Ridgefield, Connecticut
Looking south from Prospect Street, where the shops and offices of Yankee Ridge are today, stood homes at the beginning of the 20th century. From the left are the Osborn house, owned by Richard Osborn, owner of the Ridgefield Lumber Company; the home of Dr. Howard P. Mansfield; the Dauchy house, which was torn down in the 1960s to make way for a commercial building at 440 Main St.; and the Lannon house. Gone are the fields that existed back then and all but one of the elm trees that lined the street have died, victims of Dutch Elm disease.
The Indian Trading Post, “Tuppence” (ca. 1710), to the left of A & P in this photo, is believed to be one of the oldest surviving all wooden post and beam structures in Ridgefield. Its unusual center hall saltbox floor plan supported the public trading room in the front, living quarters at the rear and a warehousing area above. It operated for almost 250 years in various types of retailing in the village location, surviving centuries of surrounding modernization and the Great Fire of 1895. It was moved intact to southern Main Street in the 1940s, where it is now a restored private residence.
Marker is at the intersection of Main Street and Prospect Street, on the right when traveling north on Main Street.
Courtesy hmdb.org
