About Us

The mission of the all-volunteer Friends of Boothe Park is to honor the legacy of the Boothe Brothers, to advocate for the preservation of their vision for the Park and Museum, and to ensure the Park’s long-term viability and sustainability for the benefit of present and future generations.

We do this by raising funds, coordinating volunteer efforts, stimulating interest and encouraging support for the perpetuation of the Park and Museum as an historical, natural, and cultural asset of the Town of Stratford and the State of Connecticut.

Boothe Memorial Park is managed and maintained by the Town of Stratford. The Friends of Boothe Park work in collaboration with the Town. We provide oversight of the Museum buildings and collections on behalf of the Town, and manage the Museum function. In addition to these basic functions, we:

Offer fall and spring educational programs to local school children, around the theme of life on a 19-century farm;
Maintain the Museum Collections and plan/implement exhibits;
Sponsor an annual May Opening Day for the public;
Offer seasonal tours of the Museum buildings and artifacts;
Provide demonstrations (spinning, weaving, blacksmithing);
Run two special fundraising events: ‘Christmas at the Homestead’ in December, and ‘Hats Off to Roses’ in June;
Maintain the formal Rose Garden, as well as other smaller gardens on the property;
Sponsor other periodic historical and cultural presentations;
Publish an electronic Newsletter of our activities; and
Participate in Town-sponsored events at the Park, including the October ‘Great Pumpkin Festival,’ and the June ‘Open Museums Day.’
The structure of the Friends of Boothe Park includes the governing Board of Trustees and its Officers; the Council of Lead Volunteers, under the direction of the Board President; and a body of volunteers who undertake all of the activities of the Friends at the Park, under the direction of a Head of Volunteers.

We are a membership organization. Membership fees, along with donations and occasional grants, provide important operating support and funding for special projects.

Over the years since its inception, the Friends of Boothe Park organization has contributed in excess of $500,000 of its own funds in support of special projects, such as the full restoration of the Miniature Lighthouse, Trolley Station, Ice House, Out House, Organ House, Blacksmith Shop, the addition of the formal Rose Garden and restoration of its Fountain, the interior restoration of the Summer Cottage, the installation of the Merritt Parkway Toll Boothe Plaza, the complete renovation of the interior space of the Clocktower Museum and repair of its Bell Tower, the conversion of an Old Barn into a new Visitor Center, and the refurbishing of exhibits and adding signage to the Park – to name a few.

The Friends of Boothe volunteers donate an average of 6,000 hours per year, which is valued at $200,000 per year. Over the past 49 years of our existence, this amounts to $7,800,000, in today’s dollars.

We are a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization. Donations to the Friends of Boothe Park are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. Please join with the Friends in our group’s mission to restore, preserve, promote and protect Stratford’s most beautiful and unique Town park.

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How the Friends of Boothe Park Came to Be …

Although the Park grounds were opened to the public in 1955, all of the buildings and the collections that they contained remained closed. In the Park’s first thirty years, the Town of Stratford employed live-in caretakers who managed the property and collections. It is unfortunate that many items in the Boothe collections went missing during this time period, and many of the buildings fell into disrepair.

In 1980, Katharine (Kay) Post, a close cousin to David and Stephen Boothe, came to Stratford to visit her mother’s grave at the Putney Cemetery adjacent to the Park. While there, she toured the Park and was very interested in it, but found that the buildings were neglected and in need of repair. Instead of leaving, Kay went to the Town Hall and began a quest to determine why the Park buildings were in such a rundown condition, and what could be done about it.

Kay also went to the museum program at State University of New York in Cooperstown, NY, and attended an historic preservation seminar to obtain direction on how to proceed with a restoration plan. She then returned to Stratford and spoke with local leaders, and motivated them to form a committee to address the issues facing the Park. This resulted in the Town creating the Boothe Memorial Park Commission, which was formed in June of 1982. An assessment of the site was made by the Commission and this was the beginning of the restoration of the Park buildings.

Once the Commission was charged, monies were raised from State grants, and also from the Town of Stratford. An architectural firm, Noyes Associates, was engaged to both document the buildings and identify the extent of repairs that were needed, and to develop a Master Plan for the site. A construction firm was hired and work began to repair and restore the buildings, some of which were in serious danger of collapse. As soon as the buildings were secured, it was recognized that the extent of the collections and history was too important to be kept keep hidden away.

It was at this point, in 1984, that the decision was made to form a non-profit organization which would be called The Friends of Boothe Park. Incorporated in 1985, this group could solicit funds and recruit volunteers at no cost to the Town, and begin the process of preserving and protecting the Boothe Brothers’ legacy for the public.

Friends of Boothe Park, Inc.

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About Us

How the Friends of Boothe Park Came to Be …