The village green was laid at Lake and High Streets by 1730, and served as a militia training and muster ground for the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War.

In the 19th century, there was a small industrial center including mills powered by the water from Coventry Lake Brook as it flowed towards the Willimantic River.

South Coventry also includes several Victorian houses, a museum, the main branch of the public library, and the Bidwell Tavern, a bar/restaurant established in 1822.

[2] A few doors down is the W.L Wellwood General Store, under new ownership, has been renamed "Coventry Arts and Antiques".

In addition to the surviving buildings, there are remnants of industrial activity along the brook, and the Captain Nathan Hale Monument, the nation's first major monument to the American Revolutionary War, placed in honor of Coventry's native son, Nathan Hale, and Patriots Park, a lakefront park that was a former Salvation Army summer camp.