Town Historian Leads Walking Tour Through Gales Ferry's Past

On a clear and crisp November afternoon, Ledyard Town Historian Kit Foster led a group of more than 30 people on a tour of historic Gales Ferry in quest to answer the question, "How does a village develop through its community buildings?"

"The idea first came about when I started researching various outbuildings and other accessory buildings in Gales Ferry that weren't houses," said Foster, who is author of the book, "Images of America: Ledyard and Gales Ferry. "When I was approached to do a tour this year, I wanted to make it something different from last year, so I decided to approach it from the angle of how these buildings came about."

The first stop on the tour was the Gales Ferry waterfront, which sparkled in the late afternoon sunlight.

"Since people once landed here on the ferry, there was reason to have something more than simply houses, and so from very early times there was a store here by the ferry. The waterfront once was the hub of the town, and so Gales Ferry kind of built up around it," Foster said.

With fallen leaves crunching underfoot, the tour continued past the town's first post offices and general stores, places that kept Gales Ferry residents connected with the outside world and each other.

Stops along the tour also included a two-room schoolhouse, the first library, and the cemetery. Of particular note was how the buildings and institutions changed hands and locations throughout Gales Ferry's history.

"It's interesting to see how the buildings moved from place to place until they finally got to where they are today. I couldn't believe how many times the post office moved," said Josh Peterson, a new Gales Ferry resident who attended the tour with his wife and daughter.

The tour also attracted old Gales Ferry residents. "I used to live in the Gales Ferry area and I've done a lot of the tours on my own before now, but this tour helped reinforce a lot of what I already knew about the town," said Linda Hardie, a resident of Ledyard.

On Nov. 21, Foster will hold a lecture on "Rivers, Roads, and Rails," describing how Ledyard and Gales Ferry developed around transportation. The lecture will take place at 2 p.m. at the Bill Library, 718 Colonel Ledyard Highway in Ledyard Center.