The Hyland House, a museum of early colonial life and architecture, was built circa 1690-1710. The doomed house was purchased in 1916 by the Dorothy Whitfield Society and opened it to the public two years later. It has been open every summer since.  

With five fireplaces and hand-hewn floors and walls, the house is remarkably close to its original condition. On display in its rooms is a collection of 17th- and 18th-century furniture and decorative arts, including primitive utensils, slipware, rope bedsteads, family chests, quilts, stumpware and samplers.

Clockmaker Ebenezer Parmelee, grandson of the original owner, was the most prominent resident of the house. A shipwright and master of several metal and woodworking trades for much of the 18th century, he left his mark as "the father of Connecticut clockmaking." His 1727 steeple clock kept time for an incredible 165 years in two successive Congregational churches on Guilford's green.