Featured Apartment:
Connecticut- Litchfield - 1
bedroom - 1 bath - spacious, clean & sunny unit! - Brick Building - Hardwood
Floors - Modern Kitchen - Spacious Living Room - Large Bedroom w/ Double Sliding
Door Closet - Updated Bathroom - Off Street Parking - access to commuter rail,
bus, shops & restaurants, first and last months rent
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About Litchfield
Litchfield is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut. The population was
8,316 at the 2000 census.
The borough of Bantam resides within the town. Two unincorporated villages,
Northfield and Milton also reside inside the boundaries of Litchfield.
Founded in 1721 Litchfield was designated the county seat in 1751, and by the
1790s the town had become the leading commercial, social, cultural and legal
center of Northwestern Connecticut. Its population grew from 1,366 in 1756 to
2,544 in 1774, and by 1810 Litchfield was the fourth largest settlement in the
state with a population of 4,639.
Beginning in 1784, Litchfield lawyer, Tapping Reeve, systematized his law
lectures for young students, creating the Litchfield Law School. Reeve was the
first to develop a series of formal, regular lectures that insured that all
students had access to the same body of knowledge.
Established in 1792, Sarah Pierce's Litchfield Female Academy was one of the
first major educational institutions for women in the United States.
During its "Golden Age" (1784-1834) Litchfield had an unusual number of college
educated inhabitants. In 1791 Samuel Miles Hopkins, a student at the Litchfield
Law School, described Litchfield in his journal as a town of "hard, active,
reading, thinking, intelligent men who may probably be set forth as a pattern of
the finest community on earth."
Litchfield's fortunes declined during the later years of the nineteenth century.
The town did not have the ample water supply and rail transportation necessary
to establish industry and the village became a sleepy backwater. Rediscovered as
a resort community in the late nineteenth century Litchfield became a popular
spot for vacation, weekend and summer homes. The town embraced the Colonial
Revival movement and by the early Century many of the homes began to sport the
white paint and black shutters we see today.
Famous residents have included Ethan Allen, Andrew Adams, Henry Ward Beecher,
Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Oliver Wolcott.