The Broad Street Green Historic District encompasses the historic late-19th century town center of

Windsor, Connecticut Windsor is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, and was the first English settlement in the state. It lies on the northern border of Connecticut's capital, Hartford. The population of Windsor was 29,492 at the 2020 census. P ...

. It is centered around the Broad Street Green, a public park extending on the east side of Broad Street ( Connecticut Route 159) between Union and Batchelder Streets, and includes a diversity of architecture spanning much of the town's long history. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1999.

Description and history

The town of Windsor was one of the Connecticut's early settlements, dating to 1633. It has historically been centered around the mouth of the

Farmington River The Farmington River is a river, U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 in length along its main stem, located in northwest Connecticut with major tributaries ex ...

where it enters the Connecticut River north of

Hartford Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since t ...

, with its earliest settlement area on the north side. The area to the south of the Farmington River was also a civically important area, serving as later secondary village center. The Broad Street Green was laid out as a common area in the 18th century, and was given its present park-like atmosphere in the late 19th century. The village grew in economic importance during the 19th century, and supplanted the original town center (the Palisado Green area) in civic importance as well. It is now where the town hall and other municipal buildings are located. The historic district is about in size, and includes all of the two dozen or so buildings facing the green between Batchelder and Union Streets. It also includes a few buildings on Union and Central Streets, just east of the green, extending down to the railroad tracks, where the historic station is included. Important civic buildings include the town hall, fire station, post office, and library. The library is partially housed in the Oliver Mather House, the district's oldest surviving building (1777). There are several two and three-story brick commercial blocks lining part of the green's west side.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut National Register of Historic Places in Hartford County, Connecticut Greek Revival architecture in Connecticut Gothic Revival architecture in Connecticut Windsor, Connecticut

Description and history

See also

References