Historic Town Green

Drive along the Old Post Road in the center of Fairfield and you will pass a wide, open green that has anchored the town for nearly four hundred years. This is the Historic Town Green, the colonial heart of Fairfield and the common that the town’s founders set aside back in the 1600s. Today it forms the Museum Commons, a campus where centuries of local history sit side by side with a living civic center.

Where Fairfield Began

Fairfield was founded in 1639, and its town center was laid out in the classic New England pattern of four squares, one of which became this common. The green has witnessed the whole arc of the town’s story, including the day in 1779 when British troops burned much of Fairfield during the Revolution. The town rebuilt around this very spot, which is part of why the buildings here carry so much meaning.

What Rings the Green

A slow loop around the green is a walk through Fairfield’s past. The Old Town Hall, rebuilt in 1794 after the original was lost, still serves as the town’s civic center. The Sun Tavern, built around 1780, once welcomed travelers along the Post Road and is said to have hosted George Washington during his 1789 tour of New England. The Fairfield Museum and History Center anchors the campus with more than four centuries of stories, and a short walk away the Old Burying Ground holds headstones dating back to the town’s earliest families.

Still the Center of Town

The green is not a museum piece. It is still where Fairfield gathers, most visibly each winter for the town’s holiday tree lighting and Winter Whimsy, and again at Halloween for trick or treat around the green. On an ordinary afternoon it is simply a beautiful, walkable place to slow down and take in the history all around you.

If you are getting to know Fairfield, this is the spot I always point people to first. Stand on the green for a few minutes and you can feel how much history is packed into one small square.