MERIDEN  , a

city of New Haven county, Connecticut, U.S.A., in the township of Meriden, S.W. of the centre of the state, about i8 m . N.N.E. of New Haven and about the same distance S.S.W. of Hartford . Pop. of the township, including the city (1900), 28,695; (1910), 32,066; of the city (two), 24,296, of whom 7215 were foreign-born; (1910), 27,265 . Meriden is served by the New York, New Haven & Hartford railway and by an inter-urban electric line . The city is bisected by Harbor Brook, a small stream, and through the S.W. part of the township flows the Quinnipiac river . A short distance N.W. of the city, in Hubbard Park, an attractive reservation of more than 900 acres, are the Hanging Hills, three elevations (West Mountain, South Mountain and Cat-Hole Mountain) in a broken range of trap ridges, which have resisted the erosion that formed the lowlands of the Connecticut valley; they rise to a height of about 700 ft. above the sea . In their vicinity, near the boundary of Berlin township, is Merimere, one of the city's four reservoirs . Meriden is the seat of the Connecticut School for Boys (Reformatory) . There are also a public library (1899), a state armoury, a hospital, the Curtis Home for orphans and aged women, and a tuberculosis sanitarium supported by the city . Meriden is one of the most important manufacturing cities of Connecticut, and in 1905 produced 59.9% of the plated ware manufactured in the state, and much sterling silver . In 1905 the factory product was valued at $13,763,548, an increase of 17.1% over that of 1900 . Meriden was originally a part of the township of Wallingford, but a tract in the northern part of this township was designated as Merideen by an Indian deed of 1664 .

It was made a

separate parish under that name in 1728, but did not become a separate township until 1806 . The city was chartered in 1867 . See G . W . Perkins, Historical Sketches of Meriden (West Meriden, 1849); C . H . S . Davis, History of Wallingford (Meriden, 1870), and G . M . Curtis and C . Bancroft Gillespie, A Century of Meriden (Meriden, 1906) .