Welcome

Located in the center of Connecticut’s largest historic district, the Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum provides the quintessential New England experience. Visitors are immersed in life of the mid-18th and early-19th centuries during informative and entertaining one-hour tours. We also host a number of annual events to entertain, educate and enlighten visitors.
First opened in 1919, the Museum is owned and operated by The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in The State of Connecticut and is accredited by the American Association of Museums.

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    Southeast Parlor, Webb House
  • credit Greg Catalano wielding sword web
    18th-century horsemanship with sword and pistol at the annual Revolutionary War Encampment at WDS.
  • Webb House Mural
    Northeast Parlor at the Webb House showing murals of historic houses installed by Wallace Nutting in 1916
  • engaged
    “Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire.” Creating a spark at WDS…
  • War Encampment
    Rallying the troops at the annual Revolutionary War Encampment at WDS
  • Silas Deane House - Southeast Parlor
    Silas Deane House - Southeast Parlor
  • Red Coats Advance
    Red coats advancing on members of the 5th Connecticut Regiment during Revolutionary War Encampment at WDS.
  • Isaac Stevens House - Northeast Parlor
    Isaac Stevens House - Northeast Parlor
  • nancy and boys
    You can almost see the gears turning as children connect with history at WDS
  • Buttolph Williams House - Great Hall or Parlor
    Buttolph Williams House - "Great Hall" or Parlor
  • fifeplayer
    Spirited 18th-century music is an integral part of the annual Revolutionary War Encampment at WDS.
  • busy kisd II
    It’s a joy to see kids fully engaged in hands-on learning when schools send their students to WDS

Tour four remarkable 18th-century houses

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Joseph Webb House

The 1752 Joseph Webb House is where George Washington and French General Rochambeau met in May 1781 to plan the campaign which led several months later to the final battle of the Revolutionary War and the defeat of the British in Yorktown, Virginia. The Webb House was later owned by photographer and antiquarian Wallace Nutting. Read more.

Silas Deane House

Silas Deane House

The Silas Deane House, circa 1770, was built for America’s Revolutionary War diplomat to France as both his residence and as a power base for his political aspirations. The Deane House features an excellent collection of mid-to-late 18th century furniture made in Connecticut. The kitchen and second floor chamber in the rear interpret the life of slaves in this period. Read more.

Isaac Stevens House

Isaac Stevens House

The Isaac Stevens House depicts the life of a middle class family in the 1820s and 30s, with many original family possessions and a fascinating period toy exhibit. The interiors have recently been reinterpreted with the installation of reproduction block-printed wallpapers, which had become affordable and were very popular in middle class households at the time. Read more.

Buttolph Williams House

Buttolph-Williams House

Within easy walking distance is the Buttolph-Williams House. Owned by Connecticut Landmarks and managed by the Museum, it captures the spirit of Puritan life in New England in the 17th century and is the setting for the Newberry Award-Winning novel The Witch of Blackbird Pond (1958) by Elizabeth George Speare. Read more.

Upcoming Events

Tours of Garden by One of America’s First Female Landscape Architects Offered on CT Historic Gardens Day, June 22

Colonial Revival Garden

Come view a small piece of the world as it was seen through the eyes of Amy Cogswell—one of the first female landscape architects in the U.S. and designer of the Colonial Revival Garden at WDS…