Bethel (/ˈbɛθəl/) is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, about 69 miles (111 km) from New York City. Its population was 18,584 at the 2010 census. The town center is defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as a census-designated place (CDP). The core area of the town center has also been designated as a historic district.

The town is near Interstate 84 and has a train station on the Danbury Branch of Metro-North's New Haven Line.

Bethel was first settled around 1700. The first houses built in Bethel were in the 1730s or 1740s; they are located at 27 Grassy Plain Street and 63 Grassy Plain Street. 1759 – church members such as Ebenezer Hickok, Lemuel Beebe, Isaac Hoyt, Thomas Starr, and Phineas Judd found it both difficult to travel to church in Danbury and when there, to get a seat. They petitioned the General Assembly to form two distinct ecclesiastical societies, the First and Second Congregational Societies, creating a new second parish in the eastern portion of Danbury. The new area was called Bethel (which means house of God). 1760 – 71 people were members of the church. Bethel ran most of its affairs through the church.(Bethel's first Congregational minister was Noah Wetmore) 1760 – Captain Benjamin Hickock built the house at 245 Greenwood Avenue and used it as a tavern. 1777 (April) – the city's records were burned by the British in the British raid on Danbury. Late 1700s – P. T. Barnum’s grandfather built one of the town's earliest hotels, the Barnum Tavern.

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