A history of the Winsted Green

The hamlet of Winsted, in the eastern section of the town of Winchester, formed an ecclesiastical society in 1778 with the approval of the state’s General Assembly. Granting of an ecclesiastical society gave the settlers power to tax to support the Congregational Church, in this case a meeting house, where matters religious and secular were discussed. The original church was built in 1793 and located on Wallens Hill. After the Greenwoods Turnpike was built in 1799, the members of the society voted to move the church onto the new road, which connected with the turnpike. The church was built in 1800 on the Green approximately where the 1904 Civil War Monument is situated, facing East Street (now North Main Street) which ran through the Green, not around it. At least three purchases of strips of land were purchased to provide a “parade” ground — one purchased by the ecclesiastical society. The parade ground was used for the annual muster of the town’s militia. The development of the Winsted Green followed the same course as that of the Winchester Center Green. Both Greens were dominated by their churches. The 1818 State Constitution ended the establishment of an official church, which also took away the ability to tax to support the churches. By the mid 1840s churches no longer took pride of place on many greens — including Winsted and Winchester Center.Prior to the Civil War, military drills on both greens had also ceased, never to return. By the 1850s, The Winsted Green eventually followed a different course than that of the Winchester Center Green whose green and surrounding architecture remained firmly in the late 18th through the mid-19th century. The impetus of the Village Improvement Society movement, often conducted by women of a town, can be plainly seen as greens became a place for recreation and community functions. In 1869, New York writer and daughter of James Fenimore Cooper, Susan Fenimore Cooper, wrote in Putnam Magazine: “...every village should, of course, have its green, or playground, or common … where old and young, the grave and the gay, lads and lasses, fathers, mothers, and children may meet together on a summer’s evening to breathe the fresh air, and chat with their neighbors. Such a ground need not be large. Even one acre well laid out, and in a good situation, with groups of trees and shrubbery, with winding walks and benches for rest, may be capable of giving great pleasure to the townsfolk. But, of course, four or five acres would afford much more variety. If possible, let there be a neat fountain, or some simple local monument in the centre, to add to the interest; a monument to some worthy public character of the neighborhood, or a stone recording some local event of general interest.” In Winsted, the shape of the green began to change. In 1858, the street, formerly known as East Street, was rerouted to go around the green rather than through it. Prior to this time, according to Elliot B. Bronson, the green was a euphemism as it was covered in gravel. Grass and trees were planted. A wooden bandstand was erected and a photograph of the 1883 Fireman’s Parade shows both the bandstand and the granite pillars that form the fence around the park. In the 1890s, the oldest feature still remaining in the park, a fountain, was erected as a bequest from Mary Blake Mitchell who resided across from the park. Architecture surrounding the Green continuously changed with mid- to late-19th century structures predominating. Educational, religious, business and residential structures were built, updated and restored. It is not known when the name East End Park entered the lexicon, but it was probably during this era. In 1966, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) voted that the name Winsted Green was the proper name of the common. Nevertheless, as the name East End Park denotes the evolutionary movement toward parkland using a name that is directional not exclusionary.The Civil War did not affect usage of the Winsted Green. Litchfield had its recruiting tent on its green. Winsted’s recruiting occurred on the second floor of the Hurlbut Bank in West Winsted. Few, if any, musters occurred on the Winsted Green primarily since the required annual training of militias was discontinued in 1848 and training of the different companies was done farther away with the entire regiment.In 1890, 25 years after the Civil War, the Soldiers’ Monument on Crown Street in West Winsted was dedicated. A monument to the non-repatriated soldiers of that war was erected in Forest View Cemetery in 1900. It was not until Charles Pine erected a Civil War monument in 1904, that the Civil War veterans were memorialized on the Winsted Green. After the installation in 1904 of the Civil War monument, the Winsted Green did not have another military monument until 1991 when the Vietnam Veterans Council erected a monument in honor of those lost in Vietnam. The veterans of WWII did not have a monument until the American Legion among other groups collected money to erect a monument on the Winsted Green in 2000.There are at least 10 more tributes to veterans in other locations throughout Winsted — in parks, cemeteries, at Town Hall, the Historical Society and elsewhere. There had been an 11th: a gift of land from the Manchester family to the Seicheprey Post No. 296 was donated for a Veteran’s Memorial Park in 1933. The title was given to the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) with the contingency that the area be operated as a public park and picnic ground in honor of the men who fought in the Great War. However, the deed further instructed “should said land cease to be used for said purposes the title shall revert to my estate or to my heirs.” The VFW agreed, but this magnificent land on the first cobble — more than three acres- with views of both ends of town and Highland Lake, reverted back to the Manchester family in 1950 who then donated it to the Winsted Memorial Hospital. There may have been a very good reason for the loss of the park, but nevertheless, this was a huge loss to the public.Currently a small group of petitioners claim that they just want to rename the Winsted Green to Veterans Park. Although they have also argued that they want to move another monument from its situation in another park to the Winsted Green. Re-branding a green on the historic register has had unsettling consequences in Connecticut and throughout the Northeast. Greens have fallen into disrepair and disuse. One study on just such a phenomenon is Ronald Lee Fleming and Lauri A. Halderman’s “On Common Ground: Caring for Shared Land from Town Common to Urban Park.” Their analysis concludes: “...town greens give a sense of responsibility to members of a community; when everyone feels that the park belongs to them they are more motivated to care for it, preserve it, and take pride in it.” Another instructive study, The Park and the People by Roy Rosenzweig and Elizabeth Backmar, states that “Any sort of particularization of common parks leads to exclusion amongst citizens. By directing the purpose of a park especially towards a particular group of people, others were automatically ostracized and made to feel less welcome in their public space.” The Winsted Green reflects the growth and character of its community. It belongs to all its citizens and to change that balance by re-branding in favor of one group could destroy the Green and our unique heritage. I urge the public to vote at the town meeting on Feb. 17 to save our Green.Virginia Shultz-Charette is a former adjunct college U.S. History instructor, vice-chair of Soldiers’ Monument and co-author of the Arcadia Publication “Winsted and Winchester.” She would like to thank Winsted’s historians, past and present, for providing the information used in this essay.