Camp Columbia State Park/State Forest is a public recreation area and state forest located in the town of Morris in Litchfield County, Connecticut. The 600-acre (240 ha) site was once the rural campus of Columbia University's Engineering Department. The majority of the property has been designated as a state forest; the acreage designated as a state historic park includes the frontage on Bantam Lake and the site of the former university buildings.
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The Town Hall and District School No. 6 are a pair of historic government buildings at 12 South Street in Morris, Connecticut. The school, built about 1772, and the town hall, built 1861, are well-preserved examples of vernacular civic architecture. They presently house the local historical society museum, and were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.
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Morris is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 2,256 at the 2020 census. The town is part of the Northwest Hills Planning Region.
Europeans first began to settle the area that became Morris circa 1723. Originally part of the town of Litchfield, it was called the South Farms because of its location 5 miles south of the center. Designated a separate Congregational parish in 1767 and incorporated as a town in 1859, it was named after native son James Morris, a Yale graduate, Revolutionary War officer, and founder of one of the first co-educational secondary schools in the nation.
Morris lies in rolling hill country of woods, wetlands, fields and ponds. It also encompasses much of Bantam Lake, originally called the Great Pond, which covers approximately 947 acres and is the largest natural lake in the state. The traditional Town of Morris seal features the pine on Lone Tree Hill, which overlooks the lake. Morris is home to one of the oldest state parks in Connecticut, as well as to one of the newest.
The area's transition from 18th-century settlement to semi-rural community in the 2000s is the story of many Connecticut towns and much of New England. At first, farming barely made families self-sufficient, but in the 1800s, agriculture evolved into a business. Then, over the next 150 years, competition, rising costs and increasing regulation made it less sustainable, despite economies and innovation. In the early 1900s, local water mills, manufactories and other small businesses encountered similar challenges and gave way to industry in nearby Waterbury, Torrington and beyond.
By the 1970s and 1980s, the area was still largely rural, but residents' occupations had grown more diverse. Today, the farming tradition continues even as residents engage in a range of professions, businesses and arts locally and in the wider region. A number of second home owners come from the metro New York area. In addition to the two state parks and Bantam Lake, the 4,000-acre White Memorial Conservation Center offers a range of opportunities for outdoor sports and recreation. Camp Washington is a spiritual retreat operated by the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut.
Morris center looks like a typical small New England village, with a white Congregational church, a school, and town hall. Interspersed with fields and woods, a mix of Early American and newer homes strings out loosely along the town's roads. Children attend the local James Morris elementary school, the Region 20 Middle School, and Lakeview Regional High School, which serves students from Goshen, Litchfield, Morris, and Warren. Perhaps counter-intuitively, Morris also holds a Buddhist temple, as well as a Jewish cemetery from the early 1900s.
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Connecticut's 5th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Located in the western part of the state and spanning across parts of Fairfield, Litchfield, New Haven, and Hartford Counties, the district runs from Meriden and New Britain in central Connecticut, westward to Danbury and the surrounding Housatonic Valley, encompassing the Farmington Valley, Upper Naugatuck River Valley, and the Litchfield Hills. The district also includes most of Waterbury.
The district is currently represented by Democrat Jahana Hayes. With a Cook Partisan Voting Index rating of D+3, it is the least Democratic district in Connecticut, a state with an all-Democratic congressional delegation.
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Bantam Lake is the largest natural lake in Connecticut, covering 947 acres in the towns of Morris and Litchfield. Much of the land at the northern end of the lake, including the peninsula of Marsh Point, is protected by the White Memorial Foundation and home to a wide array of bird species.
It is lined by campgrounds, camps for kids and has facilities for various water sports. The lake also has two public beaches, Morris Town Beach and Sandy Beach.
It is home to the Bantam Lake Ski Club, the oldest, continuously operating water ski club in the United States, as well as the Litchfield Hills Rowing Club which offers Summer and Fall and Masters programs.
It is managed by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.