Halfway River forms the boundary between the towns of Newtown and Monroe for almost its entire course.

 

Shepard Hill Road was once called Hawley Folly Road.

 

Shepard Hill Road, formerly Hawley Folly Road, was named for John Shepard, who moved to Newtown in 1737.

 

 

The Sandy Hook School District was first organized in 1779, and was first called Poodertook Brook District.

 

Newtown was first named as “New Town” in May 1708.

 

 

 

There are Newtowns in Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

 

 

The board game Scrabble was manufactured in Newtown from the time of its invention, in 1948, until the mid 1970s.

 

In 18th Century Newtown, agriculture was the foundation of the economy.

 

On May 1, 1883, a committee recommended — and it was passed — that the sum of $600 be appropriated to provide the village of Newtown with its first hook and ladder truck.

 

Newtown Hook & Ladder is the oldest firefighting company in the town of Newtown. At its inception, each member was expected to provide buckets and ladders.

 

The Newtown General Store on Main Street first opened during the Civil War.

 

Newtown Savings Bank was founded in 1855. It was organized under the leadership of Henry Beers Glover.

 

Women first voted in elections held in Newtown in October 1920.

 

Mary Elizabeth Hawley’s first gift to the town of Newtown was The Hawley School. It was dedicated in 1922.

 

Mary Elizabeth Hawley, who has become “the benefactress of Newtown,” was the first of four children born to her parents, Sarah (Booth) and Marcus Clinton Hawley.

 

Hawley School, dedicated in 1922, was the first public building in Newtown to have central heating (with coal), indoor plumbing, a gymnasium and an auditorium.

 

Academy Lane was named for the Newtown Academy, originally built in 1937 to serve the need for education beyond the district’s elementary level.

 

Aunt Park and Phyllis Lane, both in Newtown, pay tribute to two 19th Century women who were known for the medicinal remedies they grew or found in nearby woods and fields.

 

Bennetts Bridge Road in Newtown led to one of the earliest bridges to cross the Housatonic, connecting Newtown with the Kettletown section of Southbury. The family name Bennett was common in the town’s early history.

 

Great Ring Road, in the Sandy Hook section of Newtown, reflects a local legend that the spot was where hunters (possibly Indians) formed a great ring to drive game to the top of a hill.

 

 

Lake George Road in Newtown never ran along the bank of a body of water. It was named for two local property owners, Thomas Lake and George Bank.

 

The man-made Lake Lillinonah was created in 1955 and named for an Indian princess who, according to legend, jumped to her death from Lover’s Leap on the Housatonic River.

 

Philo Curtis Road in Sandy Hook was named for a Newtown selectman elected in 1843.

 

 

Queen Street was christened in honor of Queen Anne, who ruled England from 1702 until 1714.

 

Sugar Street and Sugar Lane in Newtown were named for large sugar maple trees that once lined the road from Newtown to Bethel.

 

 

Wendover Road acquired its picturesque name in the 1940s, when residents voted by an 8-7 margin to replace “Carcass Lane.” A slaughterhouse had once been located at the end of the passageway.

 

In the 1800s, Newtown had more button shops than any other town in the state.

 

Three Connecticut governors have either been born or lived in Newtown: Isaac Tousey (elected 1846), Henry Dutton (1854) and Luzon B. Morris (1869).

 

Aviation pioneer and early air mail pilot Richard Botsford was a descendant of one of Newtown’s founding families.

 

A cooler used by astronauts was invented in Newtown in 1969.

 

Newtown resident R.E. Fulton, Jr, invented a sky hook for use by the US Navy in 1960.

 

The “kabob” skewer, used for cooking over a fireplace or grill, was devised in Newtown in 1948.

 

Dr Henry Rogers of Newtown developed an optics camera in 1947.

 

In 1931, Edward B. Allen of Newtown invented a work clamp for the Singer Sewing Machine.