It has been home to the world headquarters of several large corporations including Otis Elevator Company, United Technologies, and Carvel.

Settlers found the area ideal because of its rich soil, location along the floodplain of the Farmington River, and valley geography.

[3] Farmington has been called the "mother of towns" because its vast area was divided to produce nine other central Connecticut communities.

Main Street, in the historic village section, is lined with colonial estates, some of which date back to the 17th century.

[4] During the Revolutionary War, George Washington passed through Farmington on several occasions and referred to the town as "the village of pretty houses.

In 1841, 38 Mende Africans and Cinqué, the leader of the revolt on the Amistad slave ship, were housed and educated in Farmington after the U.S. government refused to provide for their return to Africa following the trial.

[9] After its founding, Farmington gave up territory to form Southington (1779), Bristol (1785), Avon (1830), Plainville (1869), and parts of Berlin (1785) and Bloomfield (1835).

[10] Farmington presently borders the towns of Avon, Burlington, Newington, West Hartford, and Plainville, and the cities of New Britain and Bristol.

Top employers in Farmington according to the town's 2023 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report[17] United Technologies was headquartered on Farm Springs Road along with its subsidiary Otis Worldwide.

The Jackson Laboratory of Bar Harbor, Maine, is building a new facility on the grounds of the University of Connecticut Health Center, which specializes in the research and development of genomic medicine.

A growing collection of doctor's offices and medical practices is concentrated in the vicinity of the University of Connecticut Health Center.

Farmington is unique in that more people work within the town lines than actually live there, a characteristic atypical of a traditional suburb.

Farmington's seven public schools are highly regarded rank among the top in the state and nationally.

Famous alumni include Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Princess Anastasia of Greece & Denmark, Lee Bouvier Radziwill, Lilly Pulitzer and members of the Bush, Vanderbilt, and Rockefeller families.

The hospital provides the only full-service emergency department in the Farmington Valley and a Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), one of only two in Connecticut.