On March 2, 1932, the Lyman Allyn Art Museum, in New London, had its grand opening. The museum was founded by Harriet Upson Allyn in memory of her father, Lyman Allyn, a wealthy shipping merchant. Miss Allyn’s bequest to construct the museum had been made upon her death in 1926 and the trustees then hired landscape architect and designer Charles A. Platt. Platt constructed the Neoclassical-style museum building from local granite, and it currently houses a permanent collection of more than 10,000 paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, furniture and decorative arts.