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Willimantic is a census-designated place located in Windham, Connecticut, United States. Previously organized as a city and later as a borough, Willimantic is currently one of two tax districts within the Town of Windham. Willimantic is located within Windham County and the Southeastern Connecticut Planning Region.
Willimantic, city and principal community in the town (township) of Windham, Windham county, east-central Connecticut, U.S., at the junction of the Willimantic and Natchaug rivers. The site was settled about 1686 and developed because of the availability of waterpower for gristmills and sawmills.
Eastern's first Digital Windham course (HIS 388) explored Willimantic's more recent history, and was co-taught by Drs. Kirchmann and Ostwald in Fall of 2020. Over the course of the semester, students researched and created timelines of key events in the town's history.
This meta-exhibit on the Digital Windham website focuses on the history of the city of Willimantic around the year 1910. Why 1910? The year 1910 was, in one sense, an 'average' year in American history - no major American wars, with only a mild economic recession.
History of Willimantic, The Thread City. Willimantic's earliest mill dams were located at natural waterfalls. Another great advantage of the river was the presence of granitic-gneiss outcroppings along its banks, a source of stone for building the early mills.
7 gru 2015 · Despite the industrialized nature of the area throughout the 1800s and most of the 1900s that led it to become known as “Thread City,” Willimantic’s economy crashed in 1985 when American Thread Company moved to North Carolina.
In the Industrial Era, Thread Mill Square was the vibrant heart of Willimantic, Connecticut’s fabled Thread City, the home of almost a dozen textile factories. Factory buildings lined one side of the Square, while the other side was filled with storefronts, mansions, and mill worker tenements.
