State Police and the Benjamin Franklin School
Ridgefield, Connecticut
Looking Towards East Ridge from Governor Street, the four buildings on the hill have been an important part of Ridgefield's landscape for the last 100 years. On the left is the George Rockwell home, which, with the house next door was once the Vinton School for Girls. By the 1920s, the Connecticut State Police moved into the Rockwell house and made it their home for the next 50 years. When they relocated to Southbury it became the headquarters for the Ridgefield Police Department. The three buildings to the south of the police station remain private residences.
The Cornerstone for the new Benjamin Franklin Grammar School was laid on July 4, 1914 during a day-long celebration. The school opened in 1915, and its former home on Bailey Avenue was turned into the Alexander Hamilton High School. The high school was moved to East Ridge in the 1920s, the building enlarged, and its name changed to Ridgefield High School. In 2001 the old high school building officially became the Richard E. Venus municipal building honoring a man who was a former postmaster, dairyman, selectman, columnist, musician, master-storyteller and Ridgefield's first town historian.
Marker is at the intersection of Governor Street and East Ridge Street, on the right when traveling east on Governor Street.
Courtesy hmdb.org
