A quiet hill town above Lake Lillinonah, once the Neck of New Milford, where Glover Sanford's hat shops kept the Centre busy for nearly fifty years and a hermit's bottled will helped double the library.

Litchfield County · Record checked October 8, 2026

1,662Population2020 census1
1856Became a townset off from New Milford2
$300,000Hat moneya year from the Sanford hat shops by 18703
100 acresThe deer parkGideon Treat's fenced park, about 17804
2National Registerplaces, all still standing5

Bridgewater on the map

Click the map to look closer.

Map of Bridgewater, Connecticut in 2026, with the Bridgewater Green, Lake Lillinonah, Burnham Library and a guide of 23 numbered landmarks

2026

Bridgewater today

By KNOWOL

Shaded hills with Botsford Hill among them, Lake Lillinonah drawn to its true shape, the roads printed by name, and a guide of 23 numbered landmarks with the National Register sites marked.6

See the 2026 printMore about this map

The story of Bridgewater

The meetinghouse built by lottery

When the people of the Neck finally got their own church society, they couldn't agree where to put the meetinghouse. In 1806 they turned down the spot a county committee chose and moved the stake to Cranberry Pond. The frame went up in 1807, and the society asked the state for a lottery to finish it. The lottery failed, and the agent hired to collect the money left town with much of it, ruining Andrew Minor, who had taken the job on himself. The first minister, Rev. Reuben Taylor, was let go in 1815, and two years later lightning struck the building in an April shower. Some of those lottery tickets were still around to show at New Milford's 1907 celebration.78910

Hats on Hat Shop Hill

Glover Sanford learned the hatter's trade from his brother in Brookfield and came home to Bridgewater in 1823, making a few hats a week for his neighbors, many of them heavy wool hats made to order. His four sons joined him as Glover Sanford and Sons. By the time the firm moved to Bridgeport in 1870, it had about 125 hands and turned out about $300,000 worth of goods a year, and the trade had made the Centre a busy village. Sanford also became the first postmaster in 1831 and was one of the new town's first selectmen. His son Frederick's Italianate house, with its three-story tower, still stands on Hat Shop Hill Road.311212

The bottle in Los Angeles

Captain William D. Burnham grew up in Bridgewater and made his fortune in shipping. His bequest built the Greek Revival library of Mine Hill granite on Main Street, dedicated on August 26, 1926. By the 1960s it was crowded, and a fund for a wing named for the critic Van Wyck Brooks, who had lived in town, raised only enough for a bust. Then in 1973 a hermit named Charles E. Piggott died in a Los Angeles slum. A bulldozer driver knocking down his shack spotted a bottle with his handwritten will inside, leaving $300,000 to the fund. California contested it, the library came away with $210,000, and the new wing opened in 1980.16

Through the years

25 moments from 1722 to today.

  1. 1722Daniel Collins of Milford has 100 acres laid out to him in Shepaug Neck.13
  2. 1734Joseph Benedict and Ephraim Hawley are the first settlers on record in the Neck.13
  3. 1753New Milford's proprietors lay out a burying place in the Neck.13
  4. 1758The first school district in the Neck is set up.13
  5. 1780About this year Gideon Treat fences a 100-acre deer park south of the Centre.4
  6. 1789A Baptist meetinghouse is started in the part of the village later called the City.14
  7. 1803The General Assembly makes the Neck a church society named Bridgewater.15
  8. 1807The meetinghouse goes up by Cranberry Pond, and the society asks for a lottery to finish it.7
  9. 1810St. Mark's Episcopal Society is organized at the house of Jonas Sanford.16
  10. 1815The lottery has failed, and the first minister, Rev. Reuben Taylor, is dismissed.8
  11. 1817Lightning strikes the meetinghouse during an April shower.9
  12. 1823Glover Sanford starts making hats in Bridgewater, a few a week.3
  13. 1830The Congregational church's records burn.17
  14. 1831Glover Sanford becomes the first postmaster.11
  15. 1835St. Mark's builds its first church, half a mile south of the village.16
  16. 1849The Bridgewater and Brookfield Toll Bridge Company is incorporated.18
  17. 1856Bridgewater becomes a town and holds its first town meeting on July 14.2
  18. 1859A new St. Mark's Church is built in the village.16
  19. 1870Glover Sanford and Sons move their hat business to Bridgeport.3
  20. 1880The census counts 708 people in Bridgewater.19
  21. 1899Mail-order pioneer Charles B. Thompson puts up the building that's now the Village Store and post office.6
  22. 1926The Burnham Library, built of Mine Hill granite, is dedicated on August 26.1
  23. 1973Hermit Charles E. Piggott dies in Los Angeles, leaving a will in a bottle to the library fund.1
  24. 1980The Van Wyck Brooks Memorial Wing doubles the size of the library.1
  25. 2014Voters end Bridgewater's days as a dry town, 660 to 246.1

Places to see

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

  • 1Burnham LibraryMain Street. Granite library dedicated in 1926.Visit their website
  • 4Bridgewater Town HallNear the Green. The town's offices, near the Green.
  • 5Bridgewater Post OfficeNear the Green. In Charles B. Thompson's 1899 building.
  • 6Lake Lillinonah Boat LaunchSouth of town. Boats in on the dammed Housatonic.
  • 13Bridgewater GreenThe Center. Where the town center gathers.
  • 14The Burnham SchoolMain Street. Captain Burnham's other gift, 1929.
  • 15Sunny Valley PreserveSouth of town. Open land in the south of town.Visit their website
  • 17St. Mark's Episcopal ChurchThe Center. Gothic Revival church of 1859.Visit their website
  • 18Frederick S. Sanford HouseHat Shop Hill Road. The hat maker's Italianate villa.
  • 19Bridgewater Congregational ChurchThe Center. The meetinghouse of 1807.

On the National Register

All 2 places in Bridgewater on the National Register of Historic Places that still stand today, oldest first, and why each one matters.5

  • Bridgewater Center Historic District

    Listed 2000 · Roughly along Main Street, Warner Road, Clapboard Road and Hat Shop Hill

    The town center grew up around the Congregational church of 1807, before Bridgewater was even a town, and hat makers along Hat Shop Hill Road kept it busy. More than 60 historic buildings stand here, among them St. Mark's Gothic Revival church, the present and former town halls and the 1929 Burnham School.20

  • Frederick S. Sanford House

    Listed 1989 · Hat Shop Hill Road

    A small early house remade into an Italian villa with a three-story tower, the finest Italianate exterior in town. It belonged to Glover Sanford and his son Frederick, whose hat factory nearby employed 125 people by the end of the 1800s.12

In their words

“It has a good soil, healthy climate, and is beautifully located.”

History of the towns of New Milford and Bridgewater, 188219

“Mr. Taylor, we will call the tree account square.”

John Sturdevant to his minister, who had paid for shade trees in sermons, as told in 188217

“With him to encounter a difficulty was to overcome.”

History of the towns of New Milford and Bridgewater, 1882, on the hat maker Glover Sanford11

Nearby towns

Sources

  1. Bridgewater, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  2. History of the towns of New Milford and Bridgewater, Connecticut, 1703-1882 (1882), on the incorporation of the town, Internet Archive
  3. History of the towns of New Milford and Bridgewater, Connecticut, 1703-1882 (1882), on the hat makers, Internet Archive
  4. History of the towns of New Milford and Bridgewater, Connecticut, 1703-1882 (1882), on Gideon Treat's deer park, Internet Archive
  5. National Register of Historic Places listings in Litchfield County, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  6. Map of Bridgewater, Connecticut in 2026, KNOWOL (USGS elevation, Census Bureau roads)
  7. History of the towns of New Milford and Bridgewater, Connecticut, 1703-1882 (1882), on building the meetinghouse, Internet Archive
  8. History of the towns of New Milford and Bridgewater, Connecticut, 1703-1882 (1882), on the failed lottery, Internet Archive
  9. History of the towns of New Milford and Bridgewater, Connecticut, 1703-1882 (1882), on the lightning of 1817, Internet Archive
  10. Two centuries of New Milford, Connecticut (1907), on the lottery tickets, Internet Archive
  11. History of the towns of New Milford and Bridgewater, Connecticut, 1703-1882 (1882), on Glover Sanford, Internet Archive
  12. Frederick S. Sanford House, Wikipedia
  13. History of the towns of New Milford and Bridgewater, Connecticut, 1703-1882 (1882), on the first settlers of the Neck, Internet Archive
  14. History of the towns of New Milford and Bridgewater, Connecticut, 1703-1882 (1882), on the Baptists in Bridgewater, Internet Archive
  15. History of the towns of New Milford and Bridgewater, Connecticut, 1703-1882 (1882), on the founding of the Bridgewater Society, Internet Archive
  16. History of the towns of New Milford and Bridgewater, Connecticut, 1703-1882 (1882), on St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Internet Archive
  17. History of the towns of New Milford and Bridgewater, Connecticut, 1703-1882 (1882), on Rev. Reuben Taylor, Internet Archive
  18. Two centuries of New Milford, Connecticut (1907), on the toll bridge, Internet Archive
  19. History of the towns of New Milford and Bridgewater, Connecticut, 1703-1882 (1882), on the town in 1880, Internet Archive
  20. Bridgewater Center Historic District, Wikipedia