The New Preston Hill Historic District is a 210 acres (85 ha) historic district

Historic district (United States)

In the United States, a historic district is a group of buildings, properties, or sites that have been designated by one of several entities on different levels as historically or architecturally significant. Buildings, structures, objects and sites within a historic district are normally divided...

 in the town of Washington

Washington, Connecticut

Washington is a rural town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, in the New England region of the United States. The population was 3,596 at the 2000 census. Washington is known for its picturesque countryside, historic architecture, and active civic and cultural life...

, in Litchfield County, Connecticut

Litchfield County, Connecticut

Litchfield County is a county located in the northwestern corner of the U.S. state of Connecticut. Litchfield County has the lowest population density of any county in Connecticut but is geographically the state's largest county. As of 2010 the population was 189,927...

. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 (NRHP) in 1985.

The most salient element in the district is the "Old Stone Church" of the New Preston Congregational Church, a building that has no heat or electricity and is used by the church during the summer and for weddings. The church has another building, the "Village Church" that is used for the rest of the year, outside this district.

The NRHP nomination asserted:

Despite the heterogeneity of its component structures, the district, which has developed over two centuries, enjoys a cohesive sense of place from the rural setting, spaciousness and slow pace of development. Mostly 19th-century in character, it has 18th-century components and 20th-century buildings of similar scale and mass that in the aggregate constitute a historic, rural, Connecticut village.

The historic district is on a hill west of the village of New Preston

New Preston, Connecticut

New Preston is a rural village in the northwestern corner of the town of Washington in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The village is also at the center of New Preston CDP, a census-designated place , whose population was 1,110 at the 2000 census.-Geography:According to the United...

 and is included in the census designated place centered on New Preston. It includes ten land parcels: five facing on the New Preston Hill common, 4 on New Preston Hill Road, and one on Gunn Hill Road.
There are 12 contributing buildings:

• Hill Congregational Church, which "dominates" the district; this was documented in drawings by the Historic American Buildings Survey
  Historic American Buildings Survey
  The Historic American Buildings Survey , Historic American Engineering Record , and Historic American Landscapes Survey are programs of the National Park Service established for the purpose of documenting historic places. Records consists of measured drawings, archival photographs, and written...
  
   (see accompanying photos #5 through #10))
• school (see photo #5, #11)
• parsonage (see photo #5, #11)
• Rev. Samuel Whittlesey House, from 1808 (see photo #13, #14)
• John Ferris House, from 1800
• Newton's Tavern, c. 1900, a Federal
  Federal architecture
  Federal-style architecture is the name for the classicizing architecture built in the United States between c. 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815. This style shares its name with its era, the Federal Period. The name Federal style is also used in association with furniture design...
  
  /Greek Revival
  Greek Revival architecture
  The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture...
  
   building with 12 over 12 windows (meaning 12 panes in upper and lower sashes) (see photo #1 accompanying NRHP nomination)
• a tollhouse from the 18th century, which has lost exterior appearance as such (see accompanying photo #2)
• house on Parcel 25, Federal/Greek Revival, with fluted pilasters, above the road behind a stone wall. Property also has a barn (see photo #3)
• house on Parcel 26 (see photo #4)
• house on Parcel 33 (see photo #12)
• house on Parcel 35 (see photo #15)
• horse barn on Parcel 35 (see photo #16)
• sheep barn on Parcel 35 (see photo #17)

External links

• Historic American Buildings Survey set of drawings for the Congregational church
• Report of the Historic District Study Commission, Town of Washington, Connecticut. 1975.