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Topsmead Visitor Information and Trail Map CT Dept of Energy & Environmental Protection Volunteer Opportunities: Gardens, Bird Tours, Educational Programming, and more! Tree Renewal Fund Memorial Tree Program |
In 1917, Edith Morton Chase received a gift from her father, 16 acres of pristine woods in the Litchfield hills. Today, Topsmead is a 510 acre state forest, gifted from Ms. Chase in 1972 to the citizens of Connecticut to enjoy and preserve. Her legacy includes diverse landscapes, including bike and nature trails, formal gardens, unique bird habitats, and a meticulously crafted English Tudor style cottage well appointed with her international collection of art and antiques. ...more
Our MissionFriends of Topsmead State Forest (FTSF) is a volunteer non-profit 501(c)(3) organization whose purpose is to work with the State of Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP) to provide programs and activities to promote, preserve, protect, and maintain the history, heritage and environmental integrity of Topsmead, thereby supporting the wishes of Edith Morton Chase as put forth in her will.
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This documentary film chronicles the history of Topsmead, the summer estate of Edith Morton Chase, through archival photographs and beautiful film footage. The 20 minute film also features interviews with Topsmead historian Jerry Geci, and with Robert Orintas, the son of Miss Edith's chauffeur, who for several decades spent his summers there. The breathtaking aerial footage showcases the expansive Topsmead State Forest meadows and woodlands and the Tudor revival style, Cotswold "cottage”, an unusually well-preserved home of a bygone era that remains today essentially as it was when Miss Edith Chase owned the estate.
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Hopeful that the worst of the pandemic is behind us, the Friends of Topsmead State Forest are preparing to provide additional docents to supplement the DEEP staff for tours of the Chase Cottage this year. Tours of the Chase Cottage are offered Saturdays and Sundays June through mid-October. Volunteers will be responsible to guide several small groups of visitors through the house on assigned days. Training will be required before volunteer docents conduct tours. Volunteers with an interest in history, architecture, English antique furnishings, Edith Chase, or Lucy & Mary Burrall may find this an especially rewarding opportunity. Our goal is to help the public appreciate Edith Chase’s vision for Topsmead, the life she and the Burrall sisters enjoyed there, and the legacy she left for all of us to enjoy. Please email Jenny Riggs at riggsja@comcast.net by April 30th if you’re interested in learning more about this volunteer opportunity.
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Topsmead Events
Scroll down for a listing of all our events!
Lectures on the Lawn
Our popular nature and Topsmead history Lecture Series returns! The events are free and take place outside on the lawn behind Chase Cottage unless otherwise indicated. Bring a blanket or lawn chair for comfort. Please check back here updates.
by Margaret Hunt
From the archives | Edith Chase likely took this one herself of the birchhes and jonquils in April | colorized by Laurel
Don't be Fooled! April 2021
The yellows have arrived at Topsmead—forsythia along the path down to the pond, daffodils scattered along the lanes—accented by mini-carpets of blue, star-shaped snow glories unrolled in the green of the lawn around Miss Edith’s cottage. Random groups of brave picnickers are popping up on the lawn when the sun and the temperature are just right. Topsmead’s very own DEEP personnel, almost done cleaning up the tree damage wrecked by the windy, icy hands of old man winter, scoot around the property in their orange Kuboda vehicle. Handsome new white gates welcome visitors, and the muddy driveway of March has finally dried out.
But wait....
-more Musings-
But wait....
-more Musings-
Keep Topsmead in mind when shopping on Amazon. Click HERE to set "Friends of Topsmead State Forest" as your default AmazonSmile charity and Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchases to Topsmead.
