Willington Common Historic District - Willington, CT
N 41° 52.538 W 072° 15.852
18T E 727022 N 4639587
Willington Common Historic District, located in Willington, Connecticut, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
Waymark Code: WM9X8D
Location: Connecticut, United States
Date Posted: 10/09/2010
Views: 3
"Willington Common Historic District is a historic district that includes the town green, Willington Common, of the town of Willington, Connecticut. The common and the surrounding buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
The district is located at the junction of Route 74 and Route 320, on the location now known as Willington Hill, which is the original settlement and town center of Willington. The Green is rectangular and is bounded by Route 74 on the south, Jared Sparks Road on the east and Common Road on the north and west.
The buildings around the common were built in the 18th and 19th centuries. They include two churches, the Old Town Hall, a parsonage and other residences (some of which served as stores and taverns). The two churches are the most dominant structures on the Green. The Green and the surrounding buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Willington Common Historic District. The historic district covers an area of 19 acres and comprises 32 buildings, sites, and objects. It is noted primarily for its architecture, including designs by Albert Sharp."
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A historical marker on the Town Green reads as follows:
Willington
Incorporated 1727
In 1720 a party of eight men, originally from England, bought sixteen thousand acres in this region and called it Wellington. One of these, Roger Wolcott, subsequently became governor of Connecticut (1750–1754).
After a century of farming the town gradually expanded industrially until 1845 when it boasted a thread mill, a cotton mill, three silk factories, a scythe factory, four comb factories, button mils, and a glassworks (1815–1871) producing demijohns and flasks with varying designs.
Persons of distinction born here were Jared Sparks (1789–1866), historian and biographer and president of Harvard; Elias Loomis, professor at Yale, celebrated mathematician and astronomer.
This historical marker was erected in 1976 by the Town of Willington, the Willington Historical Society, and the Connecticut Historical Commission.