Litchfield
A National Historic Landmark District Around One Of The Best Preserved Colonial Greens In New England; The Litchfield Law School Of 1784 Was The First Law School In The United States And Stands On It · Litchfield, Connecticut
Litchfield got rich on the Revolutionary-era trade routes between Hartford and Albany, built itself a green surrounded by white clapboard houses, and then watched the railroads go elsewhere in the nineteenth century - which is why almost nothing was demolished. The result is one of the best-preserved colonial town centres in New England and a National Historic Landmark district, with North and South Streets carrying a run of eighteenth and early nineteenth century houses that has few equals. On the green stands the Tapping Reeve House and the Litchfield Law School of 1784, the first law school in the United States, which trained two vice presidents, over a hundred congressmen and twenty-eight senators before Yale and Harvard had law faculties. The hills around it hold the state's largest nature centre and the wine trail. The railroad going elsewhere in the nineteenth century is the whole reason the town survives intact, and the Litchfield History Museum on the green tells that story better than the architecture does.
On the Green, West Street, Litchfield, Litchfield, Connecticut, 06759, United States
The green and the streets around it are public and open at all hours, free. The Litchfield History Museum and the Tapping Reeve House and Law School keep seasonal museum hours, generally from mid-April to late November and closed for the winter, with at least one weekday closure within the season. Shops and restaurants around the green keep their own hours and several close on Mondays. The White Memorial Conservation Center nearby is open year round.