alt
Welcome to the Town GreenJump to a pagePage 1 buttonPage 2 buttonPage 3 buttonPage 4 button
W

elcome to the town green. Connecticut is proud to claim more than 170 town greens. Be they tiny churchyards, rural parks, or urban plazas, these "living artifacts" are an invaluable heritage resource. They are icons of history, tradition, and community that may do more to identify the state as part of New England than any other element of the landscape. Early Colonial greens and their many modern incarnations are a powerful presence in every county and region. They not only preserve a legacy of architecture and town planning, but also cultural institutions and reassuring ritual„from high school graduation to band concert„that are all essential to the Connecticut character.

  As park, town square, memorial ground, and civic plaza, the green is a public landscape that belongs to everyone. To experience the green is to experience Connecticut.

image video clip
The town green means history

  One of the only relics of the Puritan past to survive in its original location, the green„or common, as it is also known„is the oldest continually used element of town planning in America. The practice of setting aside "common or undivided land" for communal ownership was transplanted to the Massachusetts Bay Colony by English settlers during the period of the Great Migration in the 1630s, and adapted to the geography and specific needs of new settlements throughout Connecticut.

image 3_2

Sketch of the Guilford Green Circa 1820, pencil sketch by Charles Hubbard, circa 1980. Courtesy of the Guilford Free Library, Guilford, Connecticut.


image 2_1

New Haven Green-A Winter Day, tempera on wood by Dede Plummer, 1944. Courtesy of the New Haven Colony Historical Society, New Haven, Connecticut.

image 2_6

The New Haven Green, Unidentified Celebration, black-and-white photograph by T.S. Bronson, circa 1910. Courtesy of the New Haven Colony Historical Society, New Haven, Connecticut.

New Haven's green has been and continues to be the site of celebrations. Temporary structures are constructed for the events.

 

Jump To Next Page


 
 
 

Home | GreenLink | Exhibits | DataCenter
© 2001–2024 TownGreens.com