SP Road Trip: Litchfield County, CT

G. W. Tavern, Washington, CT

With this post SP begins a new feature here on the site. SP Road Trips will highlight favorite places. (The original title was SP Roadie, but that was deemed a bridge too far.)

SP has been on sabbatical on the East Coast during these waning days of the summer of Aught-Nine. Business has called me East, so please don’t think this is some dilettante’s holiday. Well, truthfully, there has been a healthy mix of business and pleasure. What would life be without it? My good old friend CDL called last week with an invitation to his Connecticut  country house for the weekend. I accepted with pleasure as most people in New York jump at the chance to flee the smelly city in August. And who am I to turn down an invitation? So with that little information, I packed a bag for a weekend getaway.

Packing for a place you’ve never been is always a challenge and since I have been occupied with events and business meetings, I did not perform the usual queries and was completely in the dark about the place I was headed. Honestly, I didn’t even know the name of the town or even the general direction. The instructions were startlingly simple:  the car would leave at 6 pm Friday and there would be a party on Saturday night. My friend CDL is one of the preppiest fellows I know, so I had an inkling of what the dress code would be. Polo shirts, searsucker shorts, khakis and Sperry docks are a given. A Saturday night party — in Connecticut no less — means the uniform: blue blazer, polo or button down, Nantucket reds, and Gucci loafers. Easy. Into the bag, into the car, up the Hudson River and into the Connecticut country side.  And where did this surprise grab bag weekend getaway deliver me? Litchfield County, Connecticut.

Litchfield County, Connecticut is in the North-West corner of the state and is comprised of a dozen or so little towns in the Upper Housatonic Valley. And boy oh boy is it beautiful. Only about an hour and forty-five minutes from New York City it is a world — and time period – away from the throbbing metropolis.  Rolling hills, lush countryside and beautifully preserved houses are all that you see.

George Washington is a longtime favorite in the pantheon of our founding fathers. His courage, honor and civility are well noted. Now this may sound cliché to you,  but SP has never been afraid of being corny.  Apparently, the LC was one of our man Washington’s stamping grounds during the Revolutionary War. This house, I was told, is a famous GW watering  hole. Well, blow me down. (Perhaps they meant horse-watering hole, but we’re making history bend to fit our purpose here.) What is more perfectly SP than the place where our famous forefather whetted his whistle? I knew I was at home.  Now before you roll your eyes with a “Oh Lord, here he goes again pouring two fingers of a boozy story.” No, it is very interesting to mention, don’t you think?

GW’s recreational drinking notwithstanding, what makes this place Litchfield County so special? Rolling hills, the sense of pre-America, history, prep schools out the wazoo, running rivers and creeks, Lake Waramaug, 18th century farms and 19th century Greek Revival houses,  covered bridges and waterfalls, water mills, the Mayflower Inn, the G. W. Tavern and a healthy social life if you choose to partake. What more could one ask for? If you go, be sure to raise a glass to Uncle George and his fellow patriots. The LC is one of those places where America began and thanks to the kind hand of fate, it has escaped the march of modernity and maintained her dignity. And for that we are very grateful.