Main Street - Unionville

Originally known as Langdon’s Quarters in the 18th century, Unionville began to thrive with the use of the Farmington River for small manufacturing as early as 1790. Then it boomed after 1830, when the river was dammed to provide stronger and more consistent water power. By 1850, a multitude of factories and businesses operated here, producing items such as cutlery, fine-grade paper, buttons, felts, nuts & bolts, furniture, and hooks and eyes. Imagine a town with architect-designed homes for factory owners and managers; modest rental houses, tenements and rooming houses for workers; public buildings serving the religious, intellectual, entertainment and safety needs of residents – all connected by a web of shallow canals and holding basin, and serviced by the trolley and then the train. North and west of the center were active farms.