Welcome to Easton, CT

County: Fairfield
Population: 7,383
Square Miles: 28.6
Government: Selectman
Distance to Major Cities:
Boston: 140 miles
Hartford: 49 miles
New York City: 51 miles

While it is part of the New York metropolitan area, Easton remains a quiet and even rural residential town. Almost 40 percent of the town’s 28.6 square miles is protected open space, and another 44 percent is watershed land, owned by Aquarion Water Company of Connecticut.

Easton’s unique character is reflected in the care its citizens take to keep their town singularly Easton. The zoning code, unchanged in 66 years, bans commerce altogether, save for the random cafe or gas station whose lot predates World War II. Historic homes and farmhouses are numerous, especially 18th- and 19th-century center-chimney colonials as well as centuries old low stone perimeter walls, and a red barn or two.

Easton is laced with walking and riding trails, many on the Aspetuck Land Trust, while Christmas tree farms and pick your own pumpkin and apple farms such as Silverman’s are located in the center of “town.” Off the beaten path the Merritt Parkway (Route 15) runs along the southern border, and Routes 136 and 59 angle north and east toward Monroe and Newtown.

Easton’s most notable resident was Helen Keller who died at 87 at her home, and the local middle school still bears her name. Easton is a community that is strikingly rural, where working farms coexist with suburban tracts, and where quiet is prized and respected.

Easton was first settled in 1757 by men from Fairfield. In 1762 a congregation called the North Fairfield Society was established, and it gradually evolved into Easton. In 1787 Weston, then including lands now defined as Easton, was incorporated from Fairfield. The area was slow to develop because of the rough hills along the Aspetuck River so it was not until 1845 that Easton was incorporated from Weston. Its history as a settlement begins much earlier, in the early 1700s as a farming community. Early businesses provided iron from a local foundry while saw, cider and grist mills supplied building materials and sustenance for the population. Both spiritual and social life were entwined in the Colonist’s existence and churches, then schools, were founded during the 1700’s and 1800’s.