If you grew up in Durham, or you’ve ever spent the last weekend of September at the Durham Fair, you’ll find your town on this map just as it stands in 2026. Look for your road. Main Street, Middlefield Road, the Durham Wallingford Road, Maple Avenue, Brick Lane, Guilford Road, Madison Road, South End Avenue, Parmelee Hill Road, New Haven Road, Haddam Quarter Road, Farnum Road and Cream Pot Road are all printed by name, along with many more.
Durham is in Middlesex County, on the Coginchaug River in central Connecticut.
KNOWOL made this map in 2026 from public survey data, and gave it the look of an old atlas. The shaded hills, from the trap rock ridges in the west across to Durham Center, 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 Johnson Lane. Durham and Durham Center are printed by name. A guide of 29 numbered landmarks runs along the bottom, with the National Register sites marked, and we checked those against National Park Service records.
Coginchaug
Before the English came, this was a Native hunting ground called Coginchaug, a word for “long swamp,” and the Mattabesset people came here often. Around 1662 settlers bought tracts of land from them. Families settled here in 1699, and the town was named Durham, after Durham in England, in May 1708 and incorporated that October. That’s the year on the title panel: Incorporated 1708. The new town took land from Guilford and Haddam.
The western side of Durham is lined by the Metacomet Ridge, a trap rock ridge that runs from Long Island Sound almost to Vermont. Trimountain, Fowler Mountain, Pistapaug Mountain and the north tip of Totoket Mountain are all here, and the 50 mile Mattabesett Trail follows the ridge. Click here to learn more about the history of Durham.
Click to explore a larger preview. The digital watermark does not appear on printed maps.
Names on this map
These names are printed on this map.
Places: Durham Center, Cockaponset State Forest, Allyn Brook Park, Coginchaug Regional High School, Curtis Woodland, Durham Meadows Wildlife Management Area, Durham Public Library, Durham Resident State Trooper, Durham Rod And Gun Club, Durham Town Green, Durham Town Hall, Durham Volunteer Fire Company, East Wallingford, Frank Ward Strong School, Frederick Brewster School, Frederick White Farm, Friendly Acres Farm, Main Street Historic District, Mica Ledges, Millers Pond State Park, Mount Pisgah Open Space, Parmelee Brook Preserve and Rock of Refuge Church.
Streets and roads: Middlefield Rd, Main St, Parmelee Hill Rd, Ivy Mountain Rd, David Rd, Dunn Hill Rd, Pent Rd, Pleasant Ter, Hill Dr, New Haven Rd, Sand Hill Rd, Hill Rd.
More street names, A to Z
Crooked Hill Rd, Guilford Rd, Old Blue Hills Rd, Pisgah Rd, Post Rd, Side Hill Dr.
Main Street
The cluster of numbers in the north is Durham Center, strung along Main Street. Landowners from Hartford helped place the center in the north of town, and Main Street was laid out along a ridge of high ground between the swamps. Being on the main road between Hartford and New Haven, the center had taverns and other services for travelers, and in the early 1800s shoemaking grew up as a cottage industry. The guide marks the center as the Main Street Historic District (27), listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. It runs along Main Street and Maple Avenue and takes in 112 historic properties on 160 acres, from the Federal style to the Victorian, along with plain houses built for mill workers.
Durham Town Hall (17) is a Greek Revival church from 1849 that was turned into the town hall. Durham had one of the first public libraries in the country, founded in 1733, just two years after Benjamin Franklin started the library in Philadelphia, and the district takes in a library building from 1901. Today the Durham Public Library (20) is in the center, with the Durham Historical Society (25), the Durham Town Green (19), the Durham Post Office (3), the Durham Volunteer Fire Company (14) and The United Churches of Durham (28). The Church of the Epiphany (22), the Rock of Refuge Church (21), Frank Ward Strong School (11), Coginchaug Regional High School (29), the Durham Community Center (12), Allyn Brook Park (16), the Durham Resident State Trooper (13) and the Durham Rod and Gun Club (26) are all in the north end of town too.
Moses Austin, whose son Stephen F. Austin founded the first Anglo-American settlement in Texas, was born in Durham in 1761. Louise Smith, the first Black woman to serve on a state police force in the United States, is among Durham’s notable people too.
The Durham Fair
The Durham Fairgrounds (4) are near the middle of the map. The Durham Fair was first held in 1916 and has grown into the largest agricultural fair in New England. It runs four days over the last full weekend of September, with livestock, oxen and draft horse pulling contests, craft tents, music and a carnival midway. It’s run entirely by volunteers, and ConnecticutHistory.org calls it the largest volunteer managed fair in the country. Schools, churches and clubs take part to raise money for their work.
The Lyman House and Millers Pond
The Thomas Lyman House (8) stands at 105 Middlefield Road, northwest of the center. Thomas Lyman IV built it about 1774 on land his father bought in 1709, and its hip roof is unusual for a house of that time around here. Lyman fought in the Revolution, and he’s said to have been a friend of Thomas Jefferson and to have welcomed Lafayette to this house several times. It was listed on the National Register in 1975.
Millers Pond State Park (6) is in the east, reaching into Haddam. Thomas Miller dammed the pond in 1704 to store water for his gristmill. Today the 33 acre pond, fed by large springs, is known for its trout and smallmouth bass, and Cockaponset State Forest (9) lies right beside the park.
The Meadows and the Woods
The Durham Meadows Wildlife Management Area (15) spreads out just northwest of the center of the map, and the Parmelee Brook Preserve (23) is a little to the southwest. The Frederick White Farm (5) is to the north, Curtis Woodland (2) is in the northwest, and the Mount Pisgah Open Space (10) and the Mica Ledges (1) are in the south. The Gulielmetti Open Space (7), Friendly Acres Farm (18) and Frederick Brewster School (24) are in the guide as well.
This map of Durham 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 Durham 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 Durham map.
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