Winchester

Town and administrative headquarters of Clark County, east-central Kentucky; population (1990) 15,800. It is situated 29 km/18 mi east-southeast of Lexington. This largely residential Bluegrass community is also a market and shipping centre for burley tobacco, bluegrass seed, and horses, cattle, and sheep, and has some light manufactures. It is headquarters for the Daniel Boone National Forest.

Winchester

Town in Middlesex County, northeast Massachusetts; population (2000 est) 20,800. It is situated 13 km/8 mi northwest of Boston, on the Aberjona River and Upper Mystic Lake. The town manufactured leather and glue in the 19th century, but is now a residential suburb with some light industry. The Middlesex Fells Reservation makes up most of the town's eastern border.

The town was originally settled as part of Waterfield in 1638. It then became part of Woburn and was established as Winchester in 1850. Originally an agricultural settlement, Winchester later became a mill town.

Winchester

Town in Clark County, south Nevada; population (1990) 23,400. It is a largely residential suburb, located 6 km/4 mi southwest of Las Vegas city centre.

Winchester

Town and administrative headquarters of (but administratively separate from) Frederick County, northwest Virginia; population (1990) 21,900. It is situated in the north Shenandoah Valley, 113 km/70 mi west-northwest of Washington, DC. The town is famous for its apples, and stages a spring apple blossom festival. It is home to the Shenandoah College and Conservatory of Music (1875). The writer Willa Cather was born in 1876 in the hamlet of Gore, 16 km/10 mi to the northwest.

Settled in 1732, and the oldest Virginia city west of the Blue Ridge Mountains, it served as headquarters for George Washington when he surveyed the area and again when he commanded Virginia's troops in the French and Indian War (1756-63). The town was the site of several battles during the Civil War, changing hands on a number of occasions.