A hill town of farms, villages and old estates in northeastern Connecticut, where Israel Putnam tracked the last wolf to her den in 1742 and Pomfret Street grew from a colonial tavern stop into a summer resort.

Windham County · Record checked October 11, 2026

4,266Population2020 census1
1713Incorporatednamed for Pontefract in Yorkshire1
1742The Wolf DenIsrael Putnam kills Connecticut's last known wolf2
1739First librarythe United English Library, 34 members3
6National Registerplaces, all still standing4

Pomfret on the map

Click the map to look closer.

Map of Pomfret, Connecticut in 2026, with Pomfret Center, Abington, Mashamoquet Brook State Park and 34 numbered landmarks

2026

Pomfret today

By KNOWOL

Shaded hills from Abington over to Pomfret Landing, every street right down to small roads like Taft Pond Road, Pomfret Center and Abington by name, and a guide of 34 numbered landmarks with the National Register sites marked.5

See the 2026 printMore about this map

The story of Pomfret

Putnam and the last wolf

For years a she-wolf raided Pomfret's farms. An old account says children were too scared to walk to school or bring the cows home. Every summer she went north and came back in autumn with cubs, and hunters shot the cubs, but the mother slipped every trap. When she killed some seventy sheep and goats on young Israel Putnam's farm, he and five neighbors agreed to hunt her by turns until she was dead. In 1742 they followed her to a cave in the ledges, and Putnam went in by torchlight and shot her. An 1837 book puts the den in Abington parish, about two miles southwest of the church. In 1896 the Putnam Wolf Den Association set out to raise $2,500 to buy eighty acres around it, and today the den lies in Mashamoquet Brook State Park.67289

A town that loved its books

Pomfret was a reading town from early on. In 1739 thirty-four men from Pomfret and its neighbors founded the United English Library for the Propagation of Christian and Useful Knowledge, and it became one of the town's most cherished institutions. The county history wonders whether it's why eight young men from Pomfret entered Yale in 1755, with three more soon after. Out in Abington, families formed the Social Library in 1793, at twelve shillings a share. Its books proved too heavy for the young, so in 1804 a Junior Library of lighter reading was started. In 1813 the women of the parish organized a Ladies' Library, with Alathea Lord as librarian and seventy dollars raised for books. In 1815 the Social and Junior libraries joined as the United Library of Abington.310

From tavern stop to summer resort

On Saturday, November 7, 1789, President Washington's carriage stopped at Grosvenor's tavern in Pomfret, for rest and to ask after General Putnam, who lived too far off the road for a visit. Lemuel Grosvenor kept the tavern with his wife Eunice, a daughter of Putnam, and when Pomfret's first post office opened there on January 1, 1795, he was its postmaster. Later the railroad gave Pomfret three stations, one of them Elliott Station, named for Ira Elliott, who gave land for it. From the 1870s city families came for the summer, bought old farms and built new houses, and a sleepy village turned into a resort. Pomfret School opened in 1894 and took the coat of arms of the Earl of Pomfret for its own.11121314151617

Through the years

25 moments from 1686 to today.

  1. 1686The Mashamoquet Purchase, bought by Roxbury men, is confirmed by the General Assembly with a view to its becoming a town.18
  2. 1713Pomfret is incorporated and named for Pontefract in West Yorkshire.1
  3. 1715The First Congregational Church of Pomfret is organized.19
  4. 1737A flood carries off bridges and badly damages Howe's grist mill.20
  5. 1739Townspeople and neighbors found the United English Library.3
  6. 1742Israel Putnam kills the last known wolf in Connecticut at her den.2
  7. 1749The west part of town becomes the parish of Abington.21
  8. 1755Eight young men from Pomfret enter Yale, and three more soon follow.3
  9. 1775Lieutenant Thomas Grosvenor and a picked company of Pomfret men fight at Bunker Hill.21
  10. 1789President Washington stops at Grosvenor's tavern to rest and ask after General Putnam.11
  11. 1793Abington families form the Social Library of Abington.10
  12. 1795Pomfret's first post office opens on New Year's Day, with Lemuel Grosvenor as postmaster.12
  13. 1799The breakaway Reformed Church of Pomfret dissolves and its members return to the First Church.22
  14. 1809The Pomfret United Agricultural Society, the county's first, is organized.23
  15. 1810A steeple goes up on the meetinghouse, and its bell is rung three times a day as the town clock.24
  16. 1813Abington women organize a Ladies' Library, with Alathea Lord as librarian.10
  17. 1817The Pomfret Woolen Manufacturing Company builds on Mashamoquet Brook, and a great flood soon damages it.25
  18. 1830The Pomfret tavern burns, taking the Masonic chapter's charter with it.26
  19. 1841The Pomfret Town House is built, roughly midway between Pomfret Center and Abington.27
  20. 1855Putnam is incorporated from parts of Thompson, Killingly and Pomfret.28
  21. 1890About this year William Brayton builds his grist mill on Mashamoquet Brook.29
  22. 1894Pomfret School is founded on the estate of Charles Grosvenor.17
  23. 1896The Putnam Wolf Den Association is organized to buy land around the den.9
  24. 1920The Rectory School is founded.1
  25. 2013The Congregational church on Pomfret Hill is destroyed by fire on December 7.1

Places to see

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

  • 1Wolf DenMashamoquet Brook State Park. Where Putnam killed the last wolf.Visit their website
  • 3Rectory SchoolPomfret Center. Junior boarding school founded in 1920.Visit their website
  • 5Old Town HouseTown House Road. Built in 1841 for town meetings.Visit their website
  • 13Mashamoquet Brook State ParkSouth of Route 44. Woods, campgrounds and the Wolf Den.Visit their website
  • 17Brayton Grist Mill & Marcy Blacksmith MuseumState park entrance. Last mill on Mashamoquet Brook.Visit their website
  • 20Pomfret SchoolPomfret Street. Founded in 1894 on the Grosvenor estate.Visit their website
  • 26Abington Social LibraryAbington. The village library near the church.
  • 28Bara-HackNorthwest Pomfret. A historic locality in the woods.
  • 30Pomfret Street Historic DistrictRoute 169, Pomfret Center. Two miles of old Pomfret Street.
  • 32Abington Congregational ChurchAbington. Built in 1751, still in use.

On the National Register

All 6 places in Pomfret on the National Register of Historic Places that still stand today, oldest first, and why each one matters.4

  • Israel Putnam Wolf Den

    Listed 1985 · Off Wolf Den Road, Mashamoquet Brook State Park

    The rock cave where Israel Putnam shot Connecticut's last known wolf in 1742, after it killed some seventy sheep on his farm. The fissure in the gneiss ledge runs about 20 feet into the rock and looks much as it did when the tale was first written down.2

    Visit their website

  • Abington Congregational Church

    Built 1751 · Listed 1977 · Route 97, Abington

    Built for a congregation formed in 1749 when the main Pomfret church grew too large, it's one of the few surviving examples of 18th century peg and beam building. Edwin Fitch of Mansfield gave it its Greek Revival look in the 1830s, and its Old Cemetery holds 82 soldiers of the Revolution.30

  • Gwyn Careg

    Built about 1760 · Listed 1994 · 68 Wolf Den Road

    An old frame house that Eleanor Clark Murray made into a country estate in the 1920s, with gardens laid out by the New York designer William Jackson. A 1991 survey counted 27 specimen trees, one of the largest such collections in the state.31

  • Pomfret Street Historic District

    Listed 1998 · Pomfret Street (Route 169), from Bradley Road to Woodstock Road

    The core of Pomfret Center, about two miles long, with 160 contributing buildings. It takes in Col. Thomas Grosvenor's house of 1792, now the Rectory School, Ernest Flagg's Pomfret School buildings and Clark Chapel, and the summer cottages Howard Hoppin designed for the resort era.17

  • Pomfret Town House

    Built 1841 · Listed 1989 · 17 Town House Road

    One of the state's oldest surviving purpose-built town halls. After years of dispute over where to put it, a council from neighboring towns chose this spot roughly midway between Pomfret Center and Abington. The Pomfret Historical Society owns it today.27

    Visit their website

  • Brayton Grist Mill

    Built about 1890 · Listed 1986 · U.S. Route 44, at the entrance to Mashamoquet Brook State Park

    William Brayton built it from materials saved from older mills on the site, and it's the last of several mills that lined Mashamoquet Brook. It keeps its 19th-century turbine and milling machinery and is one of the best-preserved rural grist mills in the state.29

    Visit their website

In their words

“Parts of the town have been pared off to make other towns. Our surface has been contracted, our population diminished, But what remains, we love”

Historic gleanings in Windham County, Connecticut, 1899, on Pomfret after the Revolution32

“For big, showy, and noisy hotels, conservative Pomfret has no desire, and they would have no chance of success in Pomfret.”

The Connecticut quarterly, 1896, on the resort town33

“for the quietness of one place differs widely from that of another, and the quiet of Pomfret is its true voice.”

The harvest of a quiet eye, 192734

Nearby towns

Sources

  1. Pomfret, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  2. Israel Putnam Wolf Den, Wikipedia
  3. History of Windham County, Connecticut (1889), on the United English Library, Internet Archive
  4. National Register of Historic Places listings in Windham County, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  5. Map of Pomfret, Connecticut in 2026, KNOWOL (USGS elevation, Census Bureau roads)
  6. Chapter sketches, Connecticut Daughters of the American Revolution; patron saints (1901), on Pomfret's last wolf, Internet Archive
  7. History of Windham County, Connecticut (1889), on the wolf hunt, Internet Archive
  8. Connecticut historical collections (1837), on the Wolf Den, Internet Archive
  9. Historical landmarks of Connecticut (1897), on the Putnam Wolf Den Association, Internet Archive
  10. History of Windham County, Connecticut (1889), on the Abington libraries, Internet Archive
  11. History of Windham County, Connecticut (1889), on Washington's 1789 journey, Internet Archive
  12. A modern history of Windham County, Connecticut (1920), on the Grosvenor tavern and first post office, Internet Archive
  13. History of Windham County, Connecticut (1889), on Pomfret as a resort, Internet Archive
  14. Commemorative biographical record of Tolland and Windham counties, Connecticut (1903), on Ira Elliott, Internet Archive
  15. The Connecticut quarterly (1895), Picturesque Pomfret, Internet Archive
  16. The Connecticut quarterly (1895), on Pomfret School, Internet Archive
  17. Pomfret Street Historic District, Wikipedia
  18. Historic gleanings in Windham County, Connecticut (1899), on the Mashamoquet Purchase, Internet Archive
  19. The Annual report of the Connecticut Historical Society (1894), on the Pomfret and Abington communion pewter, Internet Archive
  20. History of Windham County, Connecticut (1889), on the flood of 1737, Internet Archive
  21. The historical, statistical and industrial review of the state of Connecticut (1884), on Pomfret, Internet Archive
  22. Historic gleanings in Windham County, Connecticut (1899), on the Reformed Church of Pomfret, Internet Archive
  23. History of Windham County, Connecticut (1889), on the Pomfret United Agricultural Society, Internet Archive
  24. History of Windham County, Connecticut (1889), on the First Church steeple and bell, Internet Archive
  25. History of Windham County, Connecticut (1889), on the Pomfret Woolen Manufacturing Company, Internet Archive
  26. Records of capitular masonry in the state of Connecticut (1875), on Warren Chapter, Pomfret, Internet Archive
  27. Pomfret Town House, Wikipedia
  28. Annual report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the State of Connecticut, on Pomfret and Putnam, Internet Archive
  29. Brayton Grist Mill, Wikipedia
  30. Abington Congregational Church, Wikipedia
  31. Gwyn Careg, Wikipedia
  32. Historic gleanings in Windham County, Connecticut (1899), on Pomfret in the Revolution, Internet Archive
  33. The Connecticut quarterly (1896), Picturesque Pomfret, Internet Archive
  34. The harvest of a quiet eye: a book of digressions (1927), Internet Archive