A farming town that grew up around the Great Marsh east of Windsor, with a green shaded by tall trees where the first meetinghouse stood in 1739, a farmers' synagogue of 1913 on Pinney Street, and Crystal Lake out in its long eastern panhandle.

Tolland County · Record checked October 8, 2026

16,426Population2020 census1
1786Became a townset off from East Windsor1
11Families in 1730the whole settlement at the Great Marsh2
1739First meetinghouseits site marked by a granite monument on the green3
2National Registerplaces, all still standing4

Ellington on the map

Click the map to look closer.

Map of Ellington, Connecticut in 2026, with Ellington Center, Crystal Lake, Shenipsit Lake and 34 numbered landmarks

2026

Ellington today

By KNOWOL

Shaded ground from the farm fields around Ellington Center out to Crystal Lake and the state forest, every street down to small roads like Burbank Road, and a guide of 34 numbered landmarks with the National Register sites marked.5

See the 2026 printMore about this map

The story of Ellington

The men on the sill

The first settlers from Windsor walked right past the Great Marsh. People believed the low ground there was unhealthy, and the marsh was then a sheet of water ringed by woods and brush, so they pushed on to the hills. Samuel Pinney settled here anyway, and in 1720 Lieut. John Ellsworth began clearing the east side of the marsh. That October a tree he was felling came down on him, and his sons hauled his body to their shanty on a stone boat. In 1730 the settlement still counted only eleven families, most of them poor. When the parish finally raised its first meetinghouse, it was said that every man in Ellington sat down together on the east sill of the frame.62

Father Brockway's fall

Ellington's second church went up in 1804, built by Col. Samuel Belcher of Hartford for about $7,000. While it was being built, the pastor, Rev. Diodate Brockway, was climbing to the cupola when he fell sixty-five feet. He was lame for the rest of his life and preached the dedication sermon in 1806 sitting in a chair. He stayed with the church for fifty years, and people far beyond the parish called him Father Brockway. In 1868 a new church was dedicated across from the green, and the old one was taken down and carried off to Rockville, where it became an opera house. A short walk away, the Franklin House hotel still hung its old sign with Benjamin Franklin's portrait from a big elm out front.62

Rye fields to the Ellington Shul

Early Ellington was rye country. A single field sometimes ran to a hundred acres, and the grain went to the neighboring distilleries. After the Revolution, Col. Joseph Abbot bought more than a square mile in the southwest part of town and farmed so well that the farmers on the plain copied him. He once said he didn't know of a single bush on his farm. By the 1890s tobacco, corn, potatoes and fruit had replaced the rye, and the distilleries were gone. Then in 1906 Yiddish-speaking farmers from Russia and Eastern Europe founded Congregation Knesseth Israel, and in 1913 they built the small synagogue that's still in use on Pinney Street today.678

Through the years

24 moments from 1671 to today.

  1. 1671Thomas and Nathaniel Bissell buy land here from a Native man named Nearawonuck, the first purchase within today's town.6
  2. 1717Samuel Pinney, a surveyor, settles on the Great Marsh, the first resident of what becomes Ellington.1
  3. 1720Lieut. John Ellsworth is killed by a falling tree while clearing land on the east side of the marsh.2
  4. 1723About 8,000 acres east of old Windsor, the Equivalent Lands, are laid out to Windsor.2
  5. 1730The settlement at the Great Marsh numbers only eleven families.2
  6. 1733Rev. John McKinstry, an Edinburgh graduate, is settled as the first minister for forty pounds a year and his firewood.6
  7. 1735The General Assembly makes the settlement a separate society, Ellington Parish.2
  8. 1739The first meetinghouse is built, and at its raising every man in the parish is said to sit on its east sill.2
  9. 1768John Aborns is killed by lightning; his brother puts up a roadside slab at the spot.7
  10. 1783The Wadsworth homestead goes up, with the year and the family's initials set in a stone tablet in the chimney.6
  11. 1786Ellington is incorporated as a town, separate from East Windsor.1
  12. 1790The first tavern in Ellington is built.6
  13. 1799Rev. Diodate Brockway is ordained, beginning fifty years with the church.6
  14. 1806Brockway, lamed by a fall from the cupola, preaches the dedication sermon for the new church sitting in a chair.6
  15. 1812Samuel Knight, nine years old, is killed by a cart wheel; a roadside stone marks the spot.1
  16. 1818Phoebe Hinsdale Brown writes the hymn "I love to steal awhile away" in Ellington.1
  17. 1823The Franklin House hotel opens on Main Street under a sign with Benjamin Franklin's portrait.6
  18. 1829John Hall builds the Ellington High School, soon a well-known boarding and day school.6
  19. 1861Fire destroys the upper stories of the Windermere mill while it runs day and night making army blankets.9
  20. 1868A new Congregational church is dedicated, and the old one is moved to Rockville to become an opera house.6
  21. 1875The empty Ellington High School building burns.6
  22. 1876A seven-mile rail line from Vernon to Melrose is built through town.1
  23. 1913Jewish farmers of Congregation Knesseth Israel, founded in 1906, build their synagogue.8
  24. 1967On New Year's Day, residents light the runway at Hyde Field with their headlights so a pilot lost in fog can land.1

Places to see

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

  • 1Arbor ParkEllington Center. Just southeast of the green.
  • 2Center SchoolEllington Center. Brick school of 1949.
  • 7Hall Memorial LibraryEllington Center. Neo-Classical library of brick and limestone.Visit their website
  • 13Knesseth Israel SynagoguePinney Street. The Ellington Shul, built 1913.
  • 17Ellington Center Historic DistrictEllington Center. 80 acres around the town green.
  • 18Sandy BeachCrystal Lake. Out in the eastern end of town.
  • 19Kimball ForestNorth and east. Woodland preserve.
  • 21Ellington Town HallEllington Center. Close by the green.
  • 23Shenipsit State ForestEastern Ellington. Home of the CCC Museum.Visit their website
  • 25Veterans Memorial ParkCrystal Lake. In the eastern end of town.

On the National Register

All 2 places in Ellington on the National Register of Historic Places that still stand today, oldest first, and why each one matters.4

  • Ellington Center Historic District

    Listed 1990 · Roughly Maple Street from Berr Avenue to just west of the High School and Main Street from Jobs Hill Road to East Green

    Most of Ellington Center, an 80-acre district around the town green with 103 contributing buildings, including the Hall Memorial Library and two churches. It's known for well-preserved Federal houses of the early 1800s, and a granite monument on the green marks the site of the first meetinghouse of 1739.3

  • Knesseth Israel Synagogue

    Built 1913 · Listed 1995 · 236 Pinney Street

    A rare early 20th-century rural synagogue, built by a congregation of Yiddish-speaking Jewish farmers founded in 1906, partly with funds from Baron Maurice de Hirsch's Jewish Colonization Association. It was moved within Ellington to Pinney Street in 1954 and is still in use as the Ellington Shul.8

In their words

“The territory covered by the town of Ellington is exceedingly fair and graceful, spreading out in agreeable curves and attractive landscapes.”

The Memorial History of Hartford County, 188610

“Ellington is beautiful. It might be just a little quiet in winter, but at this season it is great. There's a glorious silence there.”

The poet Edward Rowland Sill, in a letter of 1883, quoted in The harvest of a quiet eye, 192711

“Ellington became the pleasant place that never fails to excite the admiration of a stranger.”

The history of ancient Windsor, Connecticut, 18597

Nearby towns

Sources

  1. Ellington, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  2. The history of ancient Windsor, Connecticut (1859), on the founding of Ellington Parish, Internet Archive
  3. Ellington Center Historic District, Wikipedia
  4. National Register of Historic Places listings in Tolland County, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  5. Map of Ellington, Connecticut in 2026, KNOWOL (USGS elevation, Census Bureau roads)
  6. The Connecticut quarterly, vol. 4 (1898), "Ellington" by Alice E. Pinney, Internet Archive
  7. The history of ancient Windsor, Connecticut (1859), on Ellington's people and epitaphs, Internet Archive
  8. Congregation Knesseth Israel (Ellington, Connecticut), Wikipedia
  9. Commemorative biographical record of Hartford County, Connecticut (1901), on the Windermere mill, Internet Archive
  10. The Memorial History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884 (1886), Internet Archive
  11. The harvest of a quiet eye, by Odell Shepard (1927), Internet Archive