Milford's History Lives With Richard Platt

For Milford’s official city historian, Richard Platt, history is personal.

Platt’s family has lived in Milford since 1639, when it was first settled. "I’m descended from a number of Milford’s founders," he says.

His wife, Jane, also has deep roots here. "She’s descended on her father’s side from founders of New Haven," he notes.

Platt, 78, has been city historian since 1998. Of course, the history of his interest in history goes back long before that.

"I’ve always been interested in history," he says. When he was a boy growing up in Milford, his grandfather and his parents were actively involved in the Milford Historical Society.

His Story

Platt studied economics and political science at Yale University, and after he graduated in 1955, he spent four years in the Navy. He served as an officer on an amphibious transport ship in the Pacific, then on a radar picket ship off the New England coast keeping watch for Russian bombers.

After some additional graduate studies at Yale, he received his Master's of Arts degree in history from Wesleyan University in Middletown. By that time, he was already teaching history at East Haven High School, where he worked from 1960 to 1995.

Investing in Milford

During the 1970s, he was one of the organizers of Milford’s observances of the nation’s Bicentennial celebration. "We did an awful lot of stuff here in Milford," he says.

Events included a Bicentennial Ball, a special 4th of July ceremony and a stop by the Freedom Train, which carried original copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution around the country for people to see.

A commemorative book on Milford’s celebration was published. Platt says copies of that book are available at the Milford Library.

Preserving Local History

Platt became the city historian when he and other active preservationists worked to save the Downes House on North Street. The owner was letting the structure deteriorate so it would fall down and he could develop the property.

Platt says there is some question when it was built, either in the 1790s or earlier in the 1750s. But John Downes, who owned it, kept a diary from 1763 to 1810. "It gives a picture of life in Milford during that period," Platt says.

Downes served in the local militia, and he fought in two Revolutionary War battles -- the Battle of Brooklyn Heights and the Battle of Harlem Heights -- in 1776.

Platt says he and his wife have started a consulting company, Nutmeg Ancestry, to help people from Connecticut research their genealogy. They also work for lawyers looking for missing heirs in probate cases.

He would like to resign as city historian to spend more time on that genealogy research work. "But emergencies keep cropping up," he says.

Right now, he and other preservationists are trying to get the Planning & Zoning Commission to amend the Milford Center Design District and prohibit commercial development in the historic district.