You may be familiar with the histories behind The Choate School and Rosemary Hall, which were founded in 1896 and 1890, respectively, but have you ever stopped to wonder how the town of Wallingford came to be?
Wallingford’s origins lie in 1667, 350 years ago, when 38 planters and freemen were authorized for the “making of a village on the east river” by the Connecticut General Assembly. This authorized land was located alongside the Quinnipiac River and ran along present-day Main Street in Wallingford. Three years later, town boundaries were marked. By the late 1670s, 40 houses spanned the extent of Main Street.
Mainly settled in the 1670s, Wallingford once spanned a variety of other territories in Connecticut. Meriden was one of its parishes until 1806, and the town of Cheshire was incorporated in 1780.
Maybe lesser known, the last witchcraft trial in all of New England was held in 1697 in Wallingford, where Winifred Benham was tried but acquitted for witchcraft three times.
At the start of the 19th century, Wallingford began its boom as an industrial town, and during the mid-19th century, many small silver and Brittania industrial plants merged to form the International Silver Company, headquartered in Meriden with key plants located in Wallingford. Along with pewter and Brittania, Wallingford contained an ever-growing silver industry, which began when Robert Wallace discovered the formula for nickel silver. Wallace, accompanied by Samuel Simpson, erected R. Wallace & Company, the predecessor to Wallace Silversmiths. R. Wallace & Company and Simpson, Hall, Miller & Co., another silver-producing company, were two of the more well-known plants that joined the International Silver Company.
Because of past industrial development, Wallingford is presently known for its vast commercial and industrial companies. These range from construction and contracting to technologically-based companies. Wallingford also houses corporations whose missions are related to medical, service, and research ventures. Over time, drawing up to modern years, venues such as the Casimir Pulaski, Wharton Brook, and South Turnpike Road Industrial Parks largely aided in the expansion of Wallingford as a major industry town.
Presently, Wallingford is located in New Haven County, halfway between New Haven and Hartford in the mid-southern area of Connecticut. Its approximately 45,000 residents enjoy the familiar atmosphere of a small Connecticut town while also experiencing the joys of state parks, a thriving economic and industrial center, and an academic community filled with schools including Lyman Hall and Choate Rosemary Hall. With its continued abundance of local traditions and small-town appeal, Wallingford embodies its motto of “A Great And Truly Beautiful New England Town” to this day.
