[4] The grave of Winston Churchill's great-great-great maternal grandfather, Timothy Jerome, can be seen today at what is now called "Burying Ground 1720" (Google Maps: 41°31′22″N 72°47′16″W / 41.522877°N 72.787707°W / 41.522877; -72.787707) at the juncture of Dexter Avenue and Lydale Place.

At the time the location was known as "Buckwheat Hill", and overlooked the salt-making estate for which Jerome had received a royal grant.

[6][7] In the second half of the 1800s, Meriden became a manufacturing center of note, with several companies forming, or relocating to the city, involved in the production of mainly silver, lamps and metalware, glassware, guns, and musical instruments.

[10] In 1876, the Meriden Britannia Company made significant efforts at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, and won the First place medal for plated wares.

According to the Sotheby's auction house, "The publicity of the award and the impression the firm made on the fair's 8 million visitors was continued by the catalogues and other intensive marketing; by the end of the 1870s Meriden Britannia Co. was considered the largest silverware company in the world.

"[11] A key design attributed to launching the company and the town's international name was the Buffalo Hunt with a smaller edition in the White House collection, Washington, DC.

For some time the original Buffalo Hunt sculpture went missing, and in a shocking report by Bailey Wright in 2018, it was learned that it was recently 'missing' actually in Meriden.

[18] Meriden was also the site of the production of Parker Brothers (guns), widely-known and traded by firearms enthusiasts.

[19] The Aeolian Company grew quickly forming production sites in other places and developed a music hall in New York.

(The largest holder today of instruments and music rolls by the two companies is the Pianola Museum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

The company developed an expertise in high quality image reproduction, which initially was driven by the needs of the silver industry.

[22][4] Of political and historical note, on March 7, 1860, Abraham Lincoln spoke in Meriden seeking the Republican presidential nomination.

The radio program featured many Hollywood actors and actresses of the time like Jimmy Stewart and Rosalind Russell.

[29] A few thousand designs from this manufacturing era from Meriden are in museums and historical societies across the United States and into Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

[30][31] Some comparatively recent examples of Meriden designs in exhibitions include In pursuit of Beauty: Americans and the Aesthetic Movement at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (1986–1987),[32] and more recently, Modernism in American Silver: 20th century design (2005–2006) in Dallas, Miami Beach, and Washington, DC, which highlighted downtown Meriden and the area's role as an important center of Modernist silver production.

For example, a painted glass and metal table lamp by Bradley and Hubbard, (c. 1920) sold for US$14,950, doubling its estimate, at Christie's auction house in New York in 1999.

[37] A Parker gun made for a Russian czar before World War I, but never delivered, was reported to have been sold for US$287,500 in 2007.

[38] On March 5–6, 2014 at Sotheby's in London, "Al Capone's cocktail shaker" made by the Meriden International Sterling Company (c. 1932) achieved over 33 times its estimate with a sale price of GBP50,000 (US$83,250 on the day).

[41] Currently West Peak is home to six FM broadcast stations, including WNPR,[42] WWYZ, WKSS, WDRC-FM, WMRQ-FM[43] and WHCN.

In December 1947, Meriden became known once again as a site of design innovation, now with Modern art, via the Miller Company Collection of Abstract Art and the organization of a Painting toward architecture exhibition which opened at Hartford's Wadsworth Atheneum[44] and later travelled to venues in 27 venues across the United States (1947–52).

Painting toward architecture is considered one of the important art-design-architecture crossover exhibitions of the 20th century, tabling European influences for usage in the Post-World War II United States.

[45] In the 1950s, the Miller Company Collection of Abstract Art was privatized to "Mr & Mrs Burton Tremaine, Meriden, CT" and numerous artworks were lent to hundreds of exhibitions nationally and internationally into the 1970s with this designation.

[47][48] On April 27, 1976, Jimmy Carter campaigned at city hall and the Latin American Society for the nomination of the Democratic Party for President of the United States.

Meriden is a showcase for a number of prominent peaks of the Metacomet Ridge, a mountainous trap rock ridgeline that stretches from Long Island Sound to nearly the Vermont border.

Castle Craig, a city landmark for over a century, was constructed among the Hanging Hills in Hubbard Park.

The Quinnipiac River courses through the southwest quadrant of the city, known to area residents as "South Meriden", where it meanders through a gorge lined with several exposed sandstone and brownstone cliffs.

[63] The city gained notoriety in government and political circles when in 2014, at the urging of newly elected mayor, Manny Santos, plaintiffs sued to remove appointees of boards and commissions and corporation counsel.

[84] Beginning in 1784, Meriden had a stop on the New Haven-Hartford Stage Coach[85] on Route 5 near the intersection of East Main Street.