Easton, Connecticut: Reservoirs, Farms and Two Famous Retirees

Ida Tarbell, author of the 1904 exposé "The History of the Standard Oil Company," used her royalties to buy the Easton farm she called "Twin Oaks" in 1906 and retired there in 1924; the house became a National Historic Landmark in 1993 but remains a private residence, viewable only from the road. Helen Keller spent her final decades at Arcan Ridge, also private property; the town's middle school carries her name. Union Cemetery, with gravestones dating to 1761, is Easton's oldest burial ground and, by local reputation, one of the most-visited "haunted" sites in the country. The New Academy on Westport Road, built in 1795, is Easton's oldest public building, next to an 1836 Congregational church.

Easton has no train station and no interstate of its own. Route 58 (Black Rock Turnpike) runs 18.58 miles north from US Route 1 in Fairfield, through Easton, Redding and on to Bethel, crossing the Merritt Parkway along the way; Route 136 and Route 59 (over the Mill River) fill out the local grid. The nearest Metro-North New Haven Line stations are Fairfield-Black Rock, Fairfield, Southport and Bridgeport, all south of town; the nearest Danbury Branch station to the north is Redding. Amtrak Northeast Regional and Vermonter trains do stop at Bridgeport, so an intercity arrival there is possible, though Acela does not; neither Shore Line East nor the CTrail Hartford Line comes near Easton.