A mile east ofHarwinton’s town center is the Burlington-Harmony Hills Road Historic District, which has a country feel and many fine historic homes, none of whichare open on the inside.
    The crossroads at the intersection of Burlington, Harmony Hill, and Locust Roads in Harwinton is known as Catlin’s Corners after the family that developed the area in the eighteenth century in 1739, shortly after Harwinton became a town. Land at the intersection had been granted to Abijah Catlin (1715-1778), whose son Abijah Catlin II(1747-1813) constructed a house at 1 Harmony Hill Road in 1760. Abijah kept a tavern in the house and also had an adjacent store.  In 1795, he built a house here for his son, Abijah Catlin III (1779-1836) across the street at 131 Burlington Road. Like his father, Abijah Catlin III was a merchant and farmer. He also manufactured hats, which he sold in the Catlin store.
   Catlin’s son, Abijah Catlin IV (1805-1891) was a lawyer and served in the state legislature. The house’s east wing was attached in 1805. It was originally an earlier Catlin farmhouse, built around 1770 on Locust Road. After the wing was moved, another structure, the one dating from before 1739, was moved from across Locust Road and attached as a rear ell to the 1770 wing. Further additions were made to the house in the twentieth century.