Helen Binney Kitchel

{{Short description|American politician and writer}}

Helen Binney Kitchel (September 9, 1890 - February 11, 1990) was an American politician. She is best known for her fight against billboards.[https://www.ctwoodlands.org/sites/default/files/CTW_Summer2015Final.pdf The World of Helen Binney Kitchel] She was elected in the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1931 to 1939. She was the first woman in Connecticut to have a bill named after her.

Kitchel was born on September 9, 1890, in Old Greenwich to parents Edwin Binney and Alice Stead Binney.{{Cite web |last=Woodside |first=Chris |date=December 15, 2015 |title=Helen Binney Kitchel {{!}} Chris Woodside |url=https://chriswoodside.com/helen-binney-kitchel/ |access-date=2022-04-03 |website=chriswoodside.com}} She attended the Catherine Aiken School in Stamford. She married Allan Farrand Kitchel 1909.{{Cite web|date=2020-04-13|title=Kitchel Family visits Pan-American Exposition in 1901|url=https://greenwichhistory.org/greenwich-family-visits-a-dazzling-turn-of-the-century-exposition/|access-date=2021-10-16|website=Greenwich Historical Society|language=en-US}}

Helen Binney Kitchel Natural Park was named after her,{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}} as is a holly grove at Greenwich Point beach.{{Cite web |last=Franco |first=Chris |date=March 15, 2020 |title=Trailblazing Women of Greenwich Point |url=https://www.greenwichsentinel.com/2020/03/15/trailblazing-women-of-greenwich-point/ |access-date=2022-04-03 |website=Greenwich Sentinel |language=en-US}} In 1961 Kitchel gave the state of Connecticut a tract of land that forms what is now called Algonquin State Forest.{{Cite news |date=1961-07-06 |title=Mrs. Kitchel gives state 500-acre tract |pages=7 |work=Hartford Courant |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/100677579/mrs-kitchel-gives-state-500-acre-tract/ |access-date=2022-04-29}}