If you grew up in Cromwell, or you’ve ever watched the river go by from Riverport Park, you’ll find your town on this map just as it stands in 2026. Look for your road. Shunpike Road, Evergreen Road, Willowbrook Road, Main Street, West Street, Berlin Road, Kirby Road, Woodside Road, Geer Street, Ridge Road, Field Road, Nooks Hill Road, River Road and South Street are all printed by name, along with many more.
Cromwell is in Middlesex County, on the Connecticut River just north of Middletown.
KNOWOL made this map in 2026 from public survey data, and gave it the look of an old atlas. The shaded hills, from Nooks Hill down to the riverbank, come from United States Geological Survey elevation data. The streets and the town line come from the Census Bureau, right down to small roads like Washington Road. Cromwell, North Cromwell, East Berlin, Cromwell Hills, Oxford Park and Goodrich Heights are all printed by name. A guide of 27 numbered landmarks runs along the bottom, with the National Register sites marked, and we checked those against National Park Service records.
The Upper Houses
This land was once part of Mattabesset, a region and settlement of Algonquian speaking peoples. English settlers founded a town there in 1651 and soon renamed it Middletown. Around 1650 two settlements were laid out on the west bank of the Connecticut River, on either side of the mouth of the Little River. The southern one was the Lower Houses. The northern one, the Upper Houses, became Cromwell.
The Upper Houses had its own school and church, and by the middle of the 1800s its people wanted their own town. In 1851 the General Assembly made Cromwell a town of 1,259 people, and that’s the year on the title panel: Incorporated 1851. The town is named for Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector of England, though some say the name came from the Oliver Cromwell, a privateer of the 1700s.
Click to explore a larger preview. The digital watermark does not appear on printed maps.
The River Port
By the middle of the 1700s the Upper Houses was a busy seaport, trading along the coast and with the West Indies, and it built ships until the middle of the 1800s. The guide marks the old port as the Middletown Upper Houses Historic District (14), listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. It’s a small grid of streets between Main Street and the river, with 72 houses, almost half of them built before 1820. The waterfront still has the remains of a dock where brownstone from local quarries was loaded onto boats.
Cromwell Landing (16) and Riverport Park at Frisbee Landing (12) are on the river here. The Main Street Historic District (22) runs along Main Street just inland, and the First Congregational Church (9) is nearby. Rufus B. Sage, a writer and mountain man, was born in the Upper Houses in 1817 and came home to Cromwell after his adventures.
Iron Toys and Roses
The War of 1812 hurt the river trade, but new industries came in the middle of the 1800s. John and Elisha Stevens founded the J & E Stevens Company in 1843 to make cast iron hardware and hammers, and a few iron toys. The toys sold so well that the company became the largest maker of cast iron toys in the country, and collectors prize them today. The Cromwell Historical Society (8) is in John Stevens’s own house, built in 1853.
In the early 1870s Andrew N. Pierson came from Sweden and started a small flower nursery. A.N. Pierson, Inc. grew into the largest commercial rose grower in the country, and Pierson became known as the Rose King of America. Pierson Park (1) is named for him. Emily Pierson, whose former home in Cromwell is on the National Votes for Women Trail, worked to win the vote for women in Connecticut, then graduated from Yale Medical School in her forties and practiced medicine in Cromwell for 40 years.
The Town Center
Cromwell Town Hall (17), the Cromwell Belden Public Library (25), the Cromwell Senior Center (6) and the Cromwell Police Department (23) are close together in the center of town. The library carries the name of Josiah Belden, who was born in the Upper Houses in 1815, went west with the first wagon train of settlers to California in 1841 and made his fortune there. In 1888 he sent a large gift toward Cromwell’s new library.
Holy Apostles College and Seminary (13) was founded in 1956 on 40 acres here to prepare men for the Catholic priesthood, and today it also teaches lay students. Valour Memorial Green (19), the Cromwell Post Office (4), Edna C. Stevens School (5) and Cromwell High School (18) are nearby. Woodside Intermediate School (24) and Cromwell Middle School (20) are to the north.
River Highlands and the Meadows
River Highlands State Park (7) covers 177 acres on the west bank of the Connecticut River in the northeast of town. It sits at a bend once called “the blow hole,” where sailors said whistling winds sped their ships along. The state bought the land in 1995 and opened the park in 2001, with trails for hiking and mountain biking and river views. Watrous Park (15) is in the north of town.
Cromwell Meadows State Wildlife Area (27) is in the south, toward Middletown. Evergreen Hill (2) and Champions Skating Center (21) are in the west. The Cromwell Fish & Game Club (10), the Town of Cromwell Open Space (11) and the Cromwell Fire District Open Space (26) are in the guide too. On Shunpike Road at Evergreen Road stands the Sage-Kirby House (3), built between 1811 and 1815 for Ebenezer Sage, from one of Cromwell’s early families. It’s one of four brick Federal houses left in town, and the only one with a central chimney.
This map of Cromwell makes a handsome addition to a living room, office, library or den, and it can even help teach children the geography and history of the town. It’s a thoughtful gift for anyone who calls Cromwell home, grew up here, or moved away. Created by KNOWOL in 2026, it’s printed on museum quality archival paper in three sizes. Zoom in on the preview above to explore the details, then click here to get your copy of the Cromwell map.
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