Emergency Biohazard Cleanup Services in Litchfield, MN

Litchfield is the county seat and largest city of Meeker County, Minnesota, about 65 miles west of the Twin Cities.

Litchfield had 6,624 residents at the 2020 census, living in 2,713 households.

The town site was platted in 1869 when the railroad arrived - the first construction train rolled in on August 13, 1869 - and Litchfield was chartered as a village on February 29, 1872, before incorporating as a city in 1943.

Before it was Litchfield, the settlement was called Ness, after the parish of Naes in Hallingdal, Norway, home of many of its first settlers in 1858.

Litchfield is named for Electus Bachus Darwin Litchfield, a contractor and stockholder in the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, who sealed the naming vote by donating $2,000 grants to help local churches get built.

Litchfield's Grand Army of the Republic Hall, built in 1885 by Civil War veterans who called themselves the 'Boys of '61,' is the only authentic G.A.R. hall remaining in Minnesota and one of very few left in the nation; it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.

The Litchfield Opera House, built in 1900, and the Litchfield Commercial Historic District - 36 mostly intact storefront properties built between 1882 and 1940 - preserve the look of a classic Midwestern farm trade center.

All of Lake Ripley, a 558-acre natural lake, lies inside Litchfield's city limits, making water about 18% of the city's total area.

Academy Award-winning actress Gale Sondergaard, the first winner of the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1936, was born in Litchfield in 1899.

The Meeker County Fair, the county's largest annual gathering, is held each summer in Litchfield.