Everything OddWay knows about. Narrow it down by what you're after, or where you're going.
Giant objects, odd monuments and things built for no clear reason.
East Hartford, CT
A life-size young Abraham Lincoln sits on a boulder with his hand extended toward an empty neighboring rock, deliberately inviting visitors to sit beside him. The 2006 sculpture is one of the more interactive presidential monuments in Connecticut.
Hartford, CT
Miniature bronze versions of Abraham Lincoln and Harriet Beecher Stowe face one another across an outdoor table on the riverwalk. The sculpture commemorates their real 1862 meeting but intentionally presents the famously tall Lincoln at a surprisingly tiny scale.
Colchester, CT
A statue of Mary survived a 2004 explosion and fire that destroyed the former St. Mary's Ukrainian Catholic Church around it. The congregation preserved the surviving figure at the rebuilt church as a physical reminder of the disaster.
New Haven, CT
A cast-iron sculpture outside Lighthouse Fire Station began as a tribute to firefighters and gradually accumulated more symbolic details, including an oversized hydrant. The finished piece is part monument and part wonderfully overbuilt firehouse lawn art.
Uncasville, CT
Blue stars embedded around the Mohegan Sun Arena entrance commemorate performers who have appeared at the casino resort. The casino's take on a Hollywood-style walk of fame has steadily accumulated names over the years.
Mystic, CT
The real Mystic Pizza inspired the title and setting of the 1988 film that helped launch Julia Roberts' career. The restaurant was not the movie's interior filming location, but it embraces the connection with photographs, memorabilia and its now-famous name.
Bristol, CT
A roughly 383-foot elevator research tower rises over Bristol like a windowless skyscraper. Built for testing high-speed elevator systems, it is not a public attraction inside, but its strange scale makes it visible from public roads around the facility.
Norwich, CT
A huge rusting steel sphere rises behind a former industrial property like an abandoned science-fiction prop. The roughly 37-foot Horton sphere was an industrial pressure vessel; it remains fenced off, so this is strictly a lawful public-road viewing stop.
Cheshire, CT
A 26-foot fiberglass Paul Bunyan towers over West Johnson Avenue. When local height rules complicated his oversized axe, it was replaced with an American flag, allowing the classic Muffler Man to remain one of Connecticut's biggest roadside figures.
Deep River, CT
A large scrap-metal praying mantis sits reading Lord of the Flies — an appropriately insect-themed literary joke. The sculpture moved from the local library in 2025 and now stands at the Pandemonium Rainforest Project.
Woodstock, CT
Inside the bright Gothic Revival Roseland Cottage is an indoor bowling alley dating to 1846, often described as the oldest surviving example in the United States. The alley is included on seasonal guided tours of the house.
Kent, CT
Sculptor Denis Curtiss has filled his rural studio grounds with more than 100 large steel and bronze animals, people and other figures. The property is an active studio and gallery, so visitors should stick to posted open hours or arrange an appointment.
Marlborough, CT
A large roadside boulder has been repeatedly painted into a bright reptilian creature, usually interpreted as a snake or turtle. The identity of the original artist is murky, and generations of repainting have turned it into a persistent piece of local roadside folk art.
Preston, CT
A giant glacial boulder has been painted into Snoopy's smiling profile, with a plywood Charlie Brown standing nearby to complete the scene. The attraction is on private property where visitors have historically been tolerated, so stay in the designated approach area and be respectful.
New Milford, CT
A real tire flown aboard Space Shuttle Discovery is mounted outside the John J. McCarthy Observatory at New Milford High School. The tire touched down after traveling millions of miles in space, turning an otherwise disposable spacecraft component into a hands-on local artifact.
Montville, CT
A boulder outside the Montville fire company has been painted into a spotted firehouse dog named Sparky. It joins eastern Connecticut's unusual local tradition of turning roadside rocks into oversized canine faces.
Preston, CT
This black-and-white dog-shaped boulder has reportedly been maintained as 'Spotty' since 1935. A small plaque credits the original painter, making it one of the oldest surviving examples in eastern Connecticut's peculiar painted-dog-rock tradition.
Bridgeport, CT
The grounds of St. Margaret Shrine form a sprawling maze of grottoes, statues, miniature shrines, stonework and gardens inspired partly by European Catholic pilgrimage sites. It feels unexpectedly elaborate for a neighborhood Connecticut shrine and is free to walk during posted hours.
Hartford, CT
A bronze turkey commemorates Jack, a nineteenth-century bird linked to Abraham Lincoln and the story that helped inspire the presidential turkey-pardoning tradition. The oddly specific monument turns a bit of White House animal lore into a Hartford roadside stop.
Norwalk, CT
Stew Leonard's original Norwalk store grew from a small dairy shop into a maze-like food market filled with singing animatronics, costumed characters and theatrical displays. Guinness once recognized it as the world's largest dairy store.
New Britain, CT
A costumed superhero cow appears to leap across the roof of the Guida's Dairy building. The airborne bovine is a wonderfully literal dairy mascot and one of New Britain's easiest drive-by oddities.
Meriden, CT
An exposed rock face behind a shopping area preserves rounded basalt structures formed when ancient lava encountered water. The strange pillow-like shapes are remnants of volcanic activity roughly 200 million years old hiding in an otherwise ordinary commercial landscape.
Hartford, CT
Hartford's former Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance building curves into a long lens-like shape that resembles a boat or football from above. Its unusual geometry is often described as one of the earliest major two-sided office-building designs.
Oakdale, CT
A wooded trail system is populated by dozens of life-size dinosaur models, including towering sauropods and animatronic creatures. The attraction is seasonal and ticketed, but its huge prehistoric figures make it one of Connecticut's strongest intentionally weird roadside destinations.
