Centerville, originally spelled Centreville, is a neighborhood in the east-central portion of the town of Hamden, Connecticut. It is the location of Hamden Town Hall and other major town government buildings. It derived its name from being at the intersection of the town's two principal thoroughfares, Whitney and Dixwell avenues, both with commercial development. The rest of the neighborhood is residential, with single-family houses, condominiums, and apartments. As with all neighborhoods in Hamden, it has no officially-defined boundaries. One map has it bounded on the north by James and Forest streets, on the east by Mill River, mostly coinciding with the North Haven town line, on the south by Skiff Street, and on the west by Dixwell and Evergreen avenues. The census tract with GEOID 09009166001, corresponding approximately to these boundaries, had a population of 6,887, as of the 2010 census. History The area was first settled in the early 1700s, becoming part of the Mount Carmel parish in 1757. In 1821, Grace Episcopal Church, formerly in Mount Carmel, built a new church building in Centerville. A mill race was built near where the Mill River crossed the Cheshire Turnpike (now Whitney Avenue) in 1820, leading to industrial development and growth of the village in the following decades, including a factory making rubber shoes using Charles Goodyear's process. In 1835, a meeting at a tavern, known as the Centerville House, at the site of the present town hall, established it as the seat of town government. The first town hall building was erected at the site in 1888. By the turn of the twentieth century, Whitney Avenue was paved from New Haven to Centerville, with a trolley line, leading to further development. American Mills Company bought the former rubber factory to produce straps for use during World War I. The Meadowbrook golf course was built on a former dairy farm and a new town hall was built on the same site as the old one in 1924. The American Mills factory was demolished to allow construction of the Wilbur Cross Parkway along the southeastern edge of the neighborhood in 1950. In 2002, work began on converting the golf course into Town Center Park and Hamden Middle School. In 2012, the town hall was expanded to include police department headquarters. Historic sites These sites in the neighborhood are on the National Register of Historic Places: Hamden Memorial Town Hall Farmington Canal