East Granby - Connecticut History | a CTHumanities Project

Old New-Gate Prison, East Granby

Bisected by the Metacomet Ridge with the Farmington River along its southern border, East Granby lies in the northern portion of central Connecticut’s Hartford County. Settled in the 1660s as part of Simsbury, the town still boasts a storied site from that era: an 18th-century copper mine that became America’s first prison. During the Revolutionary War, its inmates included British loyalists. By the time of East Granby’s incorporation in 1858, the prison had been closed several years; then, as now, its ruins drew tourists to the dairy and tobacco farming community. Though service, mining, manufacturing, and construction businesses now dominate town economy, its agricultural roots are still evident.

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Notorious New-Gate Prison

A failed Simsbury copper mine is now a national historic landmark in East Granby. …[more]