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Torrington is the largest city in Litchfield County, Connecticut and the Litchfield Hills region. It is also the core city of the largest micropolitan area in the United States.〔Small-town USA goes micropolitan. 2004. October 18, 2006. Torrington is a former mill town, as are most other towns along the Naugatuck River Valley. It is currently competing with the neighboring city of Winsted to re-create a pleasant Main Street environment. Downtown Torrington is home to the (Nutmeg Conservatory for the Arts ), which trains ballet dancers and whose Company performs in the Warner Theatre, a 1,700 seat auditorium built in 1931 as a cinema by the Warner Brothers film studio. Downtown Torrington also hosts the largest Lodge of Elks in New England. (Elks Lodge #372 ) supports many community activities and events. Torrington has two radio stations, WAPJ 89.9 FM, operated by the non-profit Torrington Community Radio Foundation, and WSNG 610 AM, owned by Buckley Broadcasting. There is a University of Connecticut regional campus in Torrington. The 100-acre campus is located in a quiet rural setting on the western outskirts of the city, and consists of the M. Adela Eads Classroom Building and the Litchfield County Cooperative Extension Service Building. Torrington has two daily newspapers. The "Republican-American," which circulates a Litchfield County edition and has a bureau on Franklin Street, and ''The Register Citizen'', a Journal Register Company publication that serves Torrington and Winsted, in addition to most of the Northwest Corner. Charlotte Hungerford Hospital has also developed into an important health care resource for the area. In 2008, Torrington was named by Bizjournals as the number one "Dreamtown" (micropolitan statistical area) out of ten in the United States to live in.〔()〕 ==History== Torrington, originally Wolcottville, was first settled in 1735 by Ebenezer Lyman, Jr., of Durham, Connecticut.〔Torrington was known as Wolcottville, after the Wolcott family of Connecticut, which produced several governors between 1813 and 1881.()〕 Its early settlers resided on the hills west of the Naugatuck River where the first school, church, store, and tavern were constructed. Later, the eastern hill known as Torringford was settled, as it provided the best farmland. Torrington was given permission to organize a government and incorporate as a town in October 1740. The fast moving waters of the Naugatuck River were used to power early nineteenth-century industries. Industrial growth skyrocketed when Frederick Wolcott constructed a woolen mill in 1813. The mill attracted a large workforce and created demands for goods, services, and housing. Israel Coe and Erastus Hodges began the construction of two brass mills on the Naugatuck River in 1834. This event sparked the beginning of the brass industry in Torrington, which later would spread throughout the entire Naugatuck Valley. In 1849, the Naugatuck Valley railroad was completed, connecting Torrington with other population centers, ending its isolation, and stimulating further industrial growth. Soon, Torrington was producing a variety of metal products, including needles, brass, hardware, bicycles, and tacks. Torrington's growing industrial plants attracted English, Irish, and German immigrants throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Between 1880 and 1920, Torrington's population exploded from 3,000 to 22,000 as immigration from southern and eastern Europe increased; most immigrants during this period were Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, and Italians. Torrington was chartered as a city in 1923. In 1955, a massive flood destroyed much of the downtown area and other property in the region when Hurricane Connie and Hurricane Diane caused local rivers to overflow. Torrington is home to several state parks, one of which is the very popular Burr Pond State Park. In 1851, Milo Burr placed a dam across the confluence of several mountain streams impounding water for power. The tannery and three active sawmills erected downstream consumed the finest pines and oaks for miles around to meet the needs of lumber production. The clearings became homesites, and Connecticut's industrial leadership was further strengthened. Burr Pond was designated as a state park in 1949. The pond itself has several small inlets and islands. The shore is rocky and there are deep drop-offs in several places, but the pond only has a maximum depth of thirteen feet. Fish species present include largemouth bass, chain pickerel, black crappie, yellow perch, bluegill, pumpkinseed, and brown bullhead. Gail Borden, discoverer of the process of milk preservation by evaporation and condensation, built the world's first condensed milk factory here, in 1857. The new milk product proved to be of great value, particularly to the Union Army during the Civil War. Fire destroyed the mill in 1877. A bronze tablet marks its site, just below the falls. Torrington is the birthplace of abolitionist John Brown. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Torrington, Connecticut」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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