Map of Old Lyme, Connecticut in 2026

If you grew up in Old Lyme, or you’ve ever walked Lyme Street past the tall columns of the Florence Griswold House, you’ll find your town on this map just as it stands in 2026. Look for your road. Lyme Street, Halls Road, Boston Post Road, Shore Road, Old Post Road, Town Woods Road, Saunders Hollow Road, Huntley Road, Burr Road, Flat Rock Road and White Sands Road are all printed by name, along with many more.

Old Lyme is in New London County, where the Connecticut River meets Long Island Sound.

KNOWOL made this map in 2026 from public survey data, and gave it the look of an old atlas. The shaded land, from the rocky hills in the north down to the marshes and the beaches at Point O’Woods, comes from United States Geological Survey elevation data. The streets and the town line come from the Census Bureau, right down to roads like Flat Rock Hill Road. South Lyme, Laysville, Jericho, Black Hall, Old Lyme Shores, Sound View, White Sands Beach and Miami Shores are printed by name. A guide of 34 numbered landmarks runs along the bottom, with the National Historic Landmark and the National Register sites marked, and we checked those against National Park Service records.

The Oldest Part of Lyme

Old Lyme sits on the east bank of the Connecticut River, across from Old Saybrook. It was one of the early settlements of the Puritan Saybrook Colony, and the name comes from Lyme Regis, a small port in Dorset, England, where some of the early settlers came from. Lyme was set off from Saybrook in 1665, and this was its first town center. In 1855 the southern part split away as South Lyme. That’s the year on the title panel: Incorporated 1855. Two years later it took the name Old Lyme, because it holds the oldest-settled part of the Lymes.

The village along Lyme Street grew up beside the Lieutenant River, just before it flows into the Connecticut. In the 1700s and 1800s it was a shipbuilding center, and Lyme Street still has several homes once owned by sea captains. The south of town is mostly flat, laced with tidal marsh, while the north is rocky and hilly.

Lyme Street

The guide marks the whole village as the Old Lyme Historic District (13), listed on the National Register in 1971. It runs along Lyme Street from Interstate 95 south to McCurdy Street, and its houses range from the early 1700s to the late 1800s. At the south end are the Old Lyme Green (5) and the First Congregational Church (30). Samuel Belcher, a master builder and shipwright, designed the town’s meeting house in 1817. It burned in 1907, and the church that stands today is a replica built in 1913. Artists have pictured the church many times, most notably Childe Hassam.

The town’s civic buildings are in the village too. The Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library (15) is where the artists of Old Lyme held their first exhibition in the summer of 1902, a two-day show of landscapes of the countryside around them. Old Lyme Town Hall (24), Center School (4), the Old Lyme Historical Society (29) and Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School (32) are all within a short walk, and Lyme-Old Lyme High School (31) is a little way east.

At the north end, where Sill Lane meets the Boston Post Road, is the Peck Tavern (20). Its date is unknown, but it’s believed to go back to the first half of the 1700s and may hold parts of a house that stood here about 1680. John Peck bought it about 1769, and it was a busy stop on the old post road. George Washington visited in April 1776 on his way from Boston to New York. Inside, its old taproom survives, with the original tavern sign from the 1700s on display. It’s a private home now.

Miss Florence and the Art Colony

At 96 Lyme Street is the Florence Griswold Museum (11). Samuel Belcher designed the house for William Noyes, and it was built in 1817, with four tall Ionic columns across the front. Florence Griswold ran it as a boardinghouse, and from about 1900 it was the center of the Old Lyme Art Colony. Henry Ward Ranger started it: he visited in 1899 and came back the next year with other painters. Childe Hassam, Willard Metcalf and many more followed, and the colony played an important part in American Impressionism. Hassam called a visit to Old Lyme and Miss Florence’s “an excursion to Bohemia.”

The artists painted on the walls and doors of the house, and 41 painted panels survive in the downstairs rooms. Matilda Browne, the only woman invited to paint one, was given Miss Florence’s own bedroom door. The house became a National Historic Landmark in 1993, and the guide lists it a second time under that name, as the Florence Griswold House and Museum (34). The museum is known for its collection of American Impressionist art, and its 12-acre grounds hold gardens and walking trails along the Lieutenant River.

Right next door is the Lyme Art Association (9). The artists founded it in 1914, bought land from Florence Griswold just south of her house, and opened their gallery there in 1921, designed by the architect Charles A. Platt. In 1976 the sculptor Elisabeth Gordon Chandler founded the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts (28), a school for figure drawing, sculpture and illustration, a short way down the street. The Roger Tory Peterson Estuary Center (33), close by, is the Connecticut Audubon Society’s center for the Connecticut River estuary.

Along the River

The Duck River runs through the Old Lyme Cemetery and into the Connecticut at Watch Rock, and the guide marks Watch Rock Preserve (8) south of the village. Ferry Landing State Park (10) is to the west, and the Great Island Nature Area (27) is farther south. In the northwest of town, on Tantummaheag Road, is the Captain Enoch Lord House (14), also called the Red House. It was built about 1748 on 8 acres overlooking Lord’s Cove, and it was moved to its present spot in the 1860s. The Lord family had held land here since William Lord, a leader of the Saybrook Colony, acquired it in 1648.

Springbank (3), on Neck Road, is a country estate whose brick house was built in 1844 by Thomas Pilgrim, who owned a landing on the river. In the 1930s it was restyled in the Colonial Revival manner, and the landscape architect Marian Cruger Coffin laid out its terraced formal gardens. It was listed on the National Register in 2001.

The Shore

Old Lyme’s shore is lined with summer beach communities, among them Point O’Woods, Hawk’s Nest and Miami Beach, where several hundred people rent cottages from late May to mid-October. The guide marks White Sand Beach (6), Miami Beach (2) and Soundview Beach (22), and the Black Hall Club (21) is near White Sand Beach. Mile Creek School (23) and the Cross Lane Recreation Area (12) sit side by side to the east, and the guide also lists the South Lyme Post Office (26).

In the north of town, Town Woods Park (7), Hains Park (1) and High Hopes Therapeutic Riding (16) are close together. Rogers Lake, which Old Lyme shares with Lyme, is held back by a dam on Town Woods Road. It covers 265 acres, has five small islands, and is stocked with trout every year.

One more stop belongs on the list. The Nut Museum (19) was the creation of the artist Elizabeth Tashjian, who opened it in 1972 in her Gothic Revival mansion, filled it with her own pictures of nuts and nutcrackers, and promoted it on the talk shows of Johnny Carson and David Letterman. The collection was later moved out and the house sold. The guide also lists the Shell Marina (18), the Old Lyme Police and Resident Trooper (17) and the Old Lyme Post Office (25).

This map of Old Lyme makes a handsome addition to a living room, office, library or den, and it can even help teach children the geography and history of the town. It’s a thoughtful gift for anyone who calls Old Lyme home, grew up here, or moved away. Created by KNOWOL in 2026, it’s printed on museum quality archival paper in three sizes. Zoom in on the preview above to explore the details, then click here to get your copy of the Old Lyme map.

Sources

• Old Lyme, Connecticut, Wikipedia
• Old Lyme Historic District, Wikipedia
• Old Lyme Historic District, National Register nomination, National Park Service
• Peck Tavern, Wikipedia
• Florence Griswold Museum, Wikipedia
• Lyme Art Association, Wikipedia
• Lyme Academy of Fine Arts, Wikipedia
• Connecticut Audubon Society, Wikipedia
• Captain Enoch Lord House, Wikipedia
• Springbank (Old Lyme), Wikipedia
• Elizabeth Tashjian, Wikipedia