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Litchfield Avenue

535 Litchfield Avenue, Killingly, CT

Litchfield Avenue is a 11.6-acre property. The property features a 0.9 mile hike on a woodland trail through a property bordering the Quinebaug River and belonging to the Town of Killingly. The Town placed a conservation easement on this property in 2009. Due to the proximity to the roadside and the secluded quiet road, this property has historically been used as an illegal dumping site. 

This property is open to passive recreation, including the following activities: 

  • Hiking

  • Birdwatching

  • Snow Shoeing

  • Pets Discouraged! (Due to dumping that has taken place in the past, stray glass could hurt your pet's paws. The property has been cleaned to the best of our ability, but it's impossible to know if we've gotten every piece of glass. Sometimes we find more glass as leaves get kicked up, etc. Please use caution.)

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History of Rogers

In 1826, Caleb Williams of Providence bought land (along with the privilege to use waterpower from the Quinebaug River) and built a factory village named Williamsville. Then in 1913, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company of Acron, Ohio bought the Williamsville village and the name of the village was changed to Goodyear in 1916. The Goodyear Company closed its operation in 1932 during the Great Depression. Then, there was a flood in March of 1936 and a hurricane in 1938 that caused the destruction of the lower village. In 1937, Rogers Corporation acquired the plant and sold the remaining houses individually. The village changed its name from Goodyear to Rogers in 1954, and it remains Rogers to this day. (Killingly Historical and Genealogical Society). 

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History of the Williamsville/Goodyear Schoolhouse

While nothing currently stands on the Town property where the Litchfield trails are, there once was a schoolhouse on the 535 Litchfield property near where the beginning of the trail is. The old schoolhouse is can be seen in the historical aerial from 1934. However, the next historical aerial taken in 1951 doesn't show the schoolhouse, so the schoolhouse was destroyed before then, likely in the 1936 floods or 1938 hurricane that destroyed the rest of the village. We know that they building in the aerial was the schoolhouse because old plans from May 1935 have the schoolhouse labeled. 

Simeon Danielson, from the original Danielson family whom the Danielson borough was named after, taught at the Williamsville/Goodyear schoolhouse for five years, many years before we have records of the schoolhouse in historical aerials or on old plans. Simeon Danielson was born in 1840 and passed away in 1917.  He spent 12 years teaching (before retiring in the 1870s) and he worked at many other schools in the area, including Plainfield, Putnam, Chestnut Hill, Brooklyn Center, Woodstock, Dayville, and Danielson. 

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Click here for a printable brochure and trail map of Litchfield.

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