A farm town set off from Wallingford in 1780, where the Episcopal Academy was built in 1796, canal boats loaded at Beachport, and Cornish miners sank shafts 600 feet deep after barytes.

New Haven County · Record checked October 8, 2026

28,733Population2020 census1
1780Became a townset off from Wallingford1
1794Cheshire Academyfounded as the Episcopal Academy of Connecticut2
600 feetDeepest mine shaftthe barytes mines, after 18553
4National Registerplaces, all still standing4

Then and now

The same town 144 years apart. Click either map to look closer.

Bird's-eye view map of Cheshire, Connecticut from 1882 by O.H. Bailey, restored by KNOWOL

1882

The bird's-eye view

By O.H. Bailey

Cheshire drawn as if from the sky in 1882, with the Episcopal Academy of Connecticut, the Cheshire Brass Company, Payne's Hotel, the Academy Store, the Wallace House, the parade and play grounds, Cheshire Manufacturing, the town hall and the post office.5

See the 1882 printMore about this map
Map of Cheshire, Connecticut in 2026, with the town center, the Farmington Canal trail, Mixville and 34 numbered landmarks

2026

Cheshire today

By KNOWOL

Shaded hills from Mountaincrest across to Brooksvale and Mixville, every street printed by name, the villages of West Cheshire, Ives Corner and Richards Corner, and a guide of 34 numbered landmarks with the National Register sites marked.6

See the 2026 printMore about this map

The story of Cheshire

The barytes mines

Cheshire's ledges held barytes, a heavy white mineral. A 1917 biography credits farmer Levi Bradley with discovering it here and opening the first mine. Professor Silliman found one of the richest deposits on Amos Bristol's farm, mined from about 1840. In 1855 the Stamford Mining and Manufacturing Company bought the Bristol mine. James Lanyon, an English miner who came to Cheshire in 1844, managed the work, and several hundred Cornish miners sank half a dozen shafts, the deepest 600 feet. After the Civil War sixty to seventy tons a day went out to Barytes station on the railroad. In October 1866 alone the company paid $22,000 in wages, and the mines brought nearly two million dollars into town. Falling prices and rising costs ended the work, and Jennie's Hill was busy until about 1875.738

The Academy and the steeple

In 1796 about thirty proprietors put up the Episcopal Academy in Cheshire at a cost of 702 pounds. When one of them told his wife what he had pledged, she said he ought to buy some windows for his house first. Freemasons of Temple Lodge laid the cornerstone that April, marching from the lodge room to the Episcopal church and back to a feast. In 1799 Bishop Jarvis moved here to be near his son at the school, and for a time the village was the center of the diocese. The Episcopal church, built in 1770, was a tall square with no steeple. When members told Bishop Seabury they planned to add one, he said they had better build a church to their steeple. They added it in 1795.9101112

Beachport on the canal

West Cheshire grew up at a canal landing called Beachport. Richard Beach kept a low warehouse there that reached out over the canal basin, so boats could load and unload inside the building. From 1827 to 1846 Cheshire owners ran their own boats: James V. Field carried barytes, and Nathaniel Newell carried general freight. Until the Naugatuck railroad came, goods from the Naugatuck Valley were hauled over the hills to Beachport to ship. A screw propeller credited to Benjamin Beecher, who grew up in Cheshire, was made here for the canal in 1832. When the railroad was laid along the old towpath, Cheshire station was built on the site of Beachport, and the village began to grow.13141516

Through the years

25 moments from 1694 to today.

  1. 1694Joseph Ives and John Hotchkiss make the first homes in what is now Cheshire, then part of Wallingford.17
  2. 1712John Parker finds a copper mine, probably in the southeast part of today's town.18
  3. 1724The church of New Cheshire is gathered, with Rev. Samuel Hall as its first pastor.19
  4. 1732Smallpox breaks out in the center of the parish. Of 124 people who catch it, seventeen die.20
  5. 1742Capt. Elnathan Beach dies, remembered as perhaps the first in Connecticut to start a fund for the poor.21
  6. 1770The Episcopalians build a tall, square church without a steeple.12
  7. 1780Cheshire is incorporated as a town, separate from Wallingford.1
  8. 1794Bishop Samuel Seabury founds the Episcopal Academy of Connecticut in Cheshire.2
  9. 1795The Episcopal church is enlarged and finally gets its steeple.12
  10. 1796Freemasons of Temple Lodge lay the cornerstone of the Academy building in April.10
  11. 1799Bishop Jarvis moves to Cheshire to be near his son at the Academy.11
  12. 1800A town meeting votes against the New Haven turnpike, and the Cheshire Turnpike Company is chartered anyway.22
  13. 1827The First Congregational Church is built to a design by David Hoadley.23
  14. 1827Canal days begin, and Cheshire owners run boats out of Beachport.14
  15. 1829Prospect, long Cheshire's Columbia Parish, becomes a separate town.1
  16. 1832A screw propeller credited to Benjamin Beecher is made in Cheshire for the Farmington Canal.15
  17. 1833Robert Wallace, eighteen, starts making spoons in an old grist mill in Cheshire.24
  18. 1844James Lanyon, an English miner, comes to Cheshire to work the barytes veins.3
  19. 1850The Cheshire Manufacturing Company is founded to make buttons.6
  20. 1855The Stamford Mining and Manufacturing Company buys the Bristol barytes mine.3
  21. 1866In October alone the Stamford company pays $22,000 in wages to its miners.8
  22. 1867The town hall goes up, a late example of the Greek Revival style.25
  23. 1880At the centennial, Rev. Daniel March says he dreamed of Cheshire's future in the cave under Scott's Rock.26
  24. 1882O.H. Bailey publishes his bird's-eye view of Cheshire.5
  25. 1994The Button Shop closes after 144 years.6

Places to see

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

  • 2Mixville ParkMixville. Sledding, swimming and fishing.
  • 5Ball & Socket ArtsWest of the center. In the old button factory.Visit their website
  • 8Cheshire Town HallTown center. Across Route 10 from the church.
  • 13Cheshire Historic DistrictMain Street. The old town center, listed 1986.
  • 15Farmington Canal Line State Park TrailAlong the old canal. Trail on the canal and railroad path.Visit their website
  • 22The Church GreenRoute 10. A surviving piece of the green.
  • 27Lock 12 Historical ParkNear Brooksvale. Restored in 1980 with rebuilt gates.
  • 29Farmington Canal LockNorth Brooksvale Road. Lock 12, stone walls and lock house.
  • 33First Congregational Church of CheshireChurch Drive. David Hoadley's church of 1827.Visit their website
  • 34Barker Character, Comic, & Cartoon MuseumNorth of town. Lunch boxes and Pez dispensers.Visit their website

On the National Register

All 4 places in Cheshire on the National Register of Historic Places that still stand today, oldest first, and why each one matters.4

  • Marion Historic District

    Listed 1988 · Along Marion Avenue and Meriden-Waterbury Turnpike

    A farm and crossroads village of the 1700s and 1800s at the Southington line, where Rochambeau's French troops camped in 1781. Most of its 34 primary buildings are in Southington, and two are in Cheshire.27

  • Cheshire Historic District

    Listed 1986 · Roughly bounded by Main Street, Highland Avenue, Wallingford Road, South Main, Cornwall and Spring Streets

    About 35 acres of the old town center, which grew up around the first meetinghouse. It holds many houses built before 1850, three churches, the town hall of 1867 and a late 1700s store building on South Main Street.25

  • First Congregational Church of Cheshire

    Built 1827 · Listed 1973 · 111 Church Drive

    David Hoadley designed it with a four-column temple front and a steeple over a clock tower. It is one of six Connecticut churches built to nearly the same plan, with matching doors, steeples and weathervanes.23

    Visit their website

  • Farmington Canal Lock

    Listed 1973 · 487 North Brooksvale Road

    Lock 12 of the 28 locks on the Farmington Canal. Built as a wood-lined lock and rebuilt in stone, it survives mostly whole with its lock house and was restored in 1980 as Lock 12 Historical Park.28

In their words

“The village so beautiful and attractive by nature became, for a time, the general centre of diocesan interests.”

The history of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, 1868, on Bishop Jarvis moving to Cheshire in 179911

“My memories of this fine old town and its friendly people are happy memories.”

A former resident at the First Church's 200th anniversary, 192429

“Had better build a church to their steeple.”

Bishop Samuel Seabury on the steepleless Episcopal church, told in Sketches of Church Life in Colonial Connecticut, 190212

Nearby towns

Sources

  1. Cheshire, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  2. Cheshire Academy, Wikipedia
  3. History of New Haven County, Connecticut (1892), on the Bristol barytes mine, Internet Archive
  4. National Register of Historic Places listings in New Haven County, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  5. Bird's-eye view of Cheshire, Connecticut from 1882, restored by KNOWOL
  6. Map of Cheshire, Connecticut in 2026, KNOWOL (USGS elevation, Census Bureau roads)
  7. Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography (1917), on Levi Bradley, Internet Archive
  8. History of New Haven County, Connecticut (1892), on barytes wages, Internet Archive
  9. Sketches of Church Life in Colonial Connecticut (1902), on the Episcopal Academy, Internet Archive
  10. Connecticut historical collections (1837), on the Academy cornerstone, Internet Archive
  11. The history of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut (1868), on Bishop Jarvis, Internet Archive
  12. Sketches of church life in colonial Connecticut (1902), on St. Peter's Church, Cheshire, Internet Archive
  13. History of Cheshire, Connecticut, from 1694 to 1840 (1912), on Beachport, Internet Archive
  14. History of New Haven County, Connecticut (1892), on canal boats and Beachport, Internet Archive
  15. Commemorative biographical record of Hartford County, Connecticut (1901), on Benjamin D. Beecher, Internet Archive
  16. The Connecticut magazine (1899), on a propeller boat at Beachport, Internet Archive
  17. Old historic homes of Cheshire, Connecticut (1895), on the first settlers, Internet Archive
  18. History of Cheshire, Connecticut, from 1694 to 1840 (1912), on the copper mine, Internet Archive
  19. Exercises commemorative of the two-hundredth anniversary of the First Congregational Church in Cheshire (1925), on Cheshire's statesmen, Internet Archive
  20. Connecticut historical collections (1837), on the smallpox of 1732, Internet Archive
  21. Connecticut historical collections (1837), on the old burying ground, Internet Archive
  22. History of Cheshire, Connecticut, from 1694 to 1840 (1912), on the turnpike, Internet Archive
  23. First Congregational Church of Cheshire, Wikipedia
  24. Souvenir History of Wallingford, Connecticut (1895), on Robert Wallace, Internet Archive
  25. Cheshire Historic District, Wikipedia
  26. Old historic homes of Cheshire, Connecticut (1895), on Scott's Rock and the 1880 centennial, Internet Archive
  27. Marion, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  28. New Haven and Northampton Canal, Wikipedia
  29. Exercises commemorative of the two-hundredth anniversary of the First Congregational Church in Cheshire (1925), recollections, Internet Archive