Connecticut Radio Information System

The Webb Deane Stevens Museum is owned and operated by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in The State of Connecticut. The museum features three 18th-century houses that sit on their original sites in the center of Old Wethersfield, Connecticut. They are: the 1752 Joseph Webb House; the 1769 Silas Deane House; and the 1789 Isaac Stevens House. The first two houses are listed as National Historic Landmarks and the last home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The houses are next door to each other.

Both the Webb and Deane Houses played a significant role during the Revolutionary War. General George Washington and Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, met at Joseph Webb’s House for five days, where they planned the joint military campaign leading to the victory at Yorktown and the end of the American Revolution. The house served as Washington’s headquarters in May 1781. The adjacent Deane house was built by lawyer, merchant, and America’s first foreign diplomat, Silas Deane, as an architectural statement of power. Deane secured the French alliance that proved invaluable to American independence.

CRIS Solution

The Webb Deane Stevens Museum wanted to provide visitors with access to the rich history of its museum campus when its buildings were closed to the public. The CRISAccess solution created an accessible outdoor tour with signs displaying QR Codes that would trigger audio recordings about the historic houses, grounds, and the people who lived within.