Branford Center

Branford Center Historic District
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
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Location	Roughly bounded by US I, Branford River on the East and South, Monroe, and Kirkham Sts., Branford, Connecticut
Area	250 acres (100 ha)
Architect	Beman, S. S.; Et al.
Architectural style	Colonial Revival, Greek Revival, Queen Anne
NRHP Reference #	87000636
Added to NRHP	May 6, 1987

Branford Center is a neighborhood and census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Branford, Connecticut, United States. The CDP encompasses the traditional town center area (roughly the area bounded by U.S. Route 1, the Amtrak railroad tracks, and the Branford River) and the area known as Branford Point (the portion of the CDP south of the railroad tracks). The population of the CDP (including Branford Point) was 5,819 at the 2010 census.

The Branford Center Historic District was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1987. The historic district represents the area of the traditional town center and excludes Branford Point. The designated portion is an irregularly-shaped 250-acre (100 ha) area that includes 557 contributing buildings out of a total of 706 buildings in the district, including garages, carriage houses, and other structures. It includes two other contributing sites: the Center Cemetery and the Saint Mary's Roman Catholic Cemetery. The district boundaries were drawn to exclude modern construction such as the Branford High School and to exclude older buildings that did not retain their "historic architectural integrity."

Architectural styles represented in the Branford Center Historic District include Greek Revival architecture, Queen Anne architecture, and Colonial Revival architecture, Italianate architecture, Federal architecture, Gothic Revival architecture, Second Empire architecture, Colonial architecture, Tudor Revival architecture, and Bungalow architecture. These are mostly vernacular buildings. Of buildings designed by professional architects, the most significant is the "classically inspired, monumental 1893 James Blackstone Memorial Library," designed by Solon Spencer Beman of Chicago. The library incorporates Tennessee marble and features a domed, octagonal rotunda. According to the historic district nomination, "relatively little remains in Branford Center that evokes its distant 17th- and early 18th century past." The district instead includes remnants of late 19th and early 20th century industrial, commercial, and residential history.