First known as Watch House Hill, this place was where the first settlers manned a blockhouse and a palisade to guard the town from threats of Dutch and Indian attack. It was renamed Meeting House Hill when the townsmen built a new meeting house on its southeast corner in 1680, and it has been called Academy Hill since the Stratford Academy opened here in 1805. This common has been a gathering place for Stratford’s people for over 350 years.