Mill Hill Historic Park
Fitch law office building ca. 1740
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| Details | |
|---|---|
| Established | 1767 |
| Location |  2 Wall StreetNorwalk, Connecticut |
| Country |
 United States of America United States
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| Coordinates | 41°07′03″N 73°24′34″W / 41.1175°N 73.4095°WCoordinates: 41°07′03″N 73°24′34″W / 41.1175°N 73.4095°W |
| Type | Historic site |
| Website | Mill Hill Historic Park |
| Find a Grave | Mill Hill Historic Park |
Mill Hill Historic Park in Norwalk, Connecticut is a living history museum composed of three buildings: the circa 1740 Governor Thomas Fitch IV "law office", the circa 1826 Downtown District Schoolhouse, and the 1835 Norwalk Town Hall; as well as a historic cemetery also called the Town House Hill Cemetery. The museum is also known as the Mill Hill Historical Complex in some references and the sign at the parking lot reads Norwalk Mill Hill Museum.
The Mill Hill Park is now maintained by the Norwalk Historical Society and the Norwalk-Village Green Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Mill Hill Park cam be found located along East Wall Street, bounded by Hubble Lane on its southeast and Smith Street to its southwest in Central Norwalk. “The burial ground on Mill Hill called Whitney's Hill in the records, after the miller[?], was opened for the use of members of the First Society (Congregational) in 1767.” The burying ground, which is now the third oldest in Norwalk, was established by the First Congregational church in 1767. There are 11 veterans of the American Revolutionary War buried in the Mill Hill Burying Ground.
The original Fitch house was constructed around 1740 on Goodman Hoyt Hill (which was later known as Earl's Hill) on the east side of what is now East Avenue.Governor Thomas Fitch died on July 18, 1774 and the house was left to his survivors including his wife Hannah and son Thomas Fitch, V (of Yankee Doodle fame). The Fitch family house was partially burned in the British raid of Norwalk on July 11 and 12, 1779 since Hannah Fitch, of tory inclinations, had vacated the town of Norwalk to avoid the raid (the British spared only tory properties in their raid). Fitch descendants lived in the house that was reconstructed after the raid until 1945. In 1956 the portion of the Fitch house that survived the British raid was saved when Earls' Hill was removed to make room for the construction of the Connecticut Turnpike and moved to Mill Hill. In 1971 the Fitch house remnant was restored to look like an 18th-century law office such as what Governor Fitch would have used.
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