Lakeville, Connecticut

Lakeville is a village in Litchfield County, Connecticut, bordering Dutchess County, New York. It is part of the Town of Salisbury but it has its own zip code (06039). It is southwest of Salisbury Village on U.S. Route 44. The Hotchkiss and Indian Mountain Schools are located in Lakeville.

History

Until 1846, Lakeville was called "Furnace Village", due to the location there of one of the early blast furnaces of the historic Salisbury iron industry (one of which was established in the 1760s by future Revolutionary War hero Ethan Allen). Benjamin B. Hotchkiss, inventor of the Hotchkiss gun was born in nearby Watertown. A boarding school in his name, the Hotchkiss School, was founded by his widow Maria Bissell Hotchkiss in Lakeville in 1891. It later became coeducational. Lakeville is also the home of Indian Mountain School which is a boarding school for students Pre-K through 9th. It was founded in 1922.

It was also the original home to what would eventually relocate and become the Mansfield Training School, an institution for mentally retarded residents of Connecticut from 1860 to 1993.

Other notable events

Lakeville is the site of Connecticut's oldest cold case. Camp Sloane camper Connie Smith left the camp on Indian Mountain Road on the morning of July 16, 1952. She was ten years old and was from Sundance, Wyoming; she was the granddaughter of former Wyoming Governor Nels H. Smith. Several people observed her walking and hitchhiking toward the center of Lakeville. She was last seen walking along Route 44 near the intersection of Belgo Road. Her disappearance sparked one of the largest searches ever conducted by the Connecticut State Police. Despite a nationwide search, she was never found, and foul play is suspected. Her case remains open and still has a detective assigned to it.[1]

Local Institutions

New England's oldest Methodist congregation is in Lakeville.[2]

Lime Rock Park is a motorsport race track that hosts sports car and stock car races.

Notable Residents

In the early 1950s, the well-known Belgian-French writer Georges Simenon resided for several years in Shadow Rock Farm, a large house in Lakeville. The town forms the background for Simenon's novel La Mort de Belle (The Death of Belle), depicting its small town quiet life being shattered by the (fictional) murder of a young girl. It was later adapted to film, released as Passion of Slow Fire, or The End of Belle.[3]

Harpsichordist Wanda Landowska was a resident of Lakeville from 1949 until her death in 1959. Bandleader Artie Shaw and his wife actress Evelyn Keyes moved here in 1959. In the beginning they were both retired from their professions living in their large 25 room lakefront house overlooking Lake Wononskopomuc. A few years later they moved to New York to pursue vocational interests (Artie wheeling and dealing in business deals and Evelyn auditioning for Broadway roles), but usually spent weekends back in Lakeville.

From the 1970s onward, Nobel Economics Laureate Wassily Leontief made his summer home here.

Academy Award-nominated actress Jill Clayburgh lived in Lakeville and spent her last days there, before dying in her Lakeville home on November 5, 2010.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Dooling, Michael C. Clueless in New England: The Unsolved Disappearances of Paula Welden, Connie Smith and Katherine Hull. The Carrollton Press, 2010.
  2. ↑ Williams, Nancy Pollock (September 18, 2009). "Lakeville UMC Celebrates History as It Rethinks Church". Archived from the original on September 25, 2010. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  3. ↑ "AllMovie – Movies and Films Database – Movie Search, Ratings, Photos, Recommendations, and Reviews". Retrieved 13 October 2016.

Coordinates: 41°57′52.3″N 73°26′26.8″W / 41.964528°N 73.440778°W / 41.964528; -73.440778

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