Museum On The Green

The building that serves as our main museum was built between 1839 and 1840 as the Town House. It was built by Parley Bidwell, who probably designed it, as well. Mr. Bidwell had built the Methodist Church on High Street about 2 years earlier. We now know that building as the South Glastonbury Library.

The Museum is housed in the first Town Hall built in Glastonbury c. 1840, and served for 100 years. Before there was a separation of Church and State, the first Meeting House stood on this spot and served as both Church and Town House. It has been said that the Museum's building was built of ballast bricks, possibly from North Africa. Because there was more than one brickyard in Glastonbury, this may be not be the case. The adjacent cemetery is from the church. The first school was also located on the Green. Livestock grazed on the Town Green and the Militia practiced here. There was a pig pound on the edge of the Green, keeping pigs out of the crops and preventing the damage they did.

The exhibits cover the town from its Native American roots through European settlement up to the early 20th century.