1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Torrington (Connecticut)

TORRINGTON, a borough of Litchfield county, Connecticut, U.S.A., in the township of Torrington, on the Naugatuck river, about 25 m. W. of Hartford. Pop. (1900), 8360, of whom 2565 were foreign-born; (1910) 15,483; of the township, including the borough (1900) 12,453; (1910) 16,840. It is served by the New York, New Haven & Hartford railway and by an electric line connecting with Winsted. It has a public library (1865) with 15,000 volumes in 1909. There is a state armoury in the borough. Torrington is a prosperous manufacturing centre. In 1905 the value of the factory product was $9,674,124. The township of Torrington, originally a part of the township of Windsor, was first settled in 1734, and was separately incorporated in 1740. The site was covered by pine trees, which were much used for ship-building, and for this reason it was known as Mast Swamp. In 1751 a mill was erected, but there were few, if any, residences until 1800. In 1806 the settlement was known as New Orleans village. In 1813 members of the Wolcott family of Litchfield, impressed with the water-power, bought land and built a woollen mill, and the village that soon developed was called Wolcottville. Its growth was slow until 1864. In 1881 its name was changed to Torrington, and in 1887 the borough was incorporated.

See S. Orcutt’s History of Torrington (Albany, 1878), and an article, “The Growth of Torrington,” in the Connecticut Magazine, vol. ix., No. 1.