WILLIMANTIC

city and principal community in the town (township) of Windham, Windham county, east-central Connecticut, U.S., at the junction of the Willimantic and Natchaug rivers. The site was settled about 1686 and developed because of the availability of waterpower for gristmills and sawmills. Known later as Thread City, it was the home of the American Thread Company (established in 1854), the first company in the United States to make acceptable cotton thread. Although the mills closed down in 1984, the textile industry of New England is remembered in the Windham Textile and History Museum in Willimantic. Eastern Connecticut State University was opened in 1889 as a state normal school. Inc. borough, 1833; city, 1893; consolidated with the town of Windham, 1983. Pop. (1990) 14,746; (1995 est.) 15,418.