Willington, Connecticut

Willington Common Historic District is a historic district that includes the town green, Willington Common, of the town of Willington, Connecticut. The common and the surrounding buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.The district is located at the junction of Route 74 and Route 320, on the location now known as Willington Hill, which is the original settlement and town center of Willington. The Green is rectangular and is bounded by Route 74 on the south, Jared Sparks Road on the east and Common Road on the north and west.The buildings around the common were built in the 18th and 19th centuries. They include two churches, the Old Town Hall, a parsonage and other residences (some of which served as stores and taverns). The two churches are the most dominant structures on the Green. The historic district covers an area of 19 acres and comprises 32 buildings, sites, and objects. It is noted primarily for its architecture, including designs by Albert Sharp.

Hall Memorial School is located at 111 River Road (Route 32) in Willington, Connecticut. It serves only the town of Willington, grades 5 through 8. The school is fairly small, servicing about 320 students.

The Gurley-Mason Mill was a historic sawmill and gristmill located along the Fenton River on the north side of Old Turnpike Road in Mansfield, Connecticut. The mill was built around 1778, shut down around 1935, and demolished in the mid-1960s. The 2.31-acre site and ruins have been conserved by Joshua's Tract Conservation and Historic Trust since 2000. The Gurleyville Historic District lies two miles downriver.

The Fenton River is a major water source for the University of Connecticut that runs through Mansfield, Storrs, and Willington, as well as small parts of Windham, all but the latter in Tolland County, Connecticut. spanning 18.895 miles (about 30.408 kilometers). It feeds into Mansfield Hollow reservoir at its end, making it a tributary to the Mount Hope, Natchaug, and Willimantic rivers. The Fenton River is fed by several smaller brooks, streams, and creeks. It is used as a water source by the University of Connecticut Storrs Campus, and is as thus relatively shallow. The stone Gristmill on the intersection of Stonemill and Gurleyville roads was once functional, and now is protected by the Joshua's Tract Conservation and Historic Trust. Along its shores are huge swaths of protected land, mainly belonging to the university, Joshua's Trust, Nipmuck Trail, or other such preserve. Soil erosion is a small problem along some stretches. The USGS has a river flow and height monitoring station posted in the Fenton on Old Turnpike Road, in Storrs. It is currently not being pumped due to drought.

The Farwell Barn, also known as Jacobson Barn or Jacobson's Barn, is a historic property on Horsebarn Hill Road in Storrs, Connecticut, on the campus of the University of Connecticut. The property is also the site of the archaeological remains of the Farwell House. The barn "is a 19th-century post-and-beam framed clapboarded barn that was built as part of a family farm and then in 1911 was acquired by the Connecticut Agricultural College, the institution that became the University of Connecticut at Storrs." The corresponding house was burned in 1976. The barn was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.

Codfish Falls is a series of close-knit plunges and cascades, ending in a fan, that is fed by Fishers Brook, in Storrs, Connecticut (a village in the town of Mansfield). It can be accessed by a trail from a road of the same name. The falls has carved out a steep-sided gorge, averaging twenty feet deep, which is in sharp contrast to the surrounding land. It feeds into the nearby Fenton River.

Fishers Brook is a stream that runs for about 4,000 meters (13,123 feet) at its maximum length in spring. Most of the year, it reaches only 3,000 meters (9842.52 feet). It is located in Storrs, Connecticut. It feeds several small wetlands, including one small pond, before dropping off into Codfish Falls. It then leads into the Fenton River. Just before the falls, as well as in several other places, it is intersected by small bridges.

Natchaug State Forest is a Connecticut state forest located in six towns including Ashford, Chaplin, and Eastford. The Natchaug River runs from north to south along (and in a few cases through) the western border of the main forest parcel. James L. Goodwin State Forest abuts Natchaug State Forest to the south. One of the forest units abuts Mashamoquet Brook State Park in Pomfret.

The Storrs Agricultural Experiment Station (SAES) is an American agricultural experiment station operated by the University of Connecticut and founded in 1887. Part of UConn's College of Agriculture, Health, and Natural Resources, the SAES directs agriculture-related research while the university's Cooperative Extension Service engages in community education and outreach. Kumar Venkitanarayanan is the Station's associate director. Its offices are located in the W. B. Young Building in Storrs.

The Connecticut State Museum of Natural History (CSMNH) is located in Storrs, Connecticut, as part of the University of Connecticut. It was established in 1985 as Connecticut's official natural history museum.

Tolland County is a county in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Connecticut. As of the 2020 census, its population was 149,788. It is incorporated into 13 towns and was originally formed on 13 October 1785 from portions of eastern Hartford County and western Windham County. The county is included in the Hartford-East Hartford-Middletown, CT Metropolitan Statistical Area. Counties in Connecticut have no governmental function; all legal power is vested in the state, city and town governments. The office of High Sheriff in Connecticut counties was officially abolished by ballot in 2000, and corrections and court services were transferred to the state marshals. Tolland County has the same boundaries as the Tolland Judicial District. On June 6, 2022, the U.S. Census Bureau formally recognized Connecticut's nine councils of governments as county equivalents instead of the state's eight counties. Connecticut's county governments were disbanded in 1960, and the councils of governments took over some of the local governmental functions. Connecticut's eight historical counties continue to exist in name only, and are no longer considered for statistical purposes.

The William Benton Museum of Art is a public fine arts museum located on the University of Connecticut's main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, US. The Benton houses a permanent collection of over 6,500 artistic works and hosts special exhibitions, concerts, campus art walks, and other events. The museum is named in honor of the prominent U.S. senator and university trustee William Benton. The Benton has a cafe (The Beanery) and a gift store. Admission to the museum is free for all.Constructed in 1920 and used for twenty years as University's main dining hall, the Benton opened officially as an art museum in 1967. The museum building is designed in the Collegiate Gothic style and is one of the core campus buildings in the University of Connecticut Historic District-Connecticut Agricultural School, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.The Benton's collection originated with former Connecticut Agricultural College president Charles Lewis Beach, who began the college's art collection, bequeathed his personal collection of American art to the college in 1933, and left a trust fund for the college to continue acquiring art. Developed over the ensuing decades, the museum's permanent collection includes works by Childe Hassam, Henry Ward Ranger, Emil Carlson, Charles Harold Davis, Ernest Lawson, Ellen Emmet Rand, Guy Wiggins, Mary Cassatt, Thomas Hart Benton, Fairfield Porter, George Bellows, Gustav Klimt, Rembrandt Peale, Georges Braque, Edward Burne-Jones, Reginald Marsh, Käthe-Kollwitz, Arthur Bowen Davies, Maurice Prendergast and Kiki Smith. The collection is strongest in modern and American art, but some works date to the Renaissance, and exhibits are highly diverse.