Mansfield Center, CT

Mansfield Center is the historic village at the heart of the Town of Mansfield, within a CDP that also includes Mansfield Hollow. Its old center is marked by Mansfield Centre Cemetery, laid out in 1693, and the Eleazer Williams House, dated 1710-1711. Mansfield Hollow adds a later chapter: construction of the dam began in 1949, creating a roughly 500-acre lake, and the state park followed soon after. That puts two different eras on the same local map. Mansfield Center is the old village and cemetery; Mansfield Hollow is the dam, lake, and park. Together they show why the place name covers an old village and a reservoir landscape.