Lilacs in Bethlehem: The Bellamy-Ferriday House & Garden, Caroline Ferriday and the True Story of Lilac Girls (NWL)

Wednesday, September 26:

Experience Connecticut Landmarks’ Bellamy-Ferriday House & Garden through this photo-lecture and discussion.  Tour the historic house, built by 18th-c. Rev. Joseph Bellamy from 1754-1767, and the five-acre site which includes the 18th-c. residence, barns, and the historic formal parterre garden installed by Miss Caroline Ferriday, a philanthropist and the final resident of the house, and her mother, Eliza Woolsey Ferriday.  While Rev. Bellamy influenced colonial life and preached with religious fervor throughout New England’s “Great Awakening,” Miss Ferriday championed human rights and social justice causes around the globe.   Details from the lives of these notable residents will be interwoven with lovely images of site.  The presentation concludes with the story of the Bellamy-Ferriday House & Garden’s connection to the runaway best-seller Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly, who was inspired to write her novel after a visit to the house to see Caroline’s famous lilacs.  Kelly’s forthcoming prequel, Lost Roses (2019), set in the WWI era, tells the story of Caroline’s mother Eliza and her fight to help Russian refugees displaced by the revolution.

Lilac Girls is based on the true story of Caroline Ferriday's work as a member of the French Resistance and her interest in the fate of the "lapins" (rabbits) - female political prisoners subject to medical testing at the Ravensbrück concentration camp. In her debut novel, Kelly transforms the horrors and inhumanities of war into a story of sisterhood and perseverance.

PARKING: There is ample library event parking in the nearby Isham Garage. Please bypass the garage kiosks and come directly to the Noah Webster Library Meeting Room, 20 South Main Street, where you may validate your parking with your license plate number.