A hill town on the old road from Hartford to Litchfield, named for the two towns that once owned it, where Washington's party stopped in 1780, men once combed the woods for a rock of pure lead, and the fair has run since 1853.

Litchfield County · Record checked October 11, 2026

5,484Population2020 census1
1737Became a townnamed for Hartford and Windsor1
1,718People in 1810down to 1,175 by 18502
1853Harwinton Fairthe year it started3
3National Registerplaces, all still standing4

Harwinton on the map

Click the map to look closer.

Map of Harwinton, Connecticut in 2026, with the town center on Route 4, Campville, the Roraback Wildlife Area and 21 numbered landmarks

2026

Harwinton today

By KNOWOL

Shaded hills from the center of town down to Campville and the Naugatuck valley, every street right down to small roads like Catlin Road, and a guide of 21 numbered landmarks with the National Register sites marked.3

See the 2026 printMore about this map

The story of Harwinton

The great lead rock

Harwinton's first settlers heard of a rock of lead in the hills east and south of town, so pure it could be cut without melting. Joseph Merriman was said to have brought pieces home and molded them into bullets, then lost the spot for good. During the Revolution, when lead for musket balls was scarce, somewhere between one hundred and five hundred men gathered to drive the woods for it, in three divisions led by three ministers. The Bristol pastor carried a bell to ring when the rock turned up. At nightfall everyone went home. Then, about 1812 to 1817, a man showed off pure antimony he said came from northeast of the meetinghouse. Professors came looking, but he never told where, and he died with the secret.56

Washington on the Litchfield road

Daniel Messenger settled here in January 1730, near the road between Litchfield and Farmington, and in 1731 he built the first house in town worth the name. In December 1732 he and the East Harwinton proprietors put that road in good order, and it stayed a main highway into the stagecoach era, and its travelers made Harwinton better known then than it was by 1860. In 1780 George Washington came along it with Lafayette and General Knox, riding back to West Point from a meeting with the French at Hartford. The town's young women served the party refreshments. As the riders climbed out of the Lead-mine Brook valley in view of the church, they made a sight the old people still described sixty years later. That road is Route 4 today.178910

Going south with a wagonload

Harwinton never had big mills, so its people found other ways to earn. Before 1860 its shops made fur, silk and palm-leaf hats, clocks, flutes and fifes, bricks and tinware to sell elsewhere. Trading became the rage. It started with men selling tinware, and about 1835 young men left by the score, each with a horse and a loaded wagon, to sell goods in the South, and townsmen were partners in stores in Georgia and Alabama. Around 1830 the town also ran twenty stills making cider brandy, all gone by 1860. About 1837 Jabez McCall Camp bought Morse's mills. He sent ship timber to the Brooklyn Navy Yard in the Civil War, and his village by the railroad station took the name Campville.1112131415

Through the years

23 moments from 1729 to today.

  1. 1729The Connecticut Colony grants the land to Hartford and Windsor and splits it between them.1
  2. 1730Daniel Messenger settles here in January, the first settler.1
  3. 1731Messenger builds the first house in town worth the name.7
  4. 1732Lead-mine Brook already goes by that name in the West Harwinton records.5
  5. 1732Messenger and the East Harwinton proprietors put the Farmington to Litchfield road in good order.8
  6. 1737Harwinton is incorporated in October and holds its first town meeting on December 20.16
  7. 1739The town votes to build a meetinghouse fifty feet long and forty feet wide.16
  8. 1740The town pays Messenger for the rum served at the raising of the meetinghouse.16
  9. 1754Families may build Sabbath-day houses near the meetinghouse to warm up between services.17
  10. 1777Harwinton soldiers ride forty-four miles to the Danbury alarm and arrive early Monday morning.18
  11. 1780Snow falls forty days in a row, and many of the town's deer starve.19
  12. 1780George Washington, Lafayette and Knox stop for refreshments on the road through town.9
  13. 1783The General Assembly pays Frederick Phelps forty shillings for killing a full-grown wolf.19
  14. 1808A new Congregational church is dedicated near the end of the year, at a cost of about $8,000.20
  15. 1810Harwinton counts 1,718 people, its high point in the 1860 history's table.2
  16. 1812About now a man shows off pure antimony he says came from northeast of the meetinghouse. He never tells where.6
  17. 1837Jabez McCall Camp buys Morse's mills, at the village that will be named Campville for him.15
  18. 1853The first Harwinton Fair is held.3
  19. 1864Webster v. Harwinton, over the town's $300 payments to drafted men, becomes a landmark case on the powers of towns.21
  20. 1890Harwinton has 943 people, and trains stop at East Litchfield and Campville.22
  21. 1949The 1808 Congregational church burns. A simpler re-creation takes its place.11
  22. 1985The Jason Skinner House is taken apart and moved to the town center.23
  23. 1996The town center and the old Catlin's Corners crossroads are listed as historic districts.10

Places to see

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

  • 1Town GreenTown center. Heart of the old center.
  • 7Harwinton Congregational ChurchTown center. Re-creation of the 1808 church.
  • 8Roraback Wildlife Management AreaSoutheast. Woods and reservoirs in the southeast.
  • 9Litchfield-South Roads Historic DistrictRoute 4 and South Road. The old town center, listed 1996.
  • 11Burlington-Harmony Hill Roads Historic DistrictEast of the center. The old Catlin's Corners crossroads.
  • 12Kalmia SanctuarySoutheast. Nature sanctuary near the reservoirs.
  • 13Jason Skinner HouseWintergreen Circle. Greek Revival farmhouse moved in 1985.
  • 14Harwinton FairgroundsTown center. Where the Harwinton Fair is held.
  • 18T. A. Hungerford Memorial MuseumEast of the green. Town history beside the library.
  • 21Harwinton Westside Volunteer Fire DepartmentWest, toward the Naugatuck. Fire company for the west side.

On the National Register

All 3 places in Harwinton on the National Register of Historic Places that still stand today, oldest first, and why each one matters.4

  • Burlington-Harmony Hill Roads Historic District

    Listed 1996 · Harmony Hill, Locust Grove, and Burlington Roads

    An old farming crossroads once called Catlin's Corners, for Abraham Catlin, the first settler there, who also kept a small shop. Its oldest house, Jonathan Brace's, dates to about 1730, and two 18th-century houses built by Abijah Catlin still frame the junction.10

  • Litchfield-South Roads Historic District

    Listed 1996 · Litchfield Road from Birge Park to Harwinton Heights Roads, and South Road to South Cemetery

    The traditional town center, where Route 4 crosses North and South Roads, with mostly 19th-century houses, four churches and the site of the first meetinghouse and cemetery. William McConway of Pittsburgh, a summer resident, had the fine quarry-stone walls built along South Road.11

  • Jason Skinner House

    Built about 1845 · Listed 1985 · 21 Wintergreen Circle

    A well-kept Greek Revival farmhouse built by Jason Skinner, a prosperous farmer, on the shore of Valley View Pond. In 1985 it was carefully taken apart and moved near the town offices, where it keeps its original woodwork.23

In their words

“Having reference throughout to household use, this book aims to shed a kind influence on every Harwinton home.”

R. Manning Chipman, The history of Harwinton, 1860, in his preface24

“In him we recognize the founder of the Town. As such, let him be held in memory.”

The history of Harwinton, 1860, on the first settler, Daniel Messenger7

“It presented a pageant which, sixty years afterwards, aged citizens vividly remembered.”

The history of Harwinton, 1860, on Washington's ride through town in 17809

Nearby towns

Sources

  1. Harwinton, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  2. The history of Harwinton, Connecticut (1860), population table, Internet Archive
  3. Map of Harwinton, Connecticut in 2026, KNOWOL (USGS elevation, Census Bureau roads)
  4. National Register of Historic Places listings in Litchfield County, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  5. The history of Harwinton, Connecticut (1860), on Lead-mine Brook and the lead rock, Internet Archive
  6. The history of Harwinton, Connecticut (1860), on the antimony claim, Internet Archive
  7. The history of Harwinton, Connecticut (1860), on Daniel Messenger and the first house, Internet Archive
  8. The history of Harwinton, Connecticut (1860), on the road between Litchfield and Farmington, Internet Archive
  9. The history of Harwinton, Connecticut (1860), on Washington's ride through town, Internet Archive
  10. Burlington-Harmony Hill Roads Historic District, Wikipedia
  11. Litchfield-South Roads Historic District, Wikipedia
  12. The history of Harwinton, Connecticut (1860), on trading and traders, Internet Archive
  13. The history of Harwinton, Connecticut (1860), on manufactures, Internet Archive
  14. The history of Harwinton, Connecticut (1860), on the cider stills, Internet Archive
  15. History of Waterbury and the Naugatuck Valley, Connecticut (1918), on Jabez McCall Camp, Internet Archive
  16. The history of Harwinton, Connecticut (1860), on the first town meeting and meetinghouse, Internet Archive
  17. The history of Harwinton, Connecticut (1860), on Sabbath-day houses, Internet Archive
  18. The history of Harwinton, Connecticut (1860), on the Danbury alarm, Internet Archive
  19. The history of Harwinton, Connecticut (1860), on wild animals and the winter of 1779 to 1780, Internet Archive
  20. The history of Harwinton, Connecticut (1860), on the 1808 church, Internet Archive
  21. History of Connecticut in monographic form (1925), on Webster v. Harwinton, Internet Archive
  22. Register and manual of the state of Connecticut (1894), Internet Archive
  23. Jason Skinner House, Wikipedia
  24. The history of Harwinton, Connecticut (1860), preface, Internet Archive