While the area had been mostly farmland and a mill or two, the coming of the railroad sparked the development of a booming, albeit small-scale, industrial community.

Fillow began extracting mica at Branchville, two Yale University mineralogists noted the presence of previously undiscovered minerals lodged in pegmatite there and furnished funds to expand the operation.

Most of the track bed, complete with gravel but missing its rails, is today the path of the Eversource Energy high-voltage line and the town’s “Rail-Trail,” developed in the 1990s for walkers.

A new Branchville School opened in 1969 on lower Florida Road, remaining in use until in 1983 when it was closed due to declining enrollments and used as Ridgefield Board of Education offices.

Administered by the National Park Service, Weir Farm commemorates the life and work of impressionist painter Julian Alden Weir and other artists who stayed at the site,[10] with notable visitors having included Childe Hassam, Albert Pinkham Ryder, John Singer Sargent and John Twachtman.

[13] Weir and artists he hosted subsequently produced a large number of paintings depicting Branchville and surrounding landscapes.