Preston, Connecticut

Preston City is a village and the original town center of the town of Preston, Connecticut. The core of the village around the junction of Old Northwest Road and Route 164 is designated as the Preston City Historic District, a historic district that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The district is located along Old Shetucket and Amos Roads, which, prior to the 1930s, were major thoroughfares.: 3 The historic district was listed on the National Register in 1987. It includes 24 contributing buildings, one other contributing structure, another contributing site, and three contributing objects. It includes representation of Greek Revival, Georgian, and Federal architectural styles.Historically, Preston City was one of three distinct settlements in the town, the others being Poquetanuck and Long Society. The first Congregational church in Preston City was founded in 1698.Preston City prospered in its early years when the town of Preston was an important supplier of agricultural products to the port of Norwich on the Thames River, from which local farm goods were shipped to other ports on the east coast. The period of greatest prosperity was between the American Revolutionary War and about 1830, and is reflected in the architecture of the homes built by successful local farmers and merchants.

The Capt. Thomas Fanning Farmstead is a historic farm property at 1004 Shewville Road in Ledyard, Connecticut. With a building history dating to about 1746, it is one of the oldest surviving agricultural properties in the town, including the house, barn, and smaller outbuildings. The property, now reduced to 4 acres (1.6 ha), was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.

The Long Society Meetinghouse is a historic church building at 45 Long Society Road in Preston, Connecticut. It is one of only about a dozen surviving colonial "broad side" meeting houses, and is the last example surviving in Connecticut that has not been altered from that configuration by the addition of a tower or relocation of its entrance or pulpit. The meeting house was built from 1817 to 1819 on the site of an earlier meetinghouse, incorporating some elements of the earlier building. The meeting house was used both as a church and for civic functions, the reason for its plain, not overtly religious appearance. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

Hallville Mill Historic District is a historic district in the town of Preston, Connecticut, that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. Contributing properties in the district are 23 buildings, two other contributing structures, and one other contributing site over a 50-acre (20 ha) area. The district includes the dam that forms Hallville Pond (a mill pond), historic manufacturing buildings and worker housing, and the Hallville Mill Bridge, a lenticular pony truss bridge built circa 1890 by the Berlin Iron Bridge Company.Hallville is a historic textile mill village. The first mill on the local stream, Indiantown Brook, was a fulling mill built in 1752 for finishing of locally produced homespun woolen cloth. Carding machines were added in the early 19th century. In 1857 Joseph Hall, Sr., a weaver born in England, built an industrial-scale woolen mill on the site. The mill remained under his family's ownership under the name Hall Brothers' Woolen Mill (named for the founder's sons) and was continually expanded over the years. As of 1888 the mill employed 175 workers and produced 860,000 yards (790,000 m) of cloth annually. The woolen mill burned in 1943, but manufacturing continued in Hallville until the 1960s. It was a major source of employment and tax revenue for the town of Preston.The district has significance "as an intact representative small-scale 19th-century mill village containing a high concentration of contributing buildings and structures built as components of a company-owned town based initially on so-called Rhode Island manufacturing system." As such, the mill and its associated village provide physical evidence of the area's economic transition to industrial production during the late 19th century.: 11 Route 2A, a two-lane undivided highway, passes through Hallville. Increased traffic volumes on this road, attributed to the nearby Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos, are considered to be a threat to the historic character of the village.

Strawberry Park is a 160-acre (650,000 m2) campground located in Preston, Connecticut. The campsite offers water, electricity, wireless internet access, and cable TV connection. Sewer and electrical connections are available as well as log cabin and rv rentals.

Poquetanuck is a village in the town of Preston, Connecticut, located near the banks of a bay known as Poquetanuck Cove that opens to the Thames River. The village includes the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP)-listed Poquetanuck Village Historic District.

Taft Tunnel is a railroad tunnel in the northeast United States, located in the southwest part of Lisbon, Connecticut. Completed in 1837, it was the first common carrier railroad tunnel built in the United States, though it was not used until 1839 (before which several other tunnels were in use). It is still in use in its original form.

The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation is a federally recognized American Indian tribe in the state of Connecticut. They are descended from the Pequot people, an Algonquian-language tribe that dominated the southern New England coastal areas, and they own and operate Foxwoods Resort Casino within their reservation in Ledyard, Connecticut. As of 2018, Foxwoods Resort Casino is one of the largest casinos in the world in terms of square footage, casino floor size, and number of slot machines, and it was one of the most economically successful in the United States until 2007, but it became deeply in debt by 2012 due to its expansion and changing conditions.The tribe was federally recognized in 1983 through the Mashantucket Pequot Land Claims Settlement Act. The federal land claims suit was brought by the tribe against the State of Connecticut and the Federal government, charging that the tribe had been illegally deprived of its land through state actions that were not ratified by the Senate. As part of the settlement of this suit, Congress gave federal recognition to the tribe, in addition to approving financial compensation so that the tribe could repurchase lost land. Tribal membership is based on proven lineal descent of 11 Pequot families whose ancestors were listed in the 1900 US Census.The Mashantucket Pequot tribe is one of two federally recognized tribes in Connecticut, the other being the Mohegan Indian Tribe.

The Mill Brook Bridge is a historic stone arch bridge, located just north of Lower Blissville Road in Lisbon, Connecticut. With a plausibly estimated construction date of the 1790s, it is probably the oldest surviving stone arch bridge in the state. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. Since then, it has deteriorated and is partially collapsed.

Mashantucket is a census-designated place (CDP) in the northeast part of the town of Ledyard, New London County, Connecticut, United States. It consists of land held by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe. The Foxwoods Resort Casino is in the northeast part of the CDP, along Connecticut Route 2. As of the 2010 census, the CDP had a population of 299.

Foxwoods Resort Casino is a hotel and casino complex owned and operated by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation on their reservation located in Ledyard, Connecticut. Including six casinos, the resort covers an area of 9,000,000 sq ft (840,000 m2). The casinos have more than 250 gaming tables for blackjack, craps, roulette, and poker, and have more than 5,500 slot machines. The casinos also have several restaurants, among them a Hard Rock Cafe. It has been developed since changes in state and federal laws in the late 20th century enabled Native American gaming on the sovereign reservations of federally recognized tribes. Foxwoods has two hotel towers, with a total of 2,228 hotel rooms; and an arcade for children and teens. The original tower, the Grand Pequot Tower, opened in 1997, while the second opened in 2008 as the MGM Grand. It was re-branded the Fox Tower in 2013. In 2015, a retail complex, known as Tanger Outlet Mall, opened between the two hotel towers with 85 stores featuring luxury goods.

The Gurdon Bill Store is located in Ledyard, Connecticut. In 1818, the land for the store was purchased by Gurdon Bill and his partner, Philip Gray. In 1819, Gray sold his interest in the store for $500. Bill operated the store until his death in 1856 and the store is believed to have made its final transaction in 1868. It has not been used since it was sold to the Congregational Society in 1875, retaining its historical integrity. The store is an 18-by-30-foot (5.5 by 9.1 m) by 1+1⁄2-story gable-roofed clapboarded structure built upon fieldstone and stone blocks. It has some unusual architecture in the form of a pent-roof and three-part window shutters. Clouette describes the store as "the best preserved early 19th-century store known in Connecticut." The Gurdon Bill Store was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 12, 1982.