Union, CT

Connecticut's Quiet Corner

Union is the smallest town in Connecticut—and doesn’t mind staying that way.

Tucked into what’s called “the Quiet Corner” of the state, Union is right off an exit of Interstate 84, near the popular tourist site of historic Sturbridge Village, Mass. But the bustle there has little to do with Union. Its main road, Buckley Highway, is a quiet rural byway.

One secret to Union’s tranquility is the large proportion of the town set aside as protected parkland. Bigelow Hollow State Park is the home of the state’s laurel sanctuary, and its hillsides bear a wild profusion of enormous mountain laurel plants. The mountain laurel is the Connecticut state flower, and spring in Union, when the laurel blooms, is a high-colored time.

Union is also the home of Nipmuck State Forest and of Yale Forest, a large park administered by Yale University, which has long done forestry projects there.

“We have a population of about 700,” says Joe Kratochvil, town first selectman. “The only thing we’d like more of is a few businesses. Now we have a car dealership, a construction contractor uses us as a base, there’s a tire service, and a restaurant.”

Union seems to be just far enough away from urban centers to escape the growth trend that’s visited so many small towns in Connecticut. Though the town is growing—four to six new homes a year—Union has changed little in the last 50 years and still notes on its website that it’s Connecticut’s smallest town.

“I was the only graduate of the new elementary school in its first year, 1950,” Kratochvil says. “There were two rooms and about 40 students then. Now there are five rooms and a kindergarten and 72 students.” Town youngsters choose among several high schools in neighboring towns, depending on the type of secondary education they desire.

Despite its size—only a handful of towns in Connecticut have populations less than 1,000—Union is kept as spic and span as if it were a historic showcase, which in a way it is. The town center has a gorgeous little library built in 1910, a classic white New England church, and a modest wooden building that once was the town hall, currently the home of Union’s historical society (new town offices are down the road).

“We have old photos and artifacts there,” says Jeannine Upson, historical society president, “along with some church records and an old wooden-piped organ from the church.” The building is open by appointment.

The historical society published a book about the town almost 20 years ago—and now, Upson says, hopes to publish another, this one reprinting a number of old postcards that feature photographs of Union.

In addition to the library and the old town hall—replaced a couple of years ago by a spiffy brick building—the center of the village also boasts a historic home, the summer retreat of 19th-century Connecticut politician John Buckley, after whom the town’s main road is named. The elementary school is tucked away nearby on a side road.

Incorporated in 1734, Union was the last town to be settled east of the Connecticut River—a distinction it won by having rocky, difficult-to-farm land, while the wide river valley to the west is lushly productive. In its early years, lumbering and the making of ax handles were leading industries, and forestry is still pursued by some farmers. The town name was chosen to designate that it was a union of unincorporated area villages. But the name—as time has proven—has been perfectly appropriate.

The town, Kratochvil says, is anchored on cooperation. “We have a lot of volunteers in town and the selectmen all get along. If we can’t pull together as a team, the team ends up losing.”

Laurence Michie is a freelance writer who divides his time between Northampton and Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.

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