Our youth group created an “exhibit-in-a-box” for some historic properties around the state of Connecticut. We spent our summer caching, and visited and researched some house museums. We chose items for our caches that represent events or people related to the house as a way to help with the interpretation of our history. Feel free to trade the cache items, especially if your item relates to our history. You can also accept the challenge to find them all. We hope you enjoy our caches and stories!
The cache is not located anywhere that would be unsafe for you, the flowers, or the historic structures, so please be respectful while you hunt.
Bellamy- Ferriday House and Garden:
Joseph Bellamy was a minister and leader during the Great Awakening. He was pastor of the First Church of Bethlehem from 1740 until his death in 1790. Reverend Bellamy worked hard as a pastor and prepared young men for the ministry. His farmhouse, where he lived until his death, was actually built in 1754 on his 100 acre property across from his church.
The last owners of the house were the Ferriday’s. The Ferriday’s acquired the house as a summer home in 1912 as an attempt to get away from their New York life style. Henry Ferriday, his wife Eliza, and nine-year-old daughter Caroline lived in the house for two years, trying to restore the colonial feel but also adding their personal touches. Following the death of Henry Ferriday just two short years later, Mrs. Ferriday decided to add in a formal garden to give the farmland of the house a more personal-paradise feel. Caroline and her mother worked to have the property reflect their own personalities and taste.
Cache Items:
American Flag – represents how Francis Bellamy, the great-grandson of Reverend Joseph Bellamy, wrote the Pledge of Allegiance.
Gauze – to represent Eliza Ferriday’s grandmother and great aunts who were nurses in the Civil War at the Battle of Gettysburg, on Potomac River transport ships, and at the Fairfax Seminary Hospital in Virginia.
Candle Holder – represents how there was no electricity when the house was built in 1754, and candles were used to light the house until the Ferriday’s installed electricity in 1912.
Open for tours: May through Oct.
May – Sept.: Thurs. – Sun., 12 – 4 pm
Oct.: Sat. & Sun., 12 – 4 pm
Open on Memorial Day, Labor Day & Columbus Day
For school groups and special curriculum-based programming, to reserve tours for groups of 10 or more, or to rent the facility, please call the Bellamy-Ferriday House & Garden at (203) 266-7596.