Town of Ridgefield looks to preserve Revolutionary War battle site, block townhouse proposal
A development project in Ridgefield would bring 15 townhouses to the site of one of Connecticut's most important Revolutionary War battles. Now, the town and historical society are hoping to raise the money to buy the land and control its future.
The colonial home that sits at 563 Main St. in Ridgefield may look like any old house, but it sits on a historically significant site—where a major clash in the battle of Ridgefield went down in 1777.
“This property has come to be much more important than we ever dreamed,” said First Selectperson Rudy Marconi. “It was the only inland battle fought in Connecticut during the entire Revolutionary War. This is where we fought for our freedom, to be free of England.”
“Benedict Arnold amassed a group of Patriots here and built a barricade at this location to try and prevent the British, who'd just burned Danbury, from proceeding south to their ships at Compo Beach,” explained Stephen Bartkus, executive director of the Ridgefield Historical Society. “It was an incredibly fierce battle that took place here. Many people were wounded and lost their lives, so this is hallowed ground, and the Ridgefield Historical Society is working to try and preserve this important site.”
That means raising money to purchase the land and prevent proposed development. The current plan calls for restoring the current home and building townhouses around it.
“We're facing a 15-unit New York-based condo development wiping it out from our heritage. We can’t let that happen,” stated historian and author Keith Marshall Jones III, the Ridgefield Historical Society’s founding president. “Connecticut has been left out of the entire battlefield part of the American Revolution, and Ridgefield is the one battle where the militia stood and fought a British army larger than at Lexington, Concord or George Washington's amazing victories at Trenton and Princeton, and that belongs in part of the mainstream narrative of the War for Independence.
Work to study the battlefield has been years in the making. It all began in 2019 when the renovation of a nearby home on Main Street unearthed skeletal remains under the foundation of the 18 century house. The conclusion was the remains were Revolutionary War soldiers buried in an unmarked grave after the Battle of Ridgefield. That led the Ridgefield Historical Society to receive two grants from the National Park Service for surveys, mapping and field tests on hundreds of acres.
“We're using metal detectors to look for battle related objects such as musket balls, equipment, buttons, buckles, things of that nature,” said Kevin McBride, one of the archeologists with Heritage Consultants, which was hired for the Battle of Ridgefield Archeology Project.
“It's expanding our knowledge of the battlefield in ways we didn't expect. And ultimately, it's going to allow us to list the battlefield on the National Register of Historic Places,” said Bartkus.
Through metal detection, ground penetrating radar and shovel test pits, the team has found over 350 artifacts related to the battle, according to McBride. He said metal detecting at 563 Main St. last week uncovered some musket balls, buttons and a lead flint wrap.
“It has shown that it will yield battle-related objects, and there's probably more there,” McBride said.
The asking price for the property is $3.75 million if the town and historical society can get the money together within six months, Marconi told News 12. Otherwise, the cost will rise.
If the town is successful, Marconi expects there would be a lot more geological exploration on the property. He said the hope would be to one day have a museum there dedicated to the Battle of Ridgefield.
“We are steep in history. We've always known that here in Ridgefield. This is yet another layer to add to that, a very very important one that we need to preserve forever,” Marconis stated.
Donations are being accepted to help purchase and preserve the Main Street Site. Checks can be made out to Main Street Battlefield Preservation and mailed to Ridgefield Town Hall, Finance Department, 400 Main Street, Ridgefield, CT, 06877.
The Ridgefield Historical Society is also creating a documentary on the Battle of Ridgefield. You can check out the trailer here.
