Redding CT
06896, 06829
Welcome to
Redding CT
Not everyone finds Redding, and the people who do will tell you that's part of what makes it so special. Tucked into the northern reaches of Fairfield County, Redding is a place of open land, quiet forests, and stone walls tracing fields that have stood for centuries, rural Connecticut at its most beautiful and its most real.
A quiet and scenic town with plenty of open space, state parks, and historic sites.
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More about
Redding CT
Open Space & Trails
More than half of Redding's land is preserved open space, hiking trails, and protected forest. Putnam Memorial State Park, often called Connecticut's Valley Forge, preserves the site where General Israel Putnam's Continental Army troops wintered in 1778 to 1779, complete with a monument and colonial museum. Miles of additional trails wind through Redding Land Trust properties and the Centennial Watershed State Forest, connecting the people who live here to the land that surrounds them.
History & Community
The Mark Twain Library in Redding Center is a beloved community institution, founded and endowed by Mark Twain himself, who spent his final years at his Redding estate, Stormfield. New Pond Farm is a working educational farm offering hands-on programs for children and families, deeply woven into the fabric of the community.
Village Sections
Redding is really several distinct villages in one: Redding Center, Redding Ridge, Topstone, West Redding, and part of Georgetown, each with its own personality, from historic greens to quiet countryside roads.
Redding's story begins in 1714, when John Read became the area's first white settler, claiming 500 acres to establish Lonetown Manor as the center of a growing farm settlement. At the time, the land was already home to a Native American village led by Chickens Warrups. Read's son, Col. John Read, later took over the estate, and in 1767 the Connecticut General Assembly incorporated the town, then home to fewer than 1,000 residents, under the name Reading. The name was officially changed to Redding by the U.S. Postal Service in 1844.
Redding played a real role in the Revolutionary War. In 1777, British forces marched local roads on their way to raid Danbury, and the following winter, General Israel Putnam's division of Washington's army encamped in Redding, enduring conditions historians have compared to Valley Forge. That encampment is preserved today at Putnam Memorial State Park.
By the 1890s, Redding had become a retreat for city dwellers seeking quiet, among them the author Mark Twain, who purchased land in town and built his final home, Stormfield, in 1908. Twain lived there until his death in 1910, and his gift to the town, the Mark Twain Library, remains a cornerstone of Redding life today.
Quick Facts
Population
8,765
Year Founded
1767
County
Fairfield County, CT
Town Government Website
Library
