Killingworth Town Hall (1830)

The current Town Hall of Killingworth was originally built around 1830 as a house by Dr. Rufus Turner. According to The History of Middlesex County (1884):

Rufus Turner was born at Mansfield, Connecticut, September 1st 1790. With a good preliminary education, he entered the office of Dr. Joseph Palmer, of Ashford, and in 1813-14 attended the first course of lectures given at Yale College. Dr. Turner was licensed by the State Medical Society in 1814, and settled in Killingworth, where he continued in the practice of his profession for thirty-seven years, until his death, after an illness of four days, in November, 1851. As a practitioner he was a careful and conservative, but in cases where promptness was demanded, bold and fearless, faithful in attendance, giving freely of his time and thought to the case in hand, warding off unfavorable complications, and always striving to have the last blow at death. In the protracted fevers of those days he was particularly skillful, and was very frequently called to neighboring towns, in consultation.

His son, Sylvester Wooster Turner, also became a doctor. According to the Proceedings of the Connecticut State Medical Society (1907):

[he] was born in Killingworth, Conn., March 12, 1822. He prepared for college at Hill’s Academy, Essex, Conn., and entered Yale, graduating in 1842.

In 1843 he studied medicine with his father in Killingworth; then he taught in a private school in Norwalk, Conn., was a private tutor in Newbern, Alabama, and for a part of one term taught the district school in Killingworth after the teacher had been driven out by the big boys.

He attended two courses of lectures in the Yale Medical School, graduating in 1846, and at once began to practice with his father in Killingworth.

In 1848 he located in Chester, Conn., remaining until 1858, was in Norwich, Conn., in 1859, then returned to Chester, and was in active practice until failing strength moved him to gradually relinquish his work. A fall, resulting in a permanent disability, compelled him to give up his practice entirely, and from that time he rapidly failed physically until his death in January of this year [1907].

By the mid-twentieth century, the house had become the homestead of Herman and Bertha Heser, whose daughter sold it to the town for use as offices in 1965. The town library was on the second floor (it now has a separate building).