Brookfield's public schools are: Brookfield High School, Center School, Whisconier Middle School & Huckleberry Hill School. Its parochial school is St. Joseph's School.
Brookfield High School and Bethel High School are sports rivals, primarily in football, although the two schools share a single hockey team, made up of both Brookfield and Bethel students. Brookfield High School also shares a rivalry with New Milford High School in cross-country and track. The rivalry intensified when New Milford's track coach left to coach for the Brookfield team
Before the English settled the area, it was inhabited by the Pootatuck Indians, members of the Algonquin Federation. In the 1700s the community was called "Newbury," a name that came from the three towns from which its land was taken -- New Milford, Newtown, and Danbury.
Because it was difficult for community residents to get to one of the distant churches in those towns in winter, in 1752 the General Assembly gave the community the right to have worship in area homes from September through March. In 1754, the General Assembly granted permission for the Parish of Newbury to build its own meeting house and get its own minister. On September 28, 1757, the first Congregational Church building was dedicated. The Reverend Thomas Brooks was ordained as the first settled minister. In 1778, when the town was incorporated, it changed its name to Brookfield in honor of Brooks, who was still the minister.
Along the Still River mills were in operation as early as 1732 in an area that became known as the Iron Works District. Brookfield was a thriving town with iron furnaces, grist mills, sawmills, comb shops, carding and cotton mills, a paper mill, a knife factory, hat factories, stage-coach shops, lime kilns, harness shops and other plants operated there. The grist mill (now the Brookfield Craft Center) still stands. The Iron Works Aqueduct Company, formed in 1837 to supply water from mountain springs to the Iron Works District, still supplies water as the Brookfield Water Company.
Before 1912 the town had two train stations: one in the Iron Works District, near the present Brookfield Market and, second, Junction Station, near the corner of Junction Road and Stony Hill Road. Danbury & Bethel Gas and Electric Company brought electricity to Brookfield in 1915. In the early 1970s, the town was home to LEGO USA headquarters.
