| Town:
Warren, CT
Population: 1,361
Area: 27.6 square miles
Elementary School: Warren
School
High School: Wamogo
Regional
|
Warren's Congregational
Church |
Originally
part of Kent, its neighbor to the east,
Warren was settled in 1737. The parish
of East Greenwich was formed in 1750
and in 1786 the town was incorporated
and named for the Revolutionary War
hero, General Joseph Warren, who was
killed in the Battle of Bunker Hill.
Warren lies in
the highlands between the Housatonic
River Valley and the basin of Lake Waramaug
(a glacial kettle lake of extraordinary
clarity and beauty) which has been a
recreational and tourist mecca since
the early 19th century, once supporting
seven inns and now ringed by spacious
summer homes with lawns sloping down
to the water. You can drive, bike, or
run around the lake on winding town
roads or camp, swim and canoe from Lake
Waramaug State Park. Warren shares the
lake with its neighbors (Kent and Washington)
which have joined to create watchdog
groups dedicated to maintaining its
water quality and monitoring its use
to prevent the incursion of invasive
aquatic plants.
Warren center,
consisting of the town hall, the grammar
school, a general store and a liquor
store, is dominated by its Congregational
Church which was built in 1818 on a
knoll overlooking the village center.
The church steeple features a clock
visible for miles – a clock that
in the 20th century had stopped functioning
until the artist, Eric Sloane, organized
a fall festival and auction to raise
funds to restore it to working order.
The festival has continued and still
retains the flavor of Mr. Sloane’s
harvest fair and auction. Sloane, whose
last studio was in Warren, is famous
for his paintings of New England landscapes
and barns which usually feature dramatic
skies and weather formations. He is
also well known for his massive mural
of the American landscape and the clouds
and weather patterns above it which
adorns the main gallery of the Smithsonian
Air and Space Museum in Washington,
D.C. Collections of his early American
tools and implements as well as a re-creation
of his working studio are permanently
displayed at the Sloane-Stanley Museum
in Kent.
Today, Warren
remains a very rural enclave with virtually
no visible commercial center. It has
recently undergone a modest housing
boom as families from more suburban
towns to the south have chosen a less
crowded environment to raise their families
– trading a longer commute to
work to gain what remains an almost
19th century lifestyle.
Town
Links:
--Official Town Site
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