Avon Connecticut Avon History Museum - Avon Historical Society

8 East Main Street
Listed on the State Register of Historic Places

In partnership with the Town of Avon, The Avon Historical Society, Inc. is happy to announce that renovations of the 201-year-old one-room schoolhouse, located at 8 East Main Street (Route 44), are 2/3 of the way completed! Set in Avon's original and historic center, the Avon History Museum will have a soft opening this fall 2024 and grand opening summer of 2025.

Schoolhouse No. 3 was originally built in the geographic center of Avon on Country Club Road where the Avon Free Public Library stands today. For 115 years, from 1823-1938, students of West Avon were educated in this schoolhouse. To commemorate 201 years of the Town of Avon’s oldest-owned building, the Avon Historical Society approached the Town six years ago with a long-range vision of establishing a state-of-the art museum in the footprint of the schoolhouse.

BACKGROUND

In 1980, The Avon Historical Society signed a 99-year lease with the Town of Avon to maintain the schoolhouse as its headquarters and to use it for public exhibits. After an archaeological dig was done in 1981 by the University of Connecticut yielding many interesting artifacts, it was relocated in 1982 from Country Club Road (on land needed to build the new Avon Free Public Library) to 8 East Main Street opening it as “The Living Museum” in 1983. A cellar was created for storage with a display area for artifacts built on the main floor. For twenty years, Avon’s elementary school students visited the Living Museum to learn about the town’s early history and spend the day being a student in a one-room schoolhouse. The Living Museum was open for 29 years during the summer months to thousands of visitors. Due to regular wear and tear and several maintenance issues, such as lack of proper climate control for the rapidly growing archival collection of textiles and other objects stored there, the museum was closed in 2012. The Society returned to calling it by one of its 19th century names, “Schoolhouse No. 3.”

A few years later, the Town of Avon was awarded a Small Town Economic Assistance Program (STEAP) grant from the State of Connecticut to make streetscape improvements to the nearby intersection of West and East Main Streets (Route 44) and Simsbury Road (Route 10) which included the installation of wider sidewalks, granite curbing, and decorative lighting that reflected Avon’s historic character. The Society took advantage of that expansion in 2018 by commissioning banners on light poles along Simsbury Road highlighting historic sites in Avon. Hung annually from April through November, they welcome drivers and pedestrians who enter Avon on Simsbury Road.

But the Society wanted to do more to enhance the historically significant and original center of Avon. “Renovating Schoolhouse No. 3 into a new museum again seemed to be the answer,” stated Terri Wilson, president, Avon Historical Society. She added, “since 2014, professionals in the historic preservation and architectural community have stated that ‘the greenest building is one that already exists,’ which is exactly what this is.” Adopting this idea together, the Town of Avon and The Avon Historical Society agreed on a “vision and stewardship” of a new museum for visitors who could walk through the center from east and west to shop, eat and learn about the area's history. The museum is appropriately located in the original and historic center of Avon over the site of the 19th century Farmington Canal which crossed Route 44 traveling north and south.

An agreement on cost sharing was developed - two thirds would come from the Town of Avon and one third from the Society. The Town used funds from its Capital Improvement Project budget and funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA.) The Society raised its portion through private donations, individuals, grants, proceeds from its TABLESCAPES fundraisers in 2022, 2023 and 2024 and its William Yandow Endowment Fund.

Some renovations began, during the pandemic, in the schoolhouse's cellar by the Town’s Department of Public Works. They installed new flooring and walls, bathroom, and a small galley kitchen. The cellar will be used for artifact and textile storage, meeting space and a studio for the new monthly AVON TALKS podcast recordings that launched in Fall 2023!

The remaining work done in 2023 included the installation of new HVAC and security systems, removal of the exterior siding and UV protection windows (neither is original to the building), installing new siding, electrical upgrade, and appropriate lighting for the exhibit areas and a free-standing exterior flagpole.

The Society began a “Buy A Brick for The Avon History Museum” fundraiser in early 2023. Funds raised will be earmarked toward the cost of professionally curated exhibits inside the main floor that will showcase the Town’s history. The brick pavers come in two sizes and prices. They can be purchased through the Gift Shop on the Society’s website, https://avonhistoricalsociety.org/product/buy-a-brick/, or by leaving a message at 860-678-7621. The bricks will be placed in the existing pocket park adjacent to the new museum. There will be improved landscaping and benches around the seating area. A Little Free Library will be added for the enjoyment and sharing of books for all ages.

The main room’s focus inside will be the history of Avon since English settlers came to the Farmington Valley in the 17^th century. At that time the land was named “Nod,” later it became “Northington” (a daughter town of Farmington) and in 1830 it was named “Avon.” A popular feature from the previous museum will still be on exhibit: the diorama of the Farmington Canal. The Canal operated through Avon from 1828-1848 and the museum is sitting on top of what was the towpath for the canal. The oldest textile in the collection, a women’s silk dress worn in a 1794 wedding in Avon, was professionally restored thanks to a Historic Preservation Grant from the National Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) through the Abigail Phelps Chapter in Simsbury. It will be showcased and described in a separate case along with other artifacts from the Society’s collection. In addition, professionally curated graphic panels, wall vinyls, and illustrated window shades will tell the story of Avon over four centuries.

The museum will also feature an exhibit on the 2019 discovery of the Brian D. Jones Paleoindian Site along the Farmington River in Avon. The site, placed on the CT State Register of Historic Places in May, is the oldest known human occupation site in Southern New England. The Institute of American Indian Studies, Washington, CT, will curate this section of the new museum which will contain original Native and Indigenous artifacts from the collection of both organizations. M&T Bank donated the funds for the production of the interpretive panels that will be on display in this section of the new museum.

“The Town is very excited that the Avon History Museum project is moving forward. The updates that are planned will help to preserve over four centuries of artifacts that tell Avon’s story, while adaptively reusing the Town’s oldest public building to serve future generations of Avon residents. We are so pleased to partner with The Avon Historical Society on this effort and look forward to showing the community the end result!” said Brandon Robertson, Town Manager.

The Society thanks the early donors and corporations who shared in the vision for the Avon History Museum: The Felicia Fund, Elizabeth Speer Foundation, Sharon R. O’Meara Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, Eversource, Avangrid and the Family of Anthony O’Neill. Their support to help start this project will allow the Avon History Museum to become a reality. Targeted fundraising is underway for the curation part of the museum’s development. Grants and private donations have been raised for 2/3 of the cost of exhibit curation, build and installation.

“Avon residents can be so proud of the careful stewardship of one of its finest historical resources.

I commend the strong partnership that the Town of Avon and the Avon Historical Society will bring this museum to life. The items and the knowledge it preserves will honor all those who came before - including, quite incredibly, the Paleoindians here 12,500 years ago,” stated Nora Howard, Avon’s Town Historian.

When it is completed, the Town of Avon and The Avon Historical Society, as shared stewards of the property, will host a soft opening in Fall 2024 and grand opening in summer 2025. It then will be open to the public year-round.