A Treasury of Guilford Place / Joel Helander / Guilford, CT

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	Front Cover Back Cover Inside the Book About the Author

	AVAILABLE AT: GUILFORD Breakwater Books Henry Whitfield State Museum Page Hardware & Appliance Co. Sachem Card and Party Shop BRANFORD Branford Book & Card Shoppe Stony Creek Antiques MADISON R J Julia Bookseller

	BOOK DETAILS: A Treasury of Guilford Places ©2008, Joel Helander 400 pages, Page Count Hardcover, 400 pages, 8-1/2 x 11 Index, Endnotes, Bibliography $54.95 Cover photograph of Guilford Green by Shoreline Aerial Photography, courtesy of Tom Walsh, Ivoryton, Connecticut. Photographed on May 18, 2008.

	FOR MORE INFORMATION Please contact Joel Helander at jeh1111@comcast.net

This collected Treasury of historic buildings and places, arranged by districts or neighborhoods, resembles a comprehensive history of Guilford, Connecticut. It is an alive and open-hearted view of Guilford's history over the course of nearly four centuries--consolidating a lifetime of historical research by Guilford Town Historian Joel Helander. The book is born from painstaking research using primary source materials and condensations from the author's earlier, out-of-print publications. It is also born from the author's enduring affection for his native town. Much of the contents is hitherto unwritten and unpublished. The building survey is the most comprehensive list of pre-1911 dwelling houses ever assembled.

The Treasury covers the people, the events, and the moments that shaped Guilford, beginning with the Reverend Henry Whitfield in 1639 and chronicling events such as the American Revolution, War of 1812, Civil War, advent of the trolley and railroad, and most recently, the lamppost controversy on the Green. This treasury tells about ordinary Guilford people doing extraordinary things.

This book reads like an absorbing storybook for those who love Guilford. However, A Treasury of Guilford Places also serves as a reference manual and almanac of Guilford's history, presenting it for a fresh 21st-century understanding. It intends, above all, to raise the appreciation and sting the senses of property owners, tourists, antiquarians, students, and scholars.

"An Ode to Old Guilford"
By Robert C. Pollack, Shore Line Times [read]

"ATreasury of Guilford Places:
Joel Helander’s Gift to Guilford"
by Pam Johnson, Guilford Courier [read]



	Scenes on the Green have hardly changed--only the actors. Every event seems to draw people to the Soldier’s Monument, much like these fairgoers loitering there during the Guilford Fair of circa 1910.

Joel Eliot Helander is a lineal descendant of Guilford's earliest settlers, including the Reverend Joseph Eliot (1664), Edward Benton (1640), Thomas Norton (1639), and William Leete (1639).

Helander grew up in the Clapboard Hill section of Guilford, where he credits a newspaper delivery route for the New Haven Register for launching his interest in writing and publishing. Beginning at fourteen years of age, he wrote, edited, and published the Clapboard Hill Newspaper, which featured a monthly topic of Guilford history.

Helander is the municipal historian for Guilford and has privately published many articles, books, and booklets about his hometown, including: Guilford Long Ago, Volume I (1968), Guilford Long Ago, Volume II (1969), I Found A Turtle! (1973), Oxpasture to Summer Colony: The Story of Sachem's Head in Guilford, Connecticut (1976), Noose and Collar: The Story of the Rockland Murder (1979), Leete's Island Legacy (1981), Jones Bridge (1983), The Island Called Faulkner's (1988), House In Disguise: The Pock Lot Story (1994), and Flesh and Stone: Stony Creek and the Age of Granite (2000) (contributing author).

Like other town historians, Helander has discovered that past is truly prologue. Sooner or later, people pose historical inquiries that provide insight for current problem-solving and future planning. His historical specialties are origins of buildings and land use.

In addition to his interest in historic preservation, Helander has an abiding, lifelong interest in prehistoric turtles. He has conducted a detailed tagging study of the Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina) for forty years.

Helander worked for the Town of Guilford's emergency medical services for nineteen years, first as an emergency medical technician and then as a paramedic. Since 1995, he has served the District of Guilford as an elected judge in the Connecticut Probate Court System.