1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Winsted

WINSTED, a borough in the township of Winchester, Litchfield county, Connecticut, U.S.A., on the Mad and Still rivers, in the N.W. part of the state, about 26 m. N.W. of Hartford. Pop. of the township (1890) 6183; (1900) 7763; of the borough (1900) 6804, of whom 1213 were foreign-born; (1910) 7754. The borough is served by the New York, New Haven & Hartford and the Central New England railways, and by electric railway to Torrington. Among the public institutions are the William L. Gilbert Home for friendless children and the Gilbert free high school, each, endowed with more than $600,000 by William L. Gilbert, a prominent citizen; the Beardsley public library (1874), the Convent of Saint Margaret of Cortona, a Franciscan monastery, and the Litchfield County Hospital. In a park in the central part of the borough there is a tower (60 ft. high) to the memory of the soldiers of Winsted who fell in the Civil War, and another park, contains a soldiers’ monument and a memorial fountain. Water power is derived from the Mad river and Highland lake, which is west of the borough and is encircled by the Wakefield boulevard, a seven-mile drive, along which there are many summer cottages. The manufactures include cutlery and edge tools, clocks, silk twist, hosiery, leather, &c. Winsted was settled in 1756 and chartered as a borough in 1858. The name Winsted was coined from Winchester and Barkhamsted, the latter being the name of the township immediately cast of Winchester. The township of Winchester was incorporated in 1771.