Soul Mountain Retreat

The source of the Eightmile River is a swampy, undeveloped region in the town of East Haddam, Connecticut, centered between Ackley Road, Hall Kilbourne Road, Usher Swamp Road, and Miles Standish Road. The Eightmile River runs for 13.4 miles (21.6 km) to Hamburg Cove in the town of Lyme, Connecticut. The East Branch of the river begins 1/10 of a mile west of the junction of Route 85 and Witch Meadow Road, about 1 mile north of Salem, Connecticut. A popular paddling route begins about 3 miles southwest of Salem along Darling Road about a half mile southwest of the junction of White Birch Road. Most of the route is whitewater reaching Class III-IV at its most difficult with some flatwater and quickwater between the rapids. A take-out can be found at the Route 156 bridge just before the river's confluence with the main branch of the Eightmile River.

The Simon Tiffany House, also known as the Ebenezer Tiffany House, is a historic house on Darling Road in Salem, Connecticut. Built about 1793, it is a well-preserved example of a rural vernacular farmhouse of the period. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

The Woodbridge Farm is a historic farm property on Woodbridge Road in Salem, Connecticut. The property was developed by Nathaniel Woodbridge in 1791, and it had more than 200 years of cultivation, and many decades of ownership by the Woodbridge family. The property includes an early farmstead, remade in the early 20th century into a Colonial Revival country house. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

Lyme is a town in New London County, Connecticut, United States, situated on the eastern side of the Connecticut River. The town is part of the Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region. The population was 2,352 at the 2020 census. Lyme is the eponym of Lyme disease.

Devil's Hopyard State Park is a public recreation area located at the Eightmile River's Chapman Falls in the town of East Haddam, Connecticut. The 1,000-acre (400 ha) state park includes facilities for hiking, fishing, bicycling, picnicking, and camping. It is managed by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

The Hamburg Bridge Historic District is located in Lyme, Connecticut. It encompasses a small village which was of economic importance until about 1824, as the site of a bridge across the Eight Mile River since 1759, and as the head of navigation of the river, which feeds the Connecticut River at Hamburg Cove. The district includes 10 houses, all of which are historically significant, as well as old stone wharves dating to the period. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 10, 1983.

Millington is a village within the town of East Haddam, Connecticut. Millington lies halfway between East Haddam center and Salem center. It is the section of East Haddam that is the closest to Devil's Hopyard State Park. The village is connected to East Haddam Center and to Devil's Hopyard State Park by a series of secondary roads that are maintained by the state. The road is given an unsigned designation "Special Service Road 434", which runs on Mount Parnassus Road, Millington Road, Haywardville Road, and Hopyard Road. Millington includes the Millington Green Historic District which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.The village is the site of the Millington Green, a small triangular town green in the center of the village at the junction of Millington, Haywardville, and Tater Hill roads. The Green contains a flagpole, bench, and perennial flower garden and is surrounded by several historic houses, including the Daniel Bulkeley House (built in 1792), the 10th District Schoolhouse (built in 1854), the Millington Green Parsonage (built in 1854), the Julius Schwab House (built in 1950 but incorporating a schoolhouse from 1756), and the Ebenezer Dutton House (built in 1766).Millington was first settled in 1704 by Jonathan Beebe of New London. An ecclesiastical society separate from Haddam (East Haddam was then part of Haddam) was granted in 1733. The congregational church was organized in 1736 and a meetinghouse constructed on the Green in 1740. The village became a training area for the local militia during the Revolutionary War. The village never recovered from a depression following the War of 1812 and is now a rural residential neighborhood.

The Working Girls' Vacation Society Historic District is a 27-acre (11 ha) historic district in East Haddam, Connecticut that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. It is significant by dint of the properties having been owned, during 1892–1945, by the Working Girls' Vacation Society of New York City, and used as a summer retreat for working women from the city. The society is similar to the Young Women's Christian Association, founded in 1866, in that it is one of many organizations intending to "minister to the 'temporal, moral and religious welfare of self-supporting women.' Led by enlightened upper class philanthropist/reformers such as copper heiress Grace Dodge, a national network of "working girls' clubs" formed in the 1880s. Their mission primarily was to protect the morality of working women, rather than to improve the conditions of the workplace (note 4); their means included the creation of opportunities for social intercourse, self-improvement (education), and recreation in a morally uplifting setting. The New York Working Girls' Club, founded by Dodge in 1883 and the first of its kind in the nation, maintained, for example, a clubhouse with a library and extensive series of lectures, classes, and social events (note 5). The employment-related health needs of working girls were not ignored. The Working Girls' Vacation Society of New York, an offshoot of the Working Girls' Club, was founded in 1883 to provide summer vacations in the country for women with demonstrated health problems. The founders of the society included prominent upper-class women and social workers (note 6). In a pattern repeated in other cities, the Vacation Society made available low-cost stays generally of two weeks in duration at rural locations (note 7)."A total of 411 working girls were assisted by the society in the summer of 1884. By 1915 the society had created several retreats in Connecticut and served 1450.The district includes three side-by-side properties on a rural road in East Haddam, Connecticut, with three houses and three barns.When listed, the district included six contributing buildings and one non-contributing building. Three of the six are residences. The Phebe Howell House (c.1835), is constructed with pegged post-and-beam framing, and shows what may be its original clapboard siding. It and the Charles Howell House (c.1825) are constructed on granite ashlar foundations. The latter's doorway is flanked by fluted pilasters. A vernacular bungalow house (c.1915) is the other.The three other contributing buildings are 19th-century, wood-frame barns. The one at 66 Mill Road (photograph 5 in accompanying photos) "is similar in size and design to the ell on the Phebe Howell House, which tends to confirm oral history that this barn was formerly attached to the rear of the Charles Howell House."DiNapoli, writing in 1892, describes the working girls' plight.The association renamed in 1950 to become the Katherine Herbert Fund, named after the 1885 founder of the society. In 1974 it merged with the Stony Wold Corporation, an organization that had focused upon tuberculosis, to become the Stony Wold-Herbert Fund.

Becket Hill State Park Reserve is a public recreation area lying adjacent to Nehantic State Forest in the town of Lyme, Connecticut. The state park is as an undeveloped, walk-in park totaling 260 acres (110 ha) with no officially listed activities. It is managed by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

The Hadlyme North Historic District is an 81-acre (33 ha) historic district located in the southwest corner of the town of East Haddam, Connecticut (just north of the town line with Lyme). It represents the historic core of the village of Hadlyme, which straddles the town line, and consists primarily of two north-south roads, Town Street (Route 82 and Old Town Street). The village arose around a church society founded in 1743, and grew with the development of small industries along area waterways. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

Music Vale Seminary, also known as the Salem Normal Academy of Music, was a normal music conservatory for women in Salem, Connecticut. It was the first accredited music school in the United States. The school opened in 1835 and closed in 1876.

East Haddam is a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut. The town is part of the Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region. The population was 8,875 at the time of the 2020 census.