Arts & Culture
Two bookshops, the library in an 1842 house, Barnum in bronze, and the independent cinema at the top of the avenue.
5Stops
0.8 miOn foot
16Min walk
1–289 Greenwood Avenue, Bethel, Connecticut
Bethel is one avenue long.
Coffee at one end, a drive-in at the other, and a National Register historic district in between. Everything worth a Saturday here sits on the same street, so this site is laid out the way the street is.
The same ground, 1914 and today: the fountain at what the Town renamed P. T. Barnum Square.
15 Dates on the Town calendar
What is on this week.
This page reads the Town's own events feed live. Everything an organization publishes into it shows up here without anyone re-typing it.
25 Places on the avenue
The middle of the walk.
From the Square up past the library, the buildings on the National Register still hold a bookshop, an ice cream counter and a church. Each row shows what is open at the number and what the building is.
1
Famous Pizza
On the avenue
P. T. Barnum Square
A small triangular park laid out in 1881 as Fountain Place, renamed for the showman in 1928, with Ernest Moore Viquesney's bronze Doughboy at its center.
Magicpiano · CC BY-SA 4.0 On the avenue
Town Green
Municipal open space, free and open to the public.
129
Jubi Tea & Sweets
Bubble tea at 129.
129 Greenwood Avenue: c.1860, No stylistic reference. A contributing building in the Greenwood Avenue Historic District.
141
Bethel United Methodist Church
The district's only church, built 1861, mixing a Greek Revival cornice, Italianate windows and a Gothic Revival tower.
Magicpiano · CC BY-SA 4.0 141 Greenwood Avenue: 1861, Greek/Gothic Revival. A contributing building in the Greenwood Avenue Historic District.
158
Dr. Mike's Ice Cream Shop
Ice cream at 158, in one of the avenue's c.1845 Greek Revival buildings.
Brianegge · CC0 158 Greenwood Avenue: c.1845, Greek Revival. A contributing building in the Greenwood Avenue Historic District.
178
Byrd's Books
The independent bookshop at 178, in an Italianate block the National Register dates to about 1860.
178-82 Greenwood Avenue: c.1860, Italianate. A contributing building in the Greenwood Avenue Historic District.
On the avenue
P.T. Barnum
189
Bethel Public Library
The library occupies the Seth Seelye House, built about 1842 and listed on the National Register in its own right.
Jerry Dougherty · CC BY 2.5 189 Greenwood Avenue: 1842, Greek Revival. A contributing building in the Greenwood Avenue Historic District.
8 Walks you can take today
Somebody already planned it.
Curated walks, each assembled from real stops and measured along the street. Change any of them, or start your own.
Family Fun Day
Start on the green, work up the avenue to the ice cream counter, and finish at the playground.
5Stops
700 ftOn foot
3Min walk
Dining Tour
Coffee roasted in town, a slice on the Square, bubble tea, ice cream, a coffee house, and a drive-in that never left.
6Stops
0.9 miOn foot
18Min walk
Historic Bethel
The National Register district end to end, including the buildings that now hold a bookshop and the public library.
6Stops
0.2 miOn foot
5Min walk
21 acres On the National Register since December 17, 1999
Twenty-one acres of it are on the register.
The Greenwood Avenue Historic District runs between P.T. Barnum Square and Depot Place. The federal nomination inventories 32 addresses along it, 27 of them contributing buildings. Most are still shops.