Windham Center, Connecticut
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: Windham Center Historic District ( ) is a area in the
town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...
of
Windham, Connecticut Windham ( ) is a town in Windham County, Connecticut, United States. It contains the former city of Willimantic, Connecticut, Willimantic as well as the communities of Windham Center, Connecticut, Windham Center, North Windham, and South Windha ...
, that is designated as a
historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains historic building, older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal p ...
. The district was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 1979. At the time, it included 61
contributing buildings In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic dist ...
out of a total of 78 buildings, and it included 2 other contributing sites.


General description

Windham Center is a village in the New England town of Windham in northeast Connecticut. The District is centered on the
village green A village green is a commons, common open area within a village or other settlement. Historically, a village green was common pasture, grassland with a pond for watering cattle and other stock, often at the edge of a rural settlement, used for ...
. During the town's first 125 years, this district was the most thickly settled part of the surrounding area. The village was selected as the
seat A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but may also refer to concentrations of power in a wider sense (i.e " seat (legal entity)"). See disambiguation. Types of seat The ...
of Windham County, when the latter was created in 1726, and prospered from the legal activity around the courthouse that was constructed. In the following three decades Windham Center grew to be a prosperous administrative, commercial and agricultural center. The village green today is bordered by the Congregational Church, the Post Office, a former inn, multiple houses, and the original
Greek Revival style Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...
Windham Bank (built in 1832), which was converted to the Windham Free Library in 1896. Four streets issue from the green: Scotland Rd (Route 14) to the east, Windham Center Road (Route 203) to the south, Plains Road to the west, and North Road (Routes 14 and 203) to the northwest. The village remains essentially rural. Windham was the home of two of Connecticut's Revolutionary pioneers, Eliphalet Dyer and Jedediah Elderkin; of craftsman J. Alden Weir; and of legal scholar
Zephaniah Swift Zephaniah Swift (February 27, 1759 – September 27, 1823) was an eighteenth-century American writer, judge, lawyer, chief justice, congressman, law professor, diplomat and politician from Windham, Connecticut. He served as a U.S. Representativ ...
. The first volume of Swift's work, ''A System of the Laws of the State of Connecticut'' (1795), was the first legal treatise in America and concerns the constitution of the state and differences between English and American
common law Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...
.


References


External links

* {{National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut Historic districts in Windham County, Connecticut Italianate architecture in Connecticut Windham, Connecticut Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut National Register of Historic Places in Windham County, Connecticut