| Town:
Sharon, CT
Population: 3,052
Area: 59.6 square miles
Elementary School: Sharon
Center
High School: Housatonic
Valley Regional
|
Rolling Farm
in Sharon |
First-time
visitors to Sharon are most often struck
by the beauty of its tree-lined village
green and the row of stately, mostly
historic, homes which extend south from
the green itself, past the brick and
stone clock tower, to the fairways of
the Sharon Country Club and the rolling
farm fields and broad vistas of the
Oblong Valley.
Incorporated
in 1739, Sharon, along with its sister
towns in Northwest Connecticut were
first farm and iron producing centers.
Its name is taken from the Plain of
Sharon in the Bible which must have
been suggested to the first settlers
by the topography that slopes to the
west from the Housatonic River Highlands
toward the broad, fertile farmlands
reaching toward the Ten Mile River in
nearby Dutchess County, New York.
Sharon’s
early history extends back to before
its incorporation to Native American
settlements that existed on the west
bank of Indian Pond and above Mudge
Pond. Moravian missionaries had made
contact with these original inhabitants
(as they did in nearby Kent and eastern
New York) seeking to convert these peoples
to Christianity. Whether or not as a
result of their conversion, the Sharon
Indians deeded their property rights
to the new settlers, finally relinquishing
all claims in 1855.
Like many of
the other towns in the region, Sharon
prospered as an agricultural and iron
producing economy until the Civil War
era. In the 1800’s Sharon Valley
was a center of industry, manufacturing
a variety of household and farm implements
from the local iron. It was there that
the Jewell Manufacturing Company produced
the Boswick mousetrap which led to its
nickname as the “Mousetrap Capital
of the World”. It was also during
this age of iron that Benjamin Hotchkiss,
the inventor of the Hotchkiss machine
gun, operated his factory in Sharon
and became, through the generosity of
his widow, a significant benefactor
of the town and the region (The Hotchkiss
Memorial Library and The Hotchkiss School).
Since the early
20th century, Sharon has been home to
part-time residents who built substantial
summer homes. This infusion of prosperous,
educated outsiders has richened the
local demographic and contributed to
the establishment of the regions first
hospital and the Sharon Audubon Center
and Miles Sanctuary as well as the newly
established but very active Sharon Land
Trust. The theatrical arts have long
prospered in Sharon, beginning with
the Sharon Playhouse whose original
barn theater is now home to the Tri
Arts Theater productions. Sharon is
well worth the visit if you love 18th
and 19th century architecture, broad
rural vistas and the sense of slipping
gently into an earlier time.
Town
Links:
--Official
Town Site
--Historical
Society
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