A Banner Year: Wilton Celebrates 300 Years Alongside America 250

It’s a banner year for Wilton, in more ways than one.

Wilton is marking a rare milestone in 2026: 300 years since the founding of the community and 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

As the bold red banners draped on Wilton Congregational Church‘s facade proclaim, 2026 marks the tricentennial of the founding of the Wilton community — originally known as the “Wilton Parish” — in 1726.

This year is also the semiquincentennial of the 1776 signing of the Declaration of Independence, being celebrated nationwide as “America 250.”

From exhibitions and lectures to reenactments, church celebrations and a Fourth of July celebration and parade, organizations across Wilton are planning a wide range of events throughout the year.

Exploring an ‘Unfinished Revolution’

The Wilton Historical Society (WHS) is among the local organizations leaning heavily into this unique moment.

Historical Society Director Nick Foster said WHS programming for this year is specifically designed to go beyond familiar Revolutionary War-era history and explore what he called “an unfinished revolution.”

“A lot of our America 250 programming this year is looking beyond the Revolution — not just the stories of the Revolution or how America became independent — but also what does independence mean, and what does it mean to be self-governing?” he said.

“The war for independence was just the start,” he continued. “For the rest of America’s history, we’ve been constantly fighting to improve our democracy, expand rights to more people, to perfect what was originally a fairly imperfect system of government.”

Those themes are reflected in a new WHS exhibition, “Revolution, Continued…: Wilton’s War for Independence and the Radicals Who Followed,” expected to open in July. The exhibit will explore “Wilton’s role in the American Revolution and how the town’s revolutionary successors have attempted to enact their own changes.”

Upcoming WHS Events & Special Programming

The WHS has several more events and “immersive experiences” around the America 250/Wilton 300 anniversaries in the works:

• Wednesday, May 20: “The American Revolution and The Fate of The World,” a talk by author and University of Maryland history professor Dr. Richard Bell, described as “… the American Revolution as you’ve never seen it before: complex, global, and astonishingly relevant to the modern world”
• Thursday, Jun. 4:  “Working for the Revolution: Patriot Women’s Lives During the War,” a presentation by historian Dr. Kathy Hermes on how women contributed to the American Revolutionary effort
• Thursday, Jun. 25: Reenactment of a Revolutionary War encampment
• Summer (TBD): an ‘immersive’ cemetery tour at Sharp Hill Cemetery
• Late summer: An escape-room-inspired experience based on local Revolutionary-era stories and events, including a toppled King George III statue, the Sloan-Raymond-Fitch house (now part of the WHS complex at 224 Danbury Rd.), an unsolved 1776 heist and how Crown Pond got its name. (Foster narrates the legend on a video posted on the WHS website.)

Foster said the programming would not be possible without support from ASML.

“A Trove of History”

Wilton Congregational Church (WCC), central to Wilton’s early history, is also marking the tricentennial.

Wilton Parish was founded in 1726 when about 40 families petitioned the state to break away from Norwalk’s governance. A meetinghouse of the church — originally located on Wolfpit Rd. — was the cornerstone of that community. (The landmark church at 70 Ridgefield Rd. was built a bit later, in 1790.)

Rev. Caroline Hughes, the church’s senior minister, called leading the church at this moment in Wilton’s history a distinct privilege.

“I think there’s probably other privileges of a lifetime, but I would say it’s one of them, to be in this community at this season,” she said. “We’ve got a trove of history, and we get to kind of unearth these treasures that our founders left along the way and be part of it.”

Congregation members have looked forward to this tricentennial year with great anticipation. In addition to hanging the red banners emblazoned with “1726” and “2026” both inside and outside the church, the WCC has already hosted a special remembrance service and a formal banquet.

Those events were just the start. In collaboration with the Wilton Historical Society, WCC offered a guided tour earlier this month of Hillside Cemetery, where the the remains of 51 Revolutionary War veterans are buried. Hillside’s website notes the “remarkable number for a community of only about 200 families. The presence of so many soldiers reflects how deeply the struggle for independence touched this small Connecticut town.”

Scores of women who supported the war in their own ways are also buried at Hillside. Many were part of Wilton’s renowned founding families, including the Comstocks, Middlebrooks, Gregorys, Hurlbutts and Olmsteads, among others. As part of the America 250 celebration, profiles of several women were highlighted in Hillside’s publication From Colony to Country: Women of Revolutionary Wilton. [A brochure for a self-guided tour may be found on Hillside’s website or picked up at the church office (70 Ridgefield Rd).]

Hughes said the goal is to make Wilton 300 feel like a town-wide celebration for everyone, not just for church members.

“We want to invite the community into our celebration, because of the place that the church holds in the town and the community,” she said. “We’re delighted to be stewards of the space and the congregation and our stories, but they don’t belong to us. They belong to the whole town.”

Upcoming WCC Events & Special Programming

• A new documentary film, “Wilton Congregational Church: 300 Years of Faith in Our Community,” directed by WCC member Rob Saffi, reveals fascinating historical details, a rare look inside the church rafters and even a view over Wilton from the bell tower, plus other vignettes and anecdotes from longtime church members and leaders. [The film can be streamed online.]
• Sunday, Jun. 7: WCC will celebrate a special “Founding Sunday” service, commemorating the first worship service, believed to have taken place in June 1726.
• The “4th Century Project,” a long-term initiative to shape the next hundred years, focused on enhancing church facilities, expanding the ministry and strengthening community engagement

Town of Wilton

First Selectman Toni Boucher said that the Wilton Parks and Recreation Department is leading America 250 event planning for the Town.

“When the Governor’s office asked us to join in the statewide celebration and appoint a liaison to their office, we asked [Parks and Recreation Department Director] Steve Pierce and the Parks and Recreation Commission to take the lead,” she wrote in an email to GMW.

Wilton will celebrate the Fourth of July with a parade, a lunch and an “extra special” fireworks display, with more details coming in the next few weeks.

Wilton’s Economic Development Commission is also encouraging local businesses to participate, with plans to promote America 250-related events through the its social media channels.

Looking for more Wilton history?

Here’s a short list to help residents connect with Wilton’s history:

• Visit the Historical Society’s permanent exhibition, “Connecticut’s History, Wilton’s Story” which traces Wilton’s historical and cultural evolution from early colonial days to modern times.
• Reserve a time in the Carol and Robert Russell Wilton History Room at Wilton Library, “for all your questions about local history, from genealogy and house histories through old photographs, yearbooks, newspaper, and more.”
• Pick up a copy of Robert Russell’s book,“Wilton, Connecticut: Three Centuries Of People, Places, And Progress,” with nearly 600 pages of Wilton’s rich history, family legacies, fascinating anecdotes, photographs and more.
• Check the Wilton Library calendar of America 250 events, which include “Art of American Conflicts From the Revolution to the Civil War” on Jun. 10 and “Historical Gaming: Battle of Ridgefield” on Jul. 28.