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Georgetown Historic District (Georgetown, Connecticut)

AC with 0 elementsAnimal hair productsColonial Revival architecture in ConnecticutCompany towns in ConnecticutGeorgetown, Connecticut
Historic districts in Fairfield County, ConnecticutHistoric districts on the National Register of Historic Places in ConnecticutIndustrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in ConnecticutItalianate architecture in ConnecticutNRHP infobox with nocatNational Register of Historic Places in Fairfield County, ConnecticutRedding, ConnecticutWilton, ConnecticutWire and cable manufacturers
PostcardGeorgetownCTGilbertAndBennettMfg1909
PostcardGeorgetownCTGilbertAndBennettMfg1909

The Georgetown Historic District is a historic district which covers the central portion the village of Georgetown, Connecticut. The district includes parts of Georgetown in the towns of Redding, Weston, Wilton, and Ridgefield and consists of the former Gilbert & Bennett manufacturing plant, institutional housing built for the plant workers, other private homes, and the Georgetown business district.In its 1986 National Register nomination, the district is described as "[A] rare survival of rural industrial history".: 3 The company began as a cottage industry weaving animal hair from cows and horses, started by Benjamin Gilbert. Water power was needed, and the enterprise used a former sawmill facility downriver from the later factory site. The company found success making sieves from animal hair. After much development and a fire, the company focused on wire products including woven wire cloth for meat safes, the first insect wire screening, and poultry netting.The company is described as having been "[g]uided by nineteenth-century paternalism and enlightened self-interest which carried over well into the twentieth century" for it having "shaped a community which today resembles the rural industrial village of nineteenth-century Utopian ideology.": 3  The district consists of properties that are roughly bounded by Route 7, Portland Avenue, Route 107, and the Norwalk River. It includes 120 contributing buildings and one other contributing site over a 125 acres (51 ha) area. Architectural styles in the historic district include Colonial Revival, Bungalow/Craftsman, and Italianate.The district was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on January 21, 1987. Fourteen properties in the Town of Wilton, on Church Street, West Church Street, and Redding Road, are also included in the town's Historic District #6, designated in 2007. Exterior alterations to these properties require approval by the Wilton Historic District and Historic Property Commission. Several of the 123 contributing resources originally included in the National Register historic district have been demolished as part of a Georgetown Redevelopment Project.Since the Gilbert & Bennett property has gone idle, multiple developers have attempted to recreate the site as a mixed-use village combining residential and commercial buildings. In 2005, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded one proposal its National Award for Smart Growth Achievement.In 2007, the U.S. Department of the Interior sought Congressional approval for the National Park Service to acquire space on the Gilbert & Bennett property for administration and operational support to the Weir Farm National Historic Site in Ridgefield. Under existing federal law at the time, the National Park Service was authorized to secure expansion space in Ridgefield and Wilton only.

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Georgetown Historic District (Georgetown, Connecticut)
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N 41.255277777778 ° E -73.431388888889 °
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New Street Terrace 12
06897
Connecticut, United States
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PostcardGeorgetownCTGilbertAndBennettMfg1909
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Cannondale Historic District
Cannondale Historic District

Cannondale Historic District is a historic district in the Cannondale section in the north-central area of the town of Wilton, Connecticut. The district includes 58 contributing buildings, one other contributing structure, one contributing site, and 3 contributing objects, over a 202 acres (82 ha). About half of the buildings are along Danbury Road (U.S. Route 7) and most of the rest are close to the Cannondale train station (another half dozen buildings are along Seeley Road).The district is significant because it embodies the distinctive architectural and cultural-landscape characteristics of a small commercial center as well as an agricultural community from the early national period through the early 20th century....The historic uses of the properties in the district include virtually the full array of human activity in this region—farming, residential, religious, educational, community groups (the Grange), small-scale manufacturing, transportation, and even government (the building that housed the first Cannondale Post Office). The close physical relationship among all these uses, as well as the informal character of the commercial enterprises before the rise of more aggressive techniques to attract consumers, capture some of the texture of life as lived by prior generations.: 17  The district is also significant for its collection of architecture and for its historic significance.: 17 The district has a number of buildings in Greek Revival style, as well as Victorian era buildings and Colonial Revival buildings.

Cannondale, Connecticut
Cannondale, Connecticut

Cannondale is a census-designated place (CDP) within the town of Wilton in Fairfield County, Connecticut. It had a population of 141 at the 2010 census. The neighborhood consists of many old homes on large, almost rural lots now largely wooded. The English first settled the land in the 17th century. At the center of Cannondale is Cannon Crossing, a small shopping village of boutiques and restaurants made up of 19th-century buildings restored by actress June Havoc in the late 1970s on the east side of Cannondale Railroad Station. Both are part of Cannondale Historic District, which encompasses the central part of Cannondale and most of its significant historical buildings. The area was originally called "Pimpewaug" by the local Indians, and it was the name originally used by the colonial settlers. The Cannon family became prominent in the area, in part because of the Cannon Store, which started operating in the 1790s. In March 1852, the Danbury and Norwalk Railroad opened a station in the neighborhood, near where the tracks crossed Cannon Road, and named it Cannon Station. Soon after, Charles Cannon began a campaign to get a post office in the neighborhood, and on April 29, 1870 it became a reality in a store east of the railroad tracks (very probably in a building which also functioned as a general store and the train station). At this time, the neighborhood became known as "Cannon Station". In 1882, the U.S. Post Office changed the local office's name to "Cannon", then changed it back to Cannon Station in 1896. The similarity of "Cannon" and "Canaan", a town on the northern border of the state, caused residents to want a further adjustment in the name. In November 1915 the post office name was changed to Cannondale. The post office was closed in 1967 but the name remains, generally covering an area centered on the intersection of Danbury Road and Cannon Road.In 1915, Samuel Miller, who was instrumental in the final name change, acquired a cannon which had been used in the Civil War battle of Galveston. It was placed at the intersection of Danbury and Cannon roads and toppled twice, once as a Halloween prank and another time in an automobile accident.