A wooded hill town on the Saugatuck River, once the Norfield parish of Fairfield, where the Bradleys forged axes and edge tools for a century, no railroad ever came, and Devil's Den still keeps its footprint in the stone.

Fairfield County · Record checked October 12, 2026

10,354Population2020 census1
1787Became a townfrom the Norfield and North Fairfield parishes1
1812Edge toolsWakeman Bradley's axe factory opens2
1,746Devil's Denacres of preserve in Weston and Redding3
6National Registerplaces, all still standing (one shared with Easton)4

Weston on the map

Click the map to look closer.

Map of Weston, Connecticut in 2026, from Devil's Den to the Norfield town center and Lyons Plain, with a guide of 26 numbered landmarks

2026

Weston today

By KNOWOL

Shaded hills from Godfrey Corner and Devil's Den down the Saugatuck River valley, every road printed by name, and a guide of 26 numbered landmarks with the National Register sites marked.5

See the 2026 printMore about this map

The story of Weston

For the thanks of the town

Before it was Weston it was Norfield, a parish of Fairfield. Its society first met on June 23, 1757, and the next year raised a meetinghouse thirty by forty feet. It got pews and a pulpit but was never plastered. In 1784 the parish took it down and set the frame up again at the center of the society. When Weston became a town, the first town meeting met on November 14, 1787, and voted that notices go up on a birch tree near Henry Summers' and on posts in the two parishes. It also voted that anyone chosen for town office should expect no other pay than the sincere thanks of the town. On the first Monday in May the men drilled on a Coley family field.6789

Axes on Lyons Plain Road

In 1812 Wakeman Bradley started making axes and edge tools by hand in Weston. His son Gershom built his own factory in 1834 on the site of an old comb factory, near the Saugatuck River, and in time it made tools for Southern plantations. A freshet wrecked the works in 1854, and Gershom's eldest son Miles rebuilt them. An 1881 history says the shop had employed eighty to one hundred men and was the most important manufacturing interest in the town. Down the road at Lyons Plain, Henry B. Wheeler ran a foundry making farm tools and hatter's tools. Business fell off after 1870, and the factory burned in 1911, but more than 30 Bradley houses still line Lyons Plain Road.210111213

The footprint at Devil's Den

In 1881 Weston's history called Devil's Den its natural curiosity, a wooded valley with a stone holding the print of a foot too large for any man. Charcoal makers said it was the Devil's footprint. People went there most in huckleberry season, when the ground was thick with the fruit. In April 1777, families are thought to have hidden in these woods while British troops marched to Danbury. Near the Redding line, Thankful Bradley was milking by the road when the army came along. An officer told her to keep still, and she went on milking while the whole army filed past. Katharine Ordway began buying the land in 1966, and the preserve now covers 1,746 acres.63514

Through the years

25 moments from 1757 to today.

  1. 1757The society of Norfield holds its first meeting on June 23.6
  2. 1757Samuel Sherwood is ordained Norfield's minister, and the church is gathered with twelve men.7
  3. 1758A meetinghouse thirty by forty feet is raised and covered. It's never plastered.7
  4. 1777British troops march north toward Danbury, and Captain Read's Redding militia is captured at Couch's Rock in Weston.14
  5. 1784The parish votes to take down the old meetinghouse and set its frame up again at the center of the society.7
  6. 1787Norfield and North Fairfield parishes are incorporated as the Town of Weston.1
  7. 1787At the first town meeting on November 14, town officers agree to serve for nothing but the thanks of the town.8
  8. 1795The center starts going by the name Norfield, which it keeps until 1920.15
  9. 1807On December 14 a meteor explodes over the town, and its stones are studied at Yale.16
  10. 1812Wakeman Bradley opens an axe and edge-tool factory in Weston.2
  11. 1831The new Norfield church, built the year before, is dedicated on April 13.7
  12. 1834Gershom W. Bradley founds the Bradley Edge Tool Company on the site of a comb factory.13
  13. 1845Easton is set off from Weston as its own town.1
  14. 1845The Episcopal Society of Weston takes over a new church already begun by Hanford Nichols and Walter Treadwell.17
  15. 1848The Episcopal parish asks to be known as Emanuel Church, Weston.17
  16. 1854A freshet wrecks the Bradley factory, and Miles Bradley rebuilds it.10
  17. 1859Miles Bradley builds his Italianate house with its double bullseye windows on Lyons Plain Road.13
  18. 1873Henry B. Wheeler buys Bradley Hull's foundry at Lyons Plain and makes farm tools and hatter's tools.12
  19. 1888Dr. Frank Gorham sits as the first Weston representative ever elected on a regular Republican ticket.18
  20. 1911The Bradley edge-tool factory burns.13
  21. 1930With no railroad, Weston's population falls to a low of 670.1
  22. 1938The Merritt Parkway reaches south of town, and more newcomers follow.1
  23. 1955Mies van der Rohe's house for Morris and Rose Greenwald is finished on Homeward Lane.19
  24. 1964John Fowler's three-tower Wasserman House is finished above the Saugatuck River.20
  25. 1966Katharine Ordway buys the first 1,100 acres of what becomes the Devil's Den Preserve.3

Places to see

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

  • 4Weston Post OfficeTown center. Where Weston Road meets Norfield Road.
  • 8Katharine Ordway PreserveSoutheast. Woodland with trails and an arboretum.
  • 13Lucius Pond Ordway-Devil's Den PreserveNorth. 1,746 acres and 20 miles of trails.Visit their website
  • 16Weston Town HallTown center. Georgian Revival town hall of 1953.
  • 18Bisceglie-Scribner ParkNear School Road. Town park by the schools.
  • 20Norfield Historic DistrictTown center. Called Norfield from 1795 to 1920.
  • 22Emmanuel Episcopal ChurchSoutheast. Parish named Emanuel Church in 1848.
  • 24Kettle Creek Historic DistrictWeston Road above Broad Street. Old stagecoach crossroads village.
  • 25Weston History & Culture CenterSouth of the center. The town's history center.Visit their website
  • 26Bradley Edge Tool Company Historic DistrictLyons Plain Road. Houses of the toolmakers and owners.

On the National Register

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

  • Aspetuck Historic District (shared with Easton)

    Built 1750 to 1850 · Listed 1991 · Redding Road and Old Redding Road along the Aspetuck River

    About 80 acres on the banks of the Aspetuck River with 22 houses from 1750 to 1850, a late colonial farming village that's mostly in Easton and reaches into Weston.21

  • Kettle Creek Historic District

    Built before 1800 to 1895 · Listed 1995 · Weston Road and Old Weston Road, north of Broad Street

    One of the earliest settled parts of Weston, a small crossroads village of four houses, three of them built before 1800. Scribner's Tavern, a stop on the stagecoach road from the coast to Danbury, survives in part in one of them.22

  • Norfield Historic District

    Listed 1991 · Junction of Weston and Norfield Roads northeast to Hedgerow Common

    Weston's town center, called Norfield from 1795 to 1920. Its centerpiece is the Norfield Congregational Church of 1831, which still holds Sunday services.15

  • Bradley Edge Tool Company Historic District

    Built mid-1800s · Listed 1995 · Lyons Plain Road, north and south of White Birch Road

    The houses that remain from an industrial village where the Bradley Edge Tool Company flourished from 1834 to 1870. The factory burned in 1911, but more than 30 houses of the owners and workers stand, among them Miles Bradley's Italianate house of 1859.13

  • Morris and Rose Greenwald House

    Built 1955 · Listed 2024 · 11 Homeward Lane

    A brick, steel and glass house by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, one of only three houses he built in the United States and the only one still lived in as a private home.19

  • Dr. Harvey and Rhoda Wasserman House

    Built 1964 · Listed 2024 · 23 Huckleberry Lane

    Three slender wooden towers on a slope above the Saugatuck River, designed by the New Haven architect John Fowler, who had worked for Paul Rudolph. It won architecture honor awards in 1968 and 1969.20

In their words

“He is to expect or receive no other reward for his services only the sincere thanks of the town.”

Weston's first town meeting, 1787, as printed in the History of Fairfield County, 18818

“This den is of much resort, especially in the huckleberry season, this being a ground prolific with that fruit.”

History of Fairfield County, 1881, on Devil's Den6

“She followed his advice and continued milking while the entire army filed by.”

The history of Redding, 1906, on Thankful Bradley of Weston in 177714

Nearby towns

Sources

  1. Weston, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  2. History of Fairfield County, Connecticut (1881), on Gershom W. Bradley, Internet Archive
  3. Devil's Den Preserve, Wikipedia
  4. National Register of Historic Places listings in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  5. Map of Weston, Connecticut in 2026, KNOWOL (USGS elevation, Census Bureau roads)
  6. History of Fairfield County, Connecticut (1881), on Devil's Den and the society of Norfield, Internet Archive
  7. History of Fairfield County, Connecticut (1881), on the Norfield meetinghouse and church, Internet Archive
  8. History of Fairfield County, Connecticut (1881), on Weston's first town meeting, Internet Archive
  9. History of Fairfield County, Connecticut (1881), on training day and the graveyards of Weston, Internet Archive
  10. History of Fairfield County, Connecticut (1881), on the Bradley factory and the freshet of 1854, Internet Archive
  11. History of Fairfield County, Connecticut (1881), on Henry A. Ogden and the Bradley Edge-Tool Manufactory, Internet Archive
  12. Commemorative Biographical Record of Fairfield County, Connecticut (1899), on Henry B. Wheeler, Internet Archive
  13. Bradley Edge Tool Company Historic District, Wikipedia
  14. The history of Redding, Connecticut (1906), on the British march of 1777, Internet Archive
  15. Norfield Historic District, Wikipedia
  16. Memoir on the meteoric stones which fell in the county of Fairfield on the 14th of December 1807, by Benjamin Silliman and James L. Kingsley (1809), Internet Archive
  17. History of Fairfield County, Connecticut (1881), on Emanuel Church, Weston, Internet Archive
  18. Evening post annual: biographical sketches of the General Assembly of Connecticut (1888), on Dr. Frank Gorham, Internet Archive
  19. Morris Greenwald House, Wikipedia
  20. Wasserman House, National Register nomination, Connecticut State Historic Preservation Office (2024)
  21. Aspetuck Historic District, Wikipedia
  22. Kettle Creek Historic District, Wikipedia