One of Connecticut's three oldest English towns, on a cove of the Connecticut River, where onion fields once covered the meadows and Washington and Rochambeau met at the Webb House in 1781.

Hartford County · Record checked October 12, 2026

27,298Population2020 census1
1634Settledby a Puritan party of ten men1
1,000,000+Onions shippedbunches a year, as counted about 18192
1,100Old Wethersfieldbuildings in the state's largest historic district1
5National Registerplaces, all still standing3

Wethersfield on the map

Click the map to look closer.

Map of Wethersfield, Connecticut in 2026, with the old village by the Cove and a guide of 34 numbered landmarks

2026

Wethersfield today

By KNOWOL

Shaded land from the Cove and the river meadows in the east to South Wethersfield, every street by name, and a guide of 34 numbered landmarks with the National Historic Landmarks and the National Register site marked.4

See the 2026 printMore about this map

The story of Wethersfield

The onion town

Wethersfield's onions were famous long before anyone called it Oniontown. As early as 1710 Benjamin Adams sold seventy-one bushels, and the Wethersfield large red became a variety of its own. A French visitor in 1788 wrote of vast fields uniformly covered with onions, shipped to the West Indies. Travelers noticed that the work was done mostly by women and girls, and a visitor of 1807 was told that the brick church had been built with onions, paid for out of the women's profits. By 1819 the town sent away a million bunches or more a year, and in June the smell rode on every breeze. Later the farms turned to seeds, and by 1884 raising garden seeds was the town's leading industry.567829

The town that started towns

Wethersfield's people kept setting out to start new places. A long quarrel in the early church ended in 1641, when Andrew Ward and Robert Coe led a party away to found Stamford, whose first church had been gathered in Wethersfield. About 1644 more families left for Branford, most of them by boat down the Connecticut River and along the Sound. In 1659 about a third of the first settlers of Hadley, Massachusetts, came from here, along with the pastor, Rev. John Russell. In 1693 the land east of the river became Glastonbury, the first town in the colony made by dividing another. Weathersfield, Vermont, took its name from the town its settlers came from, and Sarah Deming, born here in 1726, became Pittsfield's first woman settler.10111213141516

Five nights at the Webb House

Joseph Webb, a merchant with ships in the West Indies trade, had his house on Main Street framed in 1752. His son and daughter-in-law were such good hosts that people called it Hospitality Hall. In May 1781 George Washington stayed there five nights, and on May 22 he met the French commander Rochambeau, with Generals Knox and Duportail and the Marquis de Chastellux, in what became known as the Wethersfield conference. The plan they agreed on first aimed at New York. The march to Yorktown came nearly four months later, after word from the French fleet. Next door stood the house of Silas Deane, who sailed for France in 1776 to find aid for the colonies, and up the street John Adams had climbed the steeple in 1774 to admire the view.17181920

Through the years

25 moments from 1634 to today.

  1. 1634A Puritan party of ten men settles at Pyquag, first called Watertown.1
  2. 1636By tradition Leonard Chester, looking for a mill site, is lost in the woods for three days while neighbors search with drums and pans.21
  3. 1637On February 21 the settlement is made a town, along with Windsor and Hartford.1
  4. 1641After a church quarrel, Andrew Ward and Robert Coe lead a party away to found Stamford.10
  5. 1644Wethersfield families settle Branford, most of them traveling by water.12
  6. 1649Thomas Deming launches the Tryall from his shipyard on the Cove.4
  7. 1659About a third of Hadley's first settlers, and their pastor, leave Wethersfield for Massachusetts.13
  8. 1693The land east of the river, more than half the town, becomes Glastonbury.14
  9. 1710Benjamin Adams sells seventy-one bushels of onions, an early record of the town's famous crop.5
  10. 1716The Collegiate School, which grows into Yale, meets here until 1718.1
  11. 1752Joseph Webb's house is framed on Main Street.17
  12. 1761The brick meetinghouse of the First Church of Christ is built.4
  13. 1774John Adams climbs the meetinghouse steeple and calls the view the most grand and beautiful he ever saw.20
  14. 1781On May 22 Washington and Rochambeau hold the Wethersfield conference at the Webb House.18
  15. 1788The French traveler Brissot de Warville praises the vast onion fields and the elegant meetinghouse.6
  16. 1790The church votes to seat people by wealth, then rank, then piety.6
  17. 1803The Wethersfield Volunteer Fire Department is chartered, the first in Connecticut.1
  18. 1819A gazetteer counts a million or more bunches of onions sent away each year.8
  19. 1820About this year James L. Belden starts the town's first general seed business.22
  20. 1827The new state prison is finished, and the last Newgate prisoners are moved here on September 30.23
  21. 1831Thomas Griswold and Company bring the power loom to Griswoldville.24
  22. 1838The Comstocks buy the seed business, the start of Comstock, Ferre and Company.22
  23. 1884Raising garden seeds is now the town's leading industry.9
  24. 1970The Old Wethersfield Historic District is listed on the National Register.25
  25. 1982A meteorite crashes through a roof, the second to hit the town in eleven years.1

Places to see

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

  • 1Cove ParkWethersfield Cove. On the shore of the old river bend.
  • 4Silas Deane HouseMain Street. Home of the envoy to France.Visit their website
  • 5First Church of ChristMain Street. Brick meetinghouse of 1761.Visit their website
  • 11Buttolph-Williams HouseBroad Street. Timber house with diamond-pane windows.Visit their website
  • 13Webb-Deane-Stevens MuseumMain Street. Three houses side by side.Visit their website
  • 15Keeney Memorial Cultural CenterOld Wethersfield. In the heart of the old village.Visit their website
  • 16Old Wethersfield Historic DistrictOld Wethersfield. Connecticut's largest historic district.
  • 19Broad Street GreenOld Wethersfield. The long, slender town green.
  • 21Joseph Webb HouseMain Street. Washington stayed here in May 1781.Visit their website
  • 33Cove Warehouse Maritime MuseumWethersfield Cove. Near the old West Indies trade landing.Visit their website

On the National Register

All 5 places in Wethersfield on the National Register of Historic Places that still stand today, oldest first, and why each one matters.3

  • Old Wethersfield Historic District

    Listed 1970 · Bounded by Hartford, the railroad tracks, Interstate 91 and Rocky Hill

    The town's first settlement and the largest historic district in Connecticut, with about 1,100 buildings over two square miles. It takes in about 50 houses built before the Revolution, many built by sea captains around the green, and the green itself, a slender diamond nearly a half-mile long.25

  • Buttolph-Williams House

    National Historic Landmark

    Built about 1711 · Listed 1968 · 249 Broad Street

    One of the oldest surviving houses in town, a timber-frame house with diamond-pane windows, carefully restored in 1947 and opened as a museum in 1951. It plays a part in Elizabeth George Speare's The Witch of Blackbird Pond.26

    Visit their website

  • Joseph Webb House

    National Historic Landmark

    Built 1752 · Listed 1966 · 211 Main Street

    Judah Wright framed this gambrel-roofed house for the merchant Joseph Webb. George Washington stayed here five nights in May 1781 and met Rochambeau to plan the campaign that led to Yorktown.17

    Visit their website

  • Silas Deane House

    National Historic Landmark

    Built 1766 · Listed 1970 · 203 Main Street

    The home of Silas Deane, chosen by the Continental Congress in 1776 as the first American to represent the colonies abroad. In France he arranged shiploads of military supplies that reached America in time to help in the Saratoga campaign.19

    Visit their website

  • Roger Butler House

    Built about 1769 · Listed 1996 · 146 Jordan Lane

    A well-preserved Georgian house that William Butler probably built as a wedding gift for his son Roger. It stayed in the Butler family until 1954 and keeps nearly all its original floors, woodwork and door hardware.27

In their words

“The luscious qualities of the onion are wafted far and wide upon every passing breeze.”

A gazetteer of the states of Connecticut and Rhode-Island, 1819, on the onion fields in June8

“On Sunday it is said to offer an enchanting spectacle by the number of young, handsome persons who assemble there”

Brissot de Warville, 1788, as quoted in the History of Hartford County, 19286

“From the Connecticut River Wethersfield is a view of delight; her Christopher Wren spire nestles among the trees, and the white stones of the old burying-ground, like a flock of sheep on the hillside, appear quite English and pastoral”

A history of Connecticut, 191428

Nearby towns

Sources

  1. Wethersfield, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  2. The history of ancient Wethersfield (1904, library copy dated 1900), on the onion crop, Internet Archive
  3. National Register of Historic Places listings in Hartford County, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  4. Map of Wethersfield, Connecticut in 2026, KNOWOL (USGS elevation, Census Bureau roads)
  5. The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884 (1886), on onions and tobacco, Internet Archive
  6. History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928 (1928), on Brissot de Warville and the church seating, Internet Archive
  7. The Connecticut River and the valley of the Connecticut (1907), on Wethersfield's onion growers, Internet Archive
  8. A gazetteer of the states of Connecticut and Rhode-Island (1819), Internet Archive
  9. The historical, statistical and industrial review of the state of Connecticut (1884), on Wethersfield's industries, Internet Archive
  10. The history of Connecticut, from the first settlement of the colony (1855), on the founding of Stamford, Internet Archive
  11. History of Stamford, Connecticut (1868), Internet Archive
  12. A history of the First church and society of Branford, Connecticut, 1644-1919 (1919), Internet Archive
  13. The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884 (1886), on the move to Hadley, Internet Archive
  14. The Memorial History of Hartford County Connecticut 1633-1884 (1886), on the setting off of Glastonbury, Internet Archive
  15. Historic towns of the Connecticut River Valley (1906), on Weathersfield, Vermont, Internet Archive
  16. Genealogy of the descendants of John Deming of Wethersfield, Connecticut (1904), on Sarah Deming, Internet Archive
  17. Joseph Webb House, Wikipedia
  18. Connecticut as a colony and as a state (1904), on the Wethersfield conference, Internet Archive
  19. Silas Deane House, National Register nomination, National Park Service
  20. The Connecticut magazine (1899), on the First Church and John Adams, Internet Archive
  21. History of Berlin, Connecticut (1916), on Leonard Chester, Internet Archive
  22. History of Connecticut in monographic form (1925), on the seed business, Internet Archive
  23. History of Simsbury, Granby, and Canton (1845), on the move from Newgate to Wethersfield, Internet Archive
  24. The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884 (1886), on the mills at Griswoldville, Internet Archive
  25. Old Wethersfield, Wikipedia
  26. Buttolph-Williams House, Wikipedia
  27. Roger Butler House, Wikipedia
  28. A history of Connecticut (1914), Internet Archive