Meriden, CT

Meriden’s manufacturing history is especially visible in metalwork produced by firms such as Bradley & Hubbard, Charles Parker, and Handel; the city also became an important center of modernist silver design. Located midway between New Haven and Hartford, Meriden had 60,850 residents in 2020. Its oldest house, the 1711 Solomon Goffe House, became a museum in 1986. The city’s terrain includes several Metacomet Ridge summits—the Hanging Hills, Lamentation Mountain, Chauncey Peak, and Besek Mountain—and portions of the Mattabesett and Metacomet trails within the New England National Scenic Trail. In South Meriden, the Quinnipiac River passes through a gorge lined by exposed sandstone and brownstone cliffs, while Harbor Brook empties into Hanover Pond.