Berlin

Berlin, town (township), Hartford county, central Connecticut, U.S., on the Mattabesset River, just southeast of New Britain. It includes the villages of East Berlin and Kensington. The first white settler was Richard Beckley of New Haven, who established Beckley’s Quarter in 1660. Formerly called Kensington, the area was incorporated as a town from parts of Farmington, Middletown, and Wethersfield in 1785 and was renamed for the city of Berlin, Germany (then in Prussia). It was an early industrial town; manufactures included pistols, implements, wagons, spectacles, leather, and thread. The first American tinware was made there in 1740 by Edward and William Pattison, who were the first of New England’s itinerant Yankee peddlers. A diversified manufacturing economy now prevails. Area 27 square miles (69 square km). Pop. (2000) 18,215; (2010) 19,866.