Compiled and Edited by Nora Oakes Howard, Avon Town Historian, 2021

Avon was incorporated in 1830, just “yesterday,” geologically speaking.

Over 300 million years ago, an ancient ocean covered all of Connecticut (except for the Litchfield Hills). As North America slowly smashed into Africa, the ocean floor was thrust up into mountains as grand as the Himalayas. When North America wrenched apart from Africa about 200 million years ago, a central rift valley formed in Connecticut.

In time, the mountains got blown away, bit by bit. Rivers carried their pieces into the valley where they came to rest in low places like Avon. Dinosaurs, such as Coelophysis, left thousands of footprints in soft sediments. New sediments buried older sediments, and over time the layers hardened into sandstone and shale. As the valley floor sank, it was filled with alternating layers of sediments and fiery lava flows. The steep cliffs of Avon Mountain (approximately west of the Heublein Tower) and Talcott Mountain (approximately east of the tower) are the remaining edges of those lava flows.

For the last two million years, glaciers came and went. Thick ice buried Avon at least four times, rubbing the rocks raw and leaving boulders dragged down from northern New England. Melting glaciers left tall hills of sand and gravel in a haphazard array of dumped debris. It was enough to make a river go crazy. The Farmington River once flowed south but was now blocked by mounds of dumped debris. It cranked into reverse and burst over the Tariffville Gorge on its way to the Connecticut River.  And then, that part of the show was over. Twenty-five thousand years ago, after the ice left, mastodons moved in. (Wright, 2021)

Avon is home to the oldest human occupation site in the Northeastern United States. In December 2018, a new bridge construction project at the intersection of Old Farms Road and Route 10, over the Farmington River, uncovered the site. It is the only place in the American Northeast with well-defined early Paleo-Indian deposits within multiple stratified occupation levels.  Uncovered were cultural features, implements, tools, botanical remains, and exotic and local materials.  All 15,000+ items are characteristic of the Early and Middle Paleo-Indian periods of roughly 12,500 years ago, or 10,000 B.C. (Leslie, Sportman & Jones, 2020)   The site is named for the late Brian D. Jones, the state archaeologist who led the discovery.  The Avon Historical Society and the Town of Avon continue to monitor this project since the excavation was completed in early 2019.  The items are being analyzed by Archaeological and Historical Services, Inc., under contract to the Connecticut Department of Transportation, which oversaw the bridge project. For more information, please visit the Brain D. Jone Paleo-Indian Site page.

In 2021, a series of webinar presentations on this ancient time in human history began, co-sponsored by the Avon Historical Society, Avon Free Public Library, and Avon Senior Center.  Experts in geology, anthropology, archaeology, and more will make presentations through 2022. Archaeological and Historical Services, Inc, will provide annual updates on the progress of the analysis of the Brian D. Jones site and the story that is emerging of the Paleo-Indian period. These presentations are on the Avon Free Public Library’s YouTube channel.

The Town of Farmington was established in 1645. Stephen Hart of Farmington was the first English settler of Farmington to own land in what is today Avon, which the English called the “land att Nod.”

In 1750, with 31 families living there, the “land att Nod” broke off from Farmington. The Connecticut General Assembly established it as a separate parish of Farmington called “Northington,” with local control of its religious and political affairs. The Society hired its first minister in 1751. Three years later, the Society built its first meetinghouse - east of the Farmington River and at the west end of today’s Reverknolls Road.

Over time, Northington’s population grew on the other side of the Farmington River. With more families living on Lovely Street and Whortleberry Hill, a new meetinghouse was needed west of the river. In 1817, the original meetinghouse burned down, clearing the way for two new ones. By a vote of 44 to 37, a new meetinghouse was built west of the river in 1818 (the West Avon Congregational Church, 280 Country Club Road). Another meetinghouse went up in 1819 - also on the west side of the river, but more conveniently in the business and transportation center of the parish (the Avon Congregational Church, 6 West Main Street).

Just 10 years later, after much discussion and a vote, Northington residents petitioned the Connecticut General Assembly to incorporate as the Town of Avon. Permission was granted on May 5, 1830. The name “Avon” seems to have come from the Avon River in England. “Avon” had been in use here as early as 1753, when church marriage records began to record the bride or groom’s residence as “Avon” or “Northington.”

The new town had 1,025 residents, 192 families, four school districts, two Congregational meetinghouses, a Baptist Church, the Farmington Canal, the Canal Warehouse, and several inns. The 1799 Talcott Mountain Turnpike (Route 44) linked Avon with Boston, Hartford, and Albany. Town meetings were held at the West Avon Congregational Church and the Avon Congregational Church until the first town hall was built in 1891.

From 1828-1847, the 35-foot-wide Farmington Canal carried freight and passenger service from New Haven through Avon, and on to Northampton, MA. Following the Canal path, the railroad came through Avon from 1850-1991.

The Woodford farm was established in 1666 and is one of the oldest farms still operating in Connecticut. Other names associated with Avon’s dairy, poultry, and tobacco farms were Alsop, Buckland, Colton, Delbon, Distin, Silver, Stone, Strong, Thompson, Watson, Westerman, and Viti.

Men and women from Italy, Ireland, Eastern Europe, and Germany came to work on the farms and at the Climax Fuse factory (1884), and to build Avon Old Farms School (1927),  the creation of Theodate Pope Riddle, one of Connecticut’s first licensed female architects.

The Prince Thomas of Savoy Society was officially founded in 1917 with 50 founders, all of whom immigrated from northern Italy. Today it is a social club located on Old Farms Road. The First Company Governor’s Horse Guards (established in 1778) moved to Avon in 1954.

Stories about early Avon from the diaries of Reverend Rufus Hawley, covering 1767-1812, are featured in Catch’d on Fire, a book by Avon Town Historian Nora Howard and sold by the Avon Historical Society: www.avonhistoricalsociety.org  Avon’s history is also documented in the journals and notebooks of Frank Hadsell, covering 1845-1942. Frank and his brother Clinton, both photographers, took hundreds of glass plate negatives from about 1889-1919. The Hawley and Hadsell collections are preserved in the Marian Hunter Local History Room at the Avon Free Public Library and available online at: www.ctdigitalarchive.org

In 1954, with the Avon’s population projected to soon pass 5,000, Town officials adopted a development plan. Avon’s Home Rule Charter was adopted in 1959 and amended in 1962, 1969, 1975, 1980 and 1998. On July 1, 1981, the revised Charter provided for a Town Manager, Town Council, Board of Finance and Town Meeting. In 2020, Avon’s population was 19,795.

In 1971, the new Town Hall campus was established in the former Ensign-Bickford factory buildings. In 1972, the Pine Grove Historic District and the Avon Congregational Church were listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Avon Land Trust was founded in 1973 and the Avon Historical Society was incorporated in 1974.  In 1982, the new Avon Free Public Library building was built on Country Club Road.

On November 11, 1996, the Town and the Gildo T. Consolini Post 3272, Veterans of Foreign Wars, dedicated the Avon Veterans Memorial on the Town Green listing names of Avon service members lost from the Mexican War (1846-1848) through the Vietnam War (1961-1975) More names are to be added in the coming years for the Gulf War and the Global War on Terror.

Amy Toyen, a 1995 graduate of Avon High School, died in the 9/11 terrorist attack in 2001 at the World Trade Center in New York City. In 2002, Avon High School erected a sculpture in her memory, at the Avon Free Public Library.

The Farmington Valley American Muslim Center Inc., located on Harris Road, was incorporated in 2013.

In March 2020, the Town responded to the Covid-19 virus pandemic, moving work, education, and more online. The State required mask-wearing and social distancing. With improved metrics due to the Covid-19 vaccine, the state lifted most restrictions on May 19, 2021. Avon Town offices resumed in-person business on that date. As of May 2021, Avon reported 989 cases of the virus and 75 deaths.

In 2030, Avon will celebrate 200 years as a town. The town’s post-colonial roots date back to Stephen Hart’s arrival in 1645.  Prior to that, the indigenous people of this continent lived and worked here for thousands of years. Thanks to the Brian D. Jones Site discovery, we can be proud that so many people were sustained for so long by this land along the Farmington River.