The Lebanon Baptist Church, founded in 1805, still meets in this Greek Revival church built in 1841 (pictures ca. 1906). A disasterous fire destroyed the house next to it in 1910. It was replaced by a Bungalow-style house.
Another view of the Lebanon Baptist Church, ca. 1906, shows a windmill just beyond the church. Windmills in rural areas supplied water by gravity from a tank halfway up the tower to farmhouses and barns before electric power was available.
This post card view of the home of Connecticut's Revolutionary War Governor Jonathan Trumbull Sr. is dated 1936. The house was built in ca. 1740. Today it is a museum administered by the Connecticut Daughters of the American Revolution.
The woodcut of the War Office, where Gov. Jonathan Trumbull met with the Council of Safety to plan the state's defense and supply provisions to the Continental Continental Army - drawn by John Warner Barber in 1835. It is now a museum owned by the CT Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.
The First Congregational Church in Lebanon is pictured in 1956. It was designed by Jonathan Trumbull Junior's brother, John Trumbull, the great artist of the American Revolution, and built 1804-1807. It is the only surviving example of his architectural work.
The aerial view of Lebanon's Grand Lake Lodge was taken in 1948. It was a popular resort on Route 207 across from Lake Williams until partially destroyed by fire around 1976. Now rebuilt, the resort continues as a spa.
Lebanon's Grange Hall, pictured in 1910, was built in 1885, as a cooperative store and meeting hall. The Grange movement provided agricultural advice and political muscle for the nation's farmers during the 19th century. It is now the Lebanon Green Market.
This post card of Lebanon's historic sites was produced prior to 1977, because it shows Jonathan Trumbull Junior's house before its restoration. There are now six museum buildings around the town green focusing on the tonw's rich agricultural and Revolutionary War heritage.
The First Congregational Church with its recessed arch and graceful spire was designed by the artist John Trumbull in 1804 and built 1804-1807. The high winds of the 1938 hurricane toppled the steeple into the nave; the church lay in ruins. The brick church was restored to the original Trumbull design, 1930-1954.
An early 1900s photo of the mile-long Lebanon green shows it much as it is today, a vast open space surrounded by historic homes and buildings. Farmers make hay in the meadowland, the only town green still in agricultural use. The green is a National Register District because of its association with the Revolutionary War.
A post card of historic sites around the Lebanon Green published in the early 1970s was redrawn in 1992. It shows the restored Jonathan Trumbull Jr. House, with the town broom shop in a temporary location. A new museum, where the broom shop was relocated, and the replanting of the diseased Pine Grove are recent changes.
Town Street in this early 1900s post card branches north around the little green. The old Lebanon Town Hall is behind the trees. The present Town Hall was built in 1968, and the street is now Trumbull Highway (Rt. 87). West Town Street is on the left, where the Grange Hall, now a local store, is located.
The tomb of Governor Jonathan Trumbull (1710-1785) is in the old Colonial burying ground, now called Trumbull Cemetery, on Route 207. Nearby are the graves of William Williams, signed of the Declaration of Independece, and many Revolutionary War soldiers. Many of the great Colonial gravestone carvers of eastern Connecticut are well represented here.
Redwood, the home of David Trumbull, was designed and built by Isaac Fitch, 1778-79, and was the headquarters for the French officers during the encampment of Lauzun's Legion, 1780-81. David's son Joseph, born here in 1782, was the third generation of the Trumbull family to become governor of Connecticut. L. P. Smith had a large apple orchard here in the early 1900's.
Rural Free Delivery was established in Lebanon in 1901, bringing smail service to outlying homes. One of the first routes was 23 miles over the old dirt roads. Penny postcards, like the one pictured here, were a cheap way for friends to keep in touch before the advent of local telephone service.
Built prior to 1748, this house was the adult home of William Williams, Signer of the Declaration of Indepdence. The post card, dating from about 1900, shows the rose trellises and pickett fences often added as adornment to old houses during the 19th century. The house, on the corner of Routes 87 and 207, has been restored.
A collection of post cards showing some of Lebanon's history.