and Remembrance Ceremonies. Columbus Park with a small obelisk dedicated to Christopher Columbus is located adjacent to the parade and across Crescent Street from the Norwich Free Academy. Across a small divider street from the tip of the parade is War Memorial Park, a small plot of land with memorials to veterans of foreign wars and POW-MIAs. Around Chelsea Parade is the Masonic Temple (since demolished in order to preserve an ancient Mohegan Indian burial ground), the Blackstone Apartments and smaller mansions. Up in the area of Sachem and Asylum Streets is Heritage Falls Park and Indian Leap, where an escaped Narragansett captive leaped over the Yantic Falls while fleeing from pursuing Mohegan Indians. This district extends up to the Norwichtown welcome sign on Washington Street. Between Norwichtown and the end of Washington Street lies the William W. Backus Hospital on 326 Washington street. Dedicated in 1893, Backus Hospital is named for William Wolcott Backus, a member of one of Norwich's oldest families who (along with William Albert Slater) led the effort to build it. Today, Backus is the city’s largest non-government employer. Yantic The village is named after the Yantic River which flows through it. This was originally an independent milltown that was the site of several mills, including the former Yantic Woolen Company Mill. It contains small businesses, houses, some hotels, two highways, a railroad, a firehouse and its picnic grounds, and the mill buildings. The New England Central Railroad tracks cross the Yantic River in Yantic over a truss bridge. Nearby, Sunnyside Street crosses the Yantic River over a unique stone bridge whose western end is flanked by two small towers. The Yantic Volunteer Fire Department is located opposite the former mill. Due to the planned nature of the milltowns that are now part of Norwich, Yantic contains a grid pattern street with mill house duplexes and Grace Episcopal Church. The last operator of the mill was the Hale Manufacturing Company, which ended production at the mill in 1988. In the early 1990s a project to convert the mill to a resort hotel was begun. However, plagued by financial and construction mis-management since 1995, it has been the latest failed attempt to revitalize the economic vitality of the once thriving village. References External links Norwich, Connecticut website Neighborhoods in Connecticut Norwich, Connecticut