Lakeville (Salisbury, Connecticut)

Lakeville is a village in Litchfield County, Connecticut, bordering Dutchess County, New York. It has its own zip code (06039) and post office. The Hotchkiss and Indian Mountain Schools are located in Lakeville.

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.

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.

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.

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