Governor Thomas Fitch Law Office Survived the Burning Of Norwalk

Attorney Thomas Fitch (1696 -1774) was governor of the Colony of Connecticut from 1754 to 1766. His house, built around 1740, once stood on the east side of East Avenue in Norwalk. The house was partially burned in the British raid on Norwalk on July 11-12, 1779. Fitch descendants occupied the reconstructed house until 1945. The section of the house that had survived the British raid was moved to Norwalk’s Mill Hill in 1956 when the rest of the building was demolished to make way for the construction of I-95. In 1971 the building was restored as a museum to resemble a law office such as one that Governor Fitch might have used in the eighteenth century.

The Fitches raised 10 children in this home, including Corporal Thomas Fitch, Jr., considered as the “father” of Yankee Doodle, the Connecticut state song, written to memorialize the mocking of his troops by the British as “Yankee Doodles”, or simpletons. The song was considered defiance against the British, and by 1781, "Yankee Doodle" had turned from being an insult to being a song of national pride.