The town is part of the Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region.

Numerous examples of Colonial and Federal architecture can be found throughout the town.

[2] Old Lyme occupies about 27 square miles (70 km2) of shoreline, tidal marsh, inland wetlands, and forested hills.

The Lyme Art Colony included Childe Hassam, Edward Charles Volkert, Willard Metcalf, Wilson Irvine, and Henry Ward Ranger, among many others.

These artists made Old Lyme a thriving art community, which still continues today.

Many American Impressionist paintings of the era are of subjects in and around the Griswold House and are featured in the museum, along with many other works and personal possessions of the artists who frequented there.

The building of the Old Lyme Congregational Church is known for the many paintings that have been made of it, most notably by Childe Hassam.

Like the Loch Ness Monster and Lake Champlain’s famed Champ, many locals regard Roger as pure myth while some believe in his existence, possibly being a relative of the plesiosaur, an extinct group of aquatic reptiles.

Connecticut Native American tribes referred to the creature as "Caca-togo".

According to their report, Ms. Griswold was setting up a canvas on the northeast side of the shore when she witnessed a large long-necked grey-skinned dinosaur-like creature emerge 20 feet above the surface and quickly submerge.

She recounted to her family that she did not sense Roger as a threat but was merely intrigued by the beastie.

Humored by her work, Lyme Art Academy Professor Herbert A. Strekel said, “If Picasso had his red period and Monet had his blue period, then that would have been Griswold’s Lake Monster period.”[citation needed] As of the census[5] of 2010, 7,603 people, 2,958 households, and 2,153 families resided in the town.

The district's girls' soccer and boys' basketball teams won the Shoreline Conference Championship during the 2010–2011 school year.

It is known for its focus on teaching techniques and the history and tradition of representational art, centered on the study of nature and the figure.

Services include connections to the Old Saybrook Train Station, served by Amtrak and Shore Line East railroads, as well as the New London Transportation Center, served by train and ferry service.

[8] Interstate 95 runs through the center of the town, as U.S. Route 1 travels mostly in the north.