Located in the southwest corner of the Town of Newtown, the Hattertown Historic District encompasses the nineteenth-century crossroads village of Hattertown. Lewis Brook, one of the many small tributaries of the Pootatuck River to the east, flows through the Hattertown Historic District, creating small ponds on several properties and bisecting Hattertown Green, a small triangular-shaped parcel at the center. The four roads that meet at the green include three that come down into the village from the north and west: Hattertown Road, the main through street, Hi Barlow Road, and Aunt Park Lane. Below the green, Hattertown Road is joined by Castle Meadow Road, entering from the southeast. The district includes houses, nineteenth century barns, four privies, and a former blacksmith shop. The majority of the nineteenth century houses in the Hattertown Historic District have retained the ridge-to-street orientation, central chimney, and two-story rectangular five-bay form of the standard late colonial house. The other styles seen in the district are Greek Revival and Federal. [NR]

Architecture, Social History, Industry:The Hattertown Historic District is an exceptionally well-preserved early nineteenth-century crossroads village, one which was devoted almost exclusively to the hatting trade, a specialized cottage industry closely identified with Connecticut's Western Uplands. These historical associations are especially significant since so little remains elsewhere in the region to mark the evolutionary period of this industry prior to its consolidation in Danbury. The Hattertown Historic District also achieves considerable distinction as a cohesive body of rural vernacular architecture, in which stylistic interpretations of traditional colonial forms include fine well-Grafted examples of the major styles of the period, the Federal and the Greek Revival. Added significance is derived from the integrity of the historic setting, which is enhanced by a collection of well-preserved period outbuildings, and visually integrated by its appropriate-to-period fencing.With its gleaming white houses and red barns, the Hattertown Historic District is the quintessential Connecticut village, so often imagined but rarely found. Though the sights, sounds, and odors of the bustling hat trade are long gone, a picturesque historic landscape of exceptional integrity remains. Little has changed since the nineteenth century. The same period houses still cluster about the pocket green, while their properties fan out behind them, most still complete with their historic barns and other outbuildings, giving the Hattertown Historic District a remarkably high percentage of contributing resources. The few more recent outbuildings are unobtrusive and hardly visible from the road. [NR]

[1] District information retrieved from the town website http://www.newtown-ct.gov/Public_Documents/index.
[2] Hattertown Historic District, Newtown, Historic District Regulation, SHPO Library, Hartford.
[3] GIS information and Parcel IDs retrieved from the website http://maps.newtown-ct.gov/ags_map/.
[NR] Cunningham Jan, Hattertown Historic District, National Register Nomination Number- 96001461 NRIS, National Park Service, 1996 - http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Text/96001461.pdf; http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Photos/96001461.pdf.

The local historic district is contained within the National Register historic district. The National Register Hattertown Historic District includes all of the local historic district of the same name but expands those boundaries to include resources to the west and south.