ominated by
the spire of the white clapboard Congregational meetinghouse built
in 1839 and the 1888 stone clock tower of the Superior Court, the
Litchfield Green and its bordering storefronts create the
quintessential picture of small-town Connecticut life. The
Litchfield Green is one of the state's most distinctive and
recognizable symbols of rural beauty.
This long, broad park punctuated with war
monuments and shaded by maple, oak, and ash trees, many of which
were planted as memorials, stretches in three contiguous sections
(East, Center, and West parks) through the middle of the
village.
The Litchfield Green dates from the town's
founding in 1719 as a frontier farming community on a tract
purchased from the Tunxis Indians. The common itself originated as
land set aside for the main road and for the first Congregational
meetinghouse, which was built in 1723 at the main crossroads on
approximately the site of the Beecher Memorial in the East Park.
The meetinghouse was followed by a schoolhouse in 1732, and a
county courthouse in 1751, when the town became the seat of
Litchfield County.
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