The lake town where Nathan Hale was born, where Mill Brook ran from Wangumbaug Lake through the grist, wool and silk mills of South Coventry, and where the Boston Turnpike carried travelers past Brigham's Tavern.

Tolland County · Record checked October 8, 2026

12,235Population2020 census1
1712Incorporatednamed Coventry in October 17111
373Coventry Lakeacres, also called Wangumbaug, fed by springs1
116Lexington alarmsoldiers went from Coventry in 17752
10National Registerplaces, all still standing3

Then and now

The same town 148 years apart. Click either map to look closer.

Bird's-eye view map of South Coventry, Connecticut from 1878 by O.H. Bailey, restored by KNOWOL

1878

The bird's-eye view of South Coventry

By O.H. Bailey

South Coventry drawn as if from the sky toward the end of the 1800s, with the Bidwell House, the Phoenix Metallic Cartridge Co., J.S. Morgan Silk Manufacturer, the Mill Brook Woolen Company, Rowitser Brothers Woolens, Dunbar Blacksmithing and Bessey and Company Bed Comfortables.4

See the 1878 printMore about this map
Map of Coventry, Connecticut in 2026, with South Coventry, the lake, the Nathan Hale Homestead and 34 numbered landmarks

2026

Coventry today

By KNOWOL

Shaded hills from Grant Hill in the northwest down to the shores of Coventry Lake, with Coventry, North Coventry, South Coventry and Coventry Lake printed by name and a guide of 34 numbered landmarks with the National Register sites marked.5

See the 2026 printMore about this map

The story of Coventry

Mill Brook and the mills

Coventry's first surveyors knew what the lake's outlet was worth. On the survey map of 1708 the stream was already called Mill Brook, and in 1716 Jonathan Hartshorn agreed to build a grist mill on the brook from the Great Pond and keep it in repair forever. In 1816 John Boynton built a wool carding mill, and farmers brought their wool from fifteen miles around. Freed from carding by hand, families knitted socks and mittens to sell in New York City. An 1819 gazetteer named Coventry and East Hartford as the main seats of glassmaking in the state. A small cartridge works in South Coventry was bought by the New York firm that then built its big works in Bridgeport, and by 1912 Coventry's shops made silk thread, fish lines and toric lenses.6789

The boy who could do anything but spin

Nathan Hale was born in Coventry on June 6, 1755, one of ten or twelve children on Deacon Richard Hale's farm. A 1916 book says he loved running, leaping and playing ball, and told the girls of Coventry he could do anything but spin. The town's minister, Rev. Joseph Huntington, prepared him for Yale. When news of Lexington reached New London, where he was teaching school, he told a town meeting, "Let us march immediately." A hundred and sixteen Coventry men answered the same alarm. At home his father often kept the farm's wool from his own family so it could be made into blankets for soldiers. Hale was hanged as a spy in 1776, and in 1846 a granite monument to him rose on Lake Street.10211

Taverns, mail coaches and Lake Robertson

Coventry looked after travelers from the start. In 1715 Nathaniel Rust was elected tavern keeper, and one later tavern hung a shield-shaped sign of a man with a bird in his hand and another bird in a bush. Solomon Bidwell opened the Bidwell House in 1822. George Washington stopped at Brigham's Tavern for breakfast in 1789. The mail came on horseback, and in 1820 it averaged about two letters a day, with four to six days between here and New York. Until the trolley came in 1909, a two-horse coach met the trains at the depot. Its driver, Laocoon "Lake" Robertson, fought the trolley and could not be hurried, though he almost always got his passengers there on time.121314

Through the years

25 moments from 1706 to today.

  1. 1706The General Assembly names a committee to lay out the town and admit settlers.1
  2. 1708A survey lays out the first allotments and names the lake's outlet Mill Brook, with a grist mill already in mind.6
  3. 1709The Rust family and about a dozen families move here from Massachusetts.1
  4. 1711The colony names the town Coventry and fixes a brand mark for Coventry horses.6
  5. 1712Coventry is incorporated as a town in Hartford County.1
  6. 1715Nathaniel Rust is elected the town's tavern keeper.12
  7. 1716Jonathan Hartshorn agrees to build a grist mill on the brook from the Great Pond and keep it running forever.7
  8. 1740North Coventry becomes its own parish.15
  9. 1755Nathan Hale is born in Coventry on June 6.1
  10. 1775A hundred and sixteen Coventry soldiers answer the Lexington alarm.2
  11. 1776Nathan Hale is hanged as a spy in New York on September 22.2
  12. 1777Lorenzo Dow, the traveling Methodist preacher, is born in Coventry.1
  13. 1778Gershom Brigham builds the main block of Brigham's Tavern, with a ballroom upstairs.13
  14. 1789George Washington stops at Brigham's Tavern for breakfast.13
  15. 1810Coventry's first post office opens in North Coventry, with Silas Hubbard as postmaster.12
  16. 1813The Coventry glassworks opens on the Boston Turnpike.16
  17. 1816John Boynton builds a wool carding mill, and farmers bring wool from fifteen miles around.7
  18. 1822Solomon Bidwell opens the Bidwell House in South Coventry.12
  19. 1846The granite Captain Nathan Hale Monument goes up on Lake Street.11
  20. 1877St. Mary's Church is begun on Good Friday and dedicated on Thanksgiving Day.15
  21. 1878O.H. Bailey publishes his bird's-eye view of South Coventry.4
  22. 1880The South Coventry Library Association is organized after a gift offered by Dr. Cogswell.17
  23. 1909The trolley replaces the two-horse coach between the depot and South Coventry village.12
  24. 1912Coventry celebrates its 200th birthday with Old Home Week, August 25 to 31.18
  25. 1914George Dudley Seymour buys the Hale farm and restores the homestead.19

Places to see

The numbers match the landmark guide printed on the 2026 map.

  • 1Patriots ParkCoventry Lake. Beach, band shell and rowing crews.
  • 3Strong HouseSouth Street. Oldest part about 1710, now a museum.
  • 4Brigham's TavernBoston Turnpike. Washington's breakfast stop in 1789.
  • 9Nathan Hale HomesteadSouth Street. Deacon Richard Hale's house of 1776.Visit their website
  • 13Museum of Connecticut GlassNear the glass district. A museum of Connecticut glassmaking.Visit their website
  • 15South Coventry Historic DistrictSouth Coventry. The old center of town.
  • 16Booth and Dimock Memorial LibrarySouth Coventry. The library in the village.Visit their website
  • 17Coventry Glass Factory Historic DistrictRoute 44. Glassworks site, 1813 to about 1845.
  • 25Loomis-Pomeroy HouseNorth Coventry. Brick house of a tavern family.
  • 32Captain Nathan Hale MonumentLake Street. Granite obelisk built in 1846.

On the National Register

All 10 places in Coventry on the National Register of Historic Places that still stand today, oldest first, and why each one matters.3

  • South Coventry Historic District

    Listed 1991 · Main Street and nearby streets from Armstrong Road to Lake Street, and Lake Street from High Street to Main

    The old center of town, settled from 1707, with a green laid out by 1730 for militia training. It covers about 250 acres with more than 200 historic places, including mill remains along the brook, the Bidwell Tavern and the Nathan Hale Monument.20

  • Strong House

    Built about 1710 · Listed 1988 · 2382 South Street

    Its oldest part dates to about 1710, early in Coventry's settlement, and it once belonged to Nathan Hale's grandparents. George Dudley Seymour restored it in the 1930s, and the Coventry Historical Society runs it as the Strong-Porter Museum.21

  • Nathan Hale Homestead

    Built 1776 · Listed 1970 · 2299 South Street

    Deacon Richard Hale built this house in 1776 on the site of the house where his son Nathan grew up. George Dudley Seymour bought and restored it in 1914, and Connecticut Landmarks runs it as a museum.19

    Visit their website

  • Brigham's Tavern

    Built 1778 · Listed 1982 · 12 Boston Turnpike

    Gershom Brigham built the main block as a tavern in 1778, with a ballroom upstairs and a taproom below, onto a rear part dating to about 1717. George Washington stopped here for breakfast in 1789.13

  • Coventry Glass Factory Historic District

    Built 1813 to about 1845 · Listed 1987 · U.S. Route 44 and North River Road

    Ten houses built by and for the owners and workers of the glassworks that ran here from 1813 to about 1845. The factory is credited with the first portrait flask, made for Lafayette's visit in 1825, and the ground is still full of melted glass.16

  • Elias Sprague House

    Built 1821 · Listed 1987 · 2187 South Street

    A well-preserved country Cape once owned by the antiquarian George Dudley Seymour. The Coventry Historical Society restored it in the 1960s and used it as a historic house before it was sold as a private home.22

  • Loomis-Pomeroy House

    Built about 1833 · Listed 1994 · 1747 Boston Turnpike

    A brick house in North Coventry across from the Second Congregational Church, probably built by Eleazer Pomeroy, who ran a tavern and stagecoaches here. The Freeman and Loomis family kept it from 1881 until the 1980s.23

  • Captain Nathan Hale Monument

    Built 1846 · Listed 2002 · 120 Lake Street

    A 45 foot obelisk of Quincy granite, designed by Henry Austin and built by Solomon Willard, with the stone hauled from Norwich by oxen. It was one of the first war memorials built in the United States.11

  • Parker-Hutchinson Farm

    Built about 1850 · Listed 1982 · Parker Bridge Road

    A small, intact farm where the Parker and Hutchinson families processed flax and wool, raised sheep, ran a cider mill and a cooperage, and probably made woolen hats in the 1800s.24

  • Capron-Phillips House

    Built about 1864 · Listed 1982 · 1129 Main Street

    A well-preserved Italianate house in South Coventry that served for many years as the town's post office and drug store, until 1953.25

In their words

“The little town was courageous, Always doing more than her share”

Ruth Amelia Higgins, poem for Coventry's 200th anniversary, 191218

“Bordering the shores of beautiful Lake Wamgumbaug, the Coventry Hills, which still shelter the boyhood home of Nathan Hale.”

A modern history of Windham County, Connecticut, 192026

“Farmers in Coventry rode to Boston, 72 miles in one day and back the next.”

A Coventry correspondent in 1855, quoted in a history of Connecticut, 192527

Nearby towns

Sources

  1. Coventry, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  2. Historic sketch of Coventry, Connecticut (1912), on Coventry in the Revolution, Internet Archive
  3. National Register of Historic Places listings in Tolland County, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  4. Bird's-eye view of South Coventry, Connecticut from 1878, restored by KNOWOL
  5. Map of Coventry, Connecticut in 2026, KNOWOL (USGS elevation, Census Bureau roads)
  6. Historic sketch of Coventry, Connecticut (1912), on the town's beginnings, Internet Archive
  7. Historic sketch of Coventry, Connecticut (1912), on the mills, Internet Archive
  8. A gazetteer of the states of Connecticut and Rhode-Island (1819), Internet Archive
  9. A history of the old town of Stratford and the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut (1886), Internet Archive
  10. Once upon a time in Connecticut (1916), Internet Archive
  11. Captain Nathan Hale Monument, Wikipedia
  12. Historic sketch of Coventry, Connecticut (1912), on taverns, mails and travel, Internet Archive
  13. Brigham's Tavern, Wikipedia
  14. A modern history of Windham County, Connecticut (1920), on Lake Robertson, Internet Archive
  15. Historic sketch of Coventry, Connecticut (1912), on the churches, Internet Archive
  16. Coventry Glass Factory Historic District, Wikipedia
  17. Historic sketch of Coventry, Connecticut (1912), on the libraries, Internet Archive
  18. Historic sketch of Coventry, Connecticut (1912), bicentennial program and poem, Internet Archive
  19. Nathan Hale Homestead, Wikipedia
  20. South Coventry Historic District, Wikipedia
  21. Strong House (Coventry, Connecticut), Wikipedia
  22. Elias Sprague House, Wikipedia
  23. Loomis-Pomeroy House, Wikipedia
  24. Parker-Hutchinson Farm, Wikipedia
  25. Capron-Phillips House, Wikipedia
  26. A modern history of Windham County, Connecticut (1920), on the view west to Coventry, Internet Archive
  27. History of Connecticut in monographic form (1925), on Coventry horses, Internet Archive