Weston's America 250 Year Ends With Ghosts, Witches and a Patriot Mom

Weston's semiquincentennial started out festive. Spring brought history talks in April and a Colonial Encampment in May. On July 4 there was a live reading of the Declaration of Independence and a national bell ringing, and in August came a family picnic with a concert and a historic tour. The fall programs that close out the year cover harder ground: fallen soldiers, a witch-hunt that came before Salem, and the pension process veterans and their widows faced after the war. Weston is ending its 250th with the costs of 1776.

How the Year Has Gone So Far

The Weston Celebrates America 250 Advisory Group, chaired by Jennifer Daniel, has been programming all year with the Weston History & Culture Center, the Arts Commission and Town Hall. The calendar so far:

Everything before October was mostly outdoors, in daylight and open to the whole family. Nearly everything still ahead happens after dark or behind a museum door.

Founders Day Seals the Year on October 15

Founders Day is Thursday, October 15, at 5 p.m. at Weston Town Hall. It marks the town's 239th birthday. In the October 2 Town Hall Happenings, the First Selectwoman wrote that this year's ceremony will honor the members of the advisory group "whose tireless work throughout the year has brought our town's history, values, and community spirit to life." The program also includes the official dedication of the 2026 Weston Time Capsule.

The time capsule has changed since the year began. The town's March kickoff notice described a capsule "burial" among the year's planned events. The October notice calls it a "dedication." The town hasn't published a list of what's inside or a date for opening it. Anyone hoping to learn either will probably have to be at Town Hall on Thursday evening.

Founders Day is also the last dated America 250 event on the town's own upcoming-events list. After that, the semiquincentennial carries on through partner organizations, and those partners chose much darker material.

Lachat Puts Its Halloween in October 1776

Lachat Town Farm has built its sixth annual immersive Halloween production around the anniversary. "Spirits of 1776" runs October 22 through 25 and sends audiences back to October 1776, "where the American Revolution is unfolding and danger lurks throughout the fields of the farm." The farm's event page carries this line:

The Revolution is past. The Haunting has just begun.

The show features ghostly battles of fallen soldiers and rebels, along with witches, tricksters and evil spirits. It's a 45-minute guided walk on wooded trails with live actors. Details for the night:

1. Park in the main lot at 106 Godfrey Road. The show starts at the Barn.
2. Shows begin at 6:30 p.m. and run every 20 minutes, with 25 people per time slot.
3. Late arrivals may not be admitted, and there are no refunds or exchanges.
4. The farm recommends the show for ages 12 and up. All children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult.
5. Expect strobe lighting, loud noises and intense scenes.
6. No dogs. The show goes on rain or shine and is rescheduled only for inclement weather.
7. Each $25 ticket includes a cup of cider, and proceeds support the farm's operating costs and educational programs.

The following week Lachat goes back further, to Edgar Allan Poe. Weston resident Daniel Gerroll performs an adults-only reading of "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Masque of the Red Death" on October 30 and 31 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Drinks, chocolates and a firepit gathering come first. Tickets are $35.

Connecticut Was Hanging Witches Before Salem

Lachat's show puts witches next to Revolutionary soldiers. Three days after it closes, the Weston History & Culture Center gives the colonial witch-hunt a full morning of its own. The Center's new Backstories & Breakfast speaker series opens Wednesday, October 28, with "Witches of Connecticut." According to the town's bulletin, Connecticut's trials and executions "predated the more famous Salem witch panic by over 40 years."

The speaker is Rebecca Gavin, Director of Education at the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History. She'll tell the stories of some of the women and men who were accused, tried and executed, and explain how Connecticut eventually stopped the accusations from spreading. Doors open at 9:30 a.m. and the talk starts at 10. A light seasonal breakfast is included. Admission is $10 for Center members and $15 for nonmembers, and registration is on the Weston History & Culture Center site.

Anyone who walks Lachat's trails on October 25 can hear the history behind those costumed witches at the Center three days later.

The Revolution, Told Through One North Fairfield Family

The quietest piece of Weston's 250th may also be the most local one. "Sarah Treadwell: Connecticut Mom, American Patriot" is in the Center's Visitor's Center. It tells the story of a woman who supported her family's active role in the Revolution. Her family lived in North Fairfield, a section of Fairfield that later became Weston and then Easton.

The exhibit leaves out battle maps and covers family and community roles, life after the war, and the pension process for veterans and veterans' widows. Mark Brennan curated it, with research help from the Historical Society of Easton. Funding came in part from a CT Humanities grant awarded in recognition of America's 250th.

Two other exhibits run alongside it until December 17. Local Patriots & Loyalists is a reminder that North Fairfield's neighbors didn't all take the same side, and a selection of Weston Middle School eighth graders' America250 artwork is also on display. The exhibits are open Thursdays and on the first and last Sundays of each month, from 1 to 4 p.m. They are closed on holidays and holiday weekends.

On the same visit, the Coley House shows Weston at a different wartime moment. Its first floor has been restored to 1941–1945, when three generations of the Coley family lived there. The Center says no other historic house museum in Connecticut is interpreted specifically to the 1940s. Guided tours run at 1, 2 and 3 p.m. on the same open days, and admission is $5 for adults and $3 for children 5 to 17. Children 4 and under and Center members get in free.

November Belongs to Weston's Own Calendar

While the anniversary exhibits stay open, November's dated events return to the town's regular rhythm.

• November 8, 4 p.m. Pianist Anthony Ratinov gives the first performance on the Weston Public Library's new Estonia grand piano in the Soundscapes series. Weston Today reports that the concert is free and seating is limited.
• November 23, 7 to 9 p.m. Norfield Grange holds a wreath-decorating party.
• November 26, noon to 3 p.m. Lachat Town Farm hosts its Thanksgiving Community Feast in the Offutt Center. Registration is $25 per person, children under 12 are free, and the feast is capped at 75 seats. Lachat asks for registration by Friday, November 20.

The Offutt Center, formally the Daniel E. Offutt III Education Center, opened in September 2023, according to Weston Today's report on the opening. It's Lachat's indoor space for year-round programs, with a gathering room and fireplace, an art studio and a demonstration kitchen. The Offutt name also shows up at the Coley House, whose restoration was funded in part by the Daniel E. Offutt, III Charitable Foundation Trust. So the farm where audiences walk through 1776 in October and the house that preserves the 1940s carry the same name.

Weston's 239th birthday falls in the nation's 250th year, and the town is marking both through the history its own institutions keep. At Jackie Davis & Team, we pay attention to the details that give a town like Weston its character, from Lachat's barn to the Coley House parlor. If you own a home here and want to know how that character shows up in its value, Request a Confidential Home Valuation, and we'll walk you through it with the same care.