Since the 1820s, Riverton has been a vibrant part of Barkhamsted at the confluence of the Farmington and Still Rivers, where water power supported early mills and factories. Among its most historic sites was the former Hitchcock Chair factory, where Lambert Hitchcock began producing his famous chairs in the mid-1820s. Other mills in the village included sawmills, a grist mill, a scythe shop, a calico factory, and a paper mill, while several inns served local residents and passengers on stage coach lines passing through. Since 1909, the Riverton Fair has drawn thousands to its midway and exhibits reflecting the area's agricultural background. The Eagle Scythe shop stood on what is now the lower part of the Riverton Fairgrounds opposite the Grange Hall and operated from 1849 to the mid-1880s, producing scythes as well as corn knives, hay knives, and grass hooks, with its business office in the white building. One mile south of Riverton on East River Road, local legend holds that James Chaugham, a Narragansett Indian, married Molly Barber, the daughter of an English settler, and that the light from their cabins guided stage coach drivers down the old Farmington Turnpike, giving rise to the name Barkhamsted Lighthouse.