Ridgefield has long been a destination-for tourists seeking a picturesque country village, for city dwellers looking for a weekend and summer retreat, and for immigrants in search of a new life. In the first half of the twentieth century, a period that corresponded to the heyday of the picture postcard, hundreds of views were published, depicting the beautiful Main Street, the many inns and resorts, the mansions, estates, village shops, churches, and scenic hills and lakes. Ridgefield: 1900-1950 offers more than two hundred of these glimpses of a bygone time of affluence and change-what one historian has called Ridgefield's golden era.

Jack Sanders, an editor of the Ridgefield Press, has been writing about Ridgefield for thirty-five years. His works include several books and a tour guide to the historical center of Ridgefield. A member of the local historical society, he lives in an eighteenth-century Ridgefield farmhouse.