A streamy hill town between the Skungamaug and the Willimantic, the county seat for about a century, where the long, never-fenced green still holds the courthouse of 1822, the old stone jail and the white church.

Tolland County · Record checked October 12, 2026

14,563Population2020 census1
1715Namedfrom Windsor's lands east of the river1
1785County seatuntil the courts moved to Rockville in 18882
100 ftThe steeplebuilt in 1792, the first or nearly the first in the county3
3National Registerplaces, all still standing4

Tolland on the map

Click the map to look closer.

Map of Tolland, Connecticut in 2026, with Tolland Green and 34 numbered landmarks

2026

Tolland today

By KNOWOL

Shaded hills from USGS elevation data, every street and the town line, Tolland Green at the center, and a guide of 34 numbered landmarks with the National Register sites marked.2

See the 2026 printMore about this map

The story of Tolland

When the men went to war

News of the fighting at Lexington reached Tolland in April 1775, and men signed up that same day. Their company, 98 men from Tolland and nearby towns, served eight months at Roxbury, near Boston. More than once during the war nearly every working man was away, and women ran the farms. One officer's daughter remembered yoking the oxen with her younger sisters and bringing in the fall crops herself. At home, people made do. The blacksmith Titus Baker and his brother Joseph made muskets by hand, about two weeks' work apiece. The Morey family printed homemade linen for dresses with carved wooden blocks, and someone tried pressing molasses out of green cornstalks in a cider mill. Tolland's historian wrote, with some pride, that there were no Tories in town.5678

Poor Tolland, grand people

When Tolland became the county seat in 1785, the law creating the county wouldn't take effect until a courthouse and jail stood in town, built without taxing the county. In 1792 the town put a steeple on its old meetinghouse, exactly one hundred feet tall and the first or nearly the first in the county, and people came from other towns to stare at it. A visitor named Oliver Arnold made up a rhyme about it: Poor Tolland, grand people, old meeting house and new steeple. By tradition the new bell cracked the first time it rang, tolling for Capt. Hope Lathrop, who had worked to get it. And when a Norwich lawyer joked that ships would soon unload on the little Skungamug, a Tolland man said Norwich's small craft had already arrived, and the big ones would surely follow.92310

The long green

Tolland Green is a long, narrow common that has never been fenced or landscaped into a park, so apart from the paving it looks much as it did in the 1830s. In 1819 a gazetteer found a courthouse and jail, two churches, a post office and about 30 houses in the hilltop village. The courthouse that stands today went up in 1822, and the stone jail of 1856 held prisoners until 1968. Inns along the green put up people on court business, and in 1853 the county's farmers organized their agricultural society at the County House. After the county seat moved to Rockville in 1888 the green grew quiet. The old courthouse became the town library in 1899, and today it's a museum with its courtroom restored.2111213

Through the years

25 moments from 1715 to today.

  1. 1715The new town on Windsor's eastern lands is named Tolland.1
  2. 1720Daniel Benton builds the house that's now the oldest in Tolland.2
  3. 1722A committee from Tolland and Coventry agrees on the line between the two towns.14
  4. 1723The first church is organized, with Rev. Stephen Steel as its minister.15
  5. 1753The oldest part of the John Cady House is framed, from oaks cut that winter.16
  6. 1775Men sign up the day news of Lexington arrives and serve eight months at Roxbury, near Boston.5
  7. 1781Companies of Hessian prisoners from Burgoyne's army are quartered in Tolland.7
  8. 1785Tolland County is created, with Tolland as its seat.2
  9. 1791Methodists establish a church in Tolland.15
  10. 1792A steeple exactly one hundred feet tall goes up on the meetinghouse.3
  11. 1792By tradition the new bell cracks the first time it rings, tolling for Capt. Hope Lathrop.3
  12. 1801The Hartford and Tolland Turnpike is chartered.2
  13. 1807A Baptist church is organized.15
  14. 1810The census counts 1,610 people in Tolland.11
  15. 1822The Tolland County Courthouse is built on the green.12
  16. 1838The Congregational church on the green is built, replacing the meetinghouse of 1754.2
  17. 1853The Tolland County Agricultural Society is organized at the County House, and its first fairs are held in Tolland.13
  18. 1856The stone county jail is built, the fourth on its site.2
  19. 1879The Old Town Hall goes up at the south end of the green.17
  20. 1888The county seat moves to Rockville, and the green grows quiet.2
  21. 1899The Tolland Public Library opens in the old courthouse.12
  22. 1908The Ratcliffe Hicks Memorial School is built near the green.17
  23. 1968The old county jail holds its last prisoners.2
  24. 1997Tolland Green is listed on the National Register as a historic district.17
  25. 2006The new Tolland High School opens.1

Places to see

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

  • 2Tolland GreenCenter of town. Long common, never fenced or landscaped.
  • 6Arts Center of TollandSouth end of the green. The Old Town Hall of 1879.Visit their website
  • 12Tolland County CourthouseTolland Green. Courthouse of 1822, now a museum.Visit their website
  • 15Charter Marsh Wildlife SanctuaryConservation land. Marsh sanctuary in the town's open space.
  • 16Old Tolland County Jail and MuseumTolland Green. Stone jail of 1856, closed 1968.Visit their website
  • 20John Cady HouseMile Hill Road. Two old buildings under one roof.
  • 28Hicks-Stearns Family MuseumTolland Green. Old tavern with a Victorian tower.
  • 32Daniel Benton Homestead MuseumSouth of the green. Oldest house in town, built 1720.Visit their website
  • 33United Congregational Church of TollandTolland Green. Greek Revival church built in 1838.
  • 34Hicks Memorial Municipal Center and LibrarySouth end of the green. The Ratcliffe Hicks school of 1908.

On the National Register

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

  • Tolland Green Historic District

    Listed 1997 · Roughly along Old Post, Tolland Stage, and Cider Mill Roads

    The long, narrow town green and 55 contributing buildings around it, most of them houses from the 1700s and 1800s. It takes in the courthouse, the jail, the Congregational church, both town halls and the Hicks-Stearns house, and it's valued for its landscape and its Federal and Victorian architecture.17

  • John Cady House

    Built 1753 · Listed 1982 · 484 Mile Hill Road

    Also called the Babcock Tavern, it's really two buildings butted together, which gives it an unusual layout. A tree-ring study dated the oldest timbers to the winter of 1752 and 1753, and Elijah Weston kept a tavern here between 1794 and 1800.16

  • Tolland County Courthouse

    Built 1822 · Listed 1977 · 53 Tolland Green

    A Federal-style courthouse with a Palladian window and a two-story tower, built when Tolland was the county seat. It was the town library from 1899 to 1985, and the Tolland Historical Society restored it as a museum with its old courtroom upstairs.12

    Visit their website

In their words

“In concluding the general subject of the revolution, it should be remarked that there were no tories in Tolland.”

Loren P. Waldo, The early history of Tolland, 18617

“Wherever a man walks in that township, he is never long without the chuckle of a brook or the gurgling of some rivulet beside him, or else the smooth strong gliding of the Skungamaug.”

The harvest of a quiet eye, 1927, remembering April fishing in Tolland18

“In the centre of the town is a pleasant village, having an elevated and prospective situation.”

A gazetteer of the states of Connecticut and Rhode-Island, 181911

Nearby towns

Sources

  1. Tolland, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  2. Map of Tolland, Connecticut in 2026, KNOWOL (USGS elevation, Census Bureau roads)
  3. The early history of Tolland, by Loren P. Waldo (1861), on the steeple and the bell, Internet Archive
  4. National Register of Historic Places listings in Tolland County, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  5. The early history of Tolland, by Loren P. Waldo (1861), on the Lexington alarm, Internet Archive
  6. The early history of Tolland, by Loren P. Waldo (1861), on the women who ran the farms, Internet Archive
  7. The early history of Tolland, by Loren P. Waldo (1861), on muskets, Hessians and Tories, Internet Archive
  8. The early history of Tolland, by Loren P. Waldo (1861), on printed linen and cornstalk molasses, Internet Archive
  9. History of Connecticut in monographic form (1925), on the county jails, Internet Archive
  10. The early history of Tolland, by Loren P. Waldo (1861), on the port of entry joke, Internet Archive
  11. A gazetteer of the states of Connecticut and Rhode-Island (1819), on Tolland, Internet Archive
  12. Tolland County Courthouse, Wikipedia
  13. A century of Vernon, Connecticut, 1808-1908 (1911), on the Tolland County Agricultural Society, Internet Archive
  14. The early history of Tolland, by Loren P. Waldo (1861), on the Coventry line, Internet Archive
  15. The historical, statistical and industrial review of the state of Connecticut (1884), on Tolland, Internet Archive
  16. John Cady House, Wikipedia
  17. Tolland Green Historic District, Wikipedia
  18. The harvest of a quiet eye: a book of digressions (1927), on Tolland, Internet Archive