Ridgefield's Great Estates Bus Tour

A century ago more than twenty grand estates covered much of Ridgefield. Some are gone. Some are still standing, doing something else entirely now.

Town Historian Jack Sanders, who wrote Ridgefield's Great Estates, takes a mini school bus on a 25-mile circuit of the town, describing the grounds and the houses and sometimes driving straight through the properties. There is no walking around or inside buildings, so the whole thing happens from your seat.

Sanders retired in 2014 after 45 years editing The Ridgefield Press. He has written twenty books on the town's history and runs the Old Ridgefield group on Facebook, which has more than 13,000 members.

Sixteen seats. That is the whole tour, and the Society expects it to sell out. Tickets are nonrefundable.

Bring the book if you have it. Sanders refers to its illustrations throughout. Copies can be added at checkout and handed over on the day, bought from Books on the Common, or borrowed, as a couple of copies travel with the tour.

Where to go. Begins and ends at Jesse Lee United Methodist Church, 207 Main Street, from 10 am to 1 pm.