Ceremony and Reception Information

Our ceremony will be held at First Church of Christ, 689 Hopmeadow Street, Simsbury, CT at 5:00pm on Friday, January 3rd. The reception will follow at 6:30pm at Belle Terrace at Avon Old Farms, 1 Nod Road, Avon, CT.


Map and Directions:


View Larger Map

1. Head southwest on Hopmeadow Street (in the direction away from downtown Simsbury)
2. Follow Hopmeadow 1.8 miles, and then turn left at Hartford Road (across from Abigail's Tavern and Grille)
3. Take the first right onto Nod Road, just after the bridge.
4. Follow Nod Road for about three miles. The parking lot for Belle Terrace will be on your left, immediately before the intersection at Avon Mountain Road. Belle Terrace faces Avon Mountain Road, so you will see the parking lot before the inn front.

As you go over the bridge on Hartford Road (right as you are about to turn onto Nod Road), you will pass the Pinchot Sycamore on your left. It's the biggest tree in Connecticut.

As you drive along Nod Road, Talcott Mountain will be on your left  (above) and the Farmington River on your right (below).

Belle Terrace at Avon Old Farms (c. 1757)

Snow Date

We really hope that we won't get a blizzard, but if we're snowed in on Friday, January 3rd, we have made arrangements to have a wedding snow date of Saturday, January 4th.

Getting Here

By Air: Bradley Airport (BDL) is about 20-25 minutes from Simsbury and Avon. Most major airlines and Southwest fly into Bradley. While it will probably be most convenient to rent a car, the Simsbury Inn and Avon Old Farms Hotel run airport shuttles for hotel guests. Fares tend to drop in price for flights after the holidays from January 1^st onwards. 

Where to Stay

The Simsbury 1820 House. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the 1820 House was built on the property of Revolutionary War hero General Noah Phelps by his son. In later years, it was home to (among others) renowned American conservationist, friend of Teddy Roosevelt, and Governor of Pennsylvania Gifford Pinchot; and socialite Antoinette Eno Wood, who commissioned Frederick Law Olmsted to design the grounds.

The ceremony will be held in Simsbury, my hometown, and the reception will be five miles away in Avon, the town next-door. These are the closest and most convenient Farmington Valley hotels:

Avon Old Farms Hotel

Avon Old Farms Hotel is across the street from Belle Terrace at Avon Old Farms, where the reception will be held. We have reserved a block of rooms for January 2nd and 3rd for the rate of $119 for rooms in the Annex and $139 for rooms in the main building. The block will be held until December 3rd. When making your reservation, ask for the Schuyler-Olmsted Wedding or group number 13592 to get the discount rate. The phone number for reservations is 1-800-836-4000. The hotel runs a shuttle to and from Bradley airport for guests.

Simsbury 1820 House 

The Simsbury 1820 house, one of Simsbury's historic buildings, is located in downtown Simsbury two doors down from First Church of Christ, where the wedding ceremony will be held. (If you stay there, check out the Simsbury Library next door, which is one of the best local libraries I've ever seen). 

Simsbury Public Library, which is located between First Church of Christ and the Simsbury 1820 House

Simsbury Inn 

The Simsbury Inn is further down Hopmeadow Street from First Church, on the way towards Belle Terrace. The inn runs an airport shuttle for hotel guests. If the websites for Avon Old Farms Hotel, the Simsbury 1820 House, the Simsbury Inn look similar, it's because they have the same owners.

Green Acres Bed and Breakfast, Simsbury 

This renovated 18^th century home has two guest rooms. Our friends have reserved the downstairs Trade Room, but the upstairs room, The Linen Room, can be used as a suite for a party of 3 or people traveling with kids. The innkeepers serve a gourmet breakfast and raise their own chickens on the property.

Residence Inn by Marriott, Avon 

One mile from the reception. Offers suites.

Linden House Bed and Breakfast, Simsbury
On the road from First Church to Belle Terrace, Avon Old Farms. (Actually, it's just past the intersection where you'll turn off Hopmeadow onto Hartford Road).

Food and Drink

We recommend these places: 

Dining

Millwright's, Farms Village Road, Simsbury

Millwright's  

Opened in 2012 by CT celebrity chef Tyler Andersen, Millwright's offers what the NY Times refers to as a "brashly elegant take on homey American classics." The NY Times also says, "[Andersen's] is a cuisine that both dazzles and delights; sophisticated enough to impress, it’s simple enough to make you feel at home." Millwright's is housed in a c. 1680 grist mill over a running brook. Reservations recommended.

Metro Bis  

Zagat calls  Metro Bis "Simsbury's shining star." In the words of the New York Times, celebrity chef-owner Chris Prosperi (who appears on various cooking television shows) is  "a technical master, an original American chef whose restaurant is worth traveling for." The restaurant serves New American and traditional French bistro food. A tasting menu is offered. Metro Bis has just relocated to the Simsbury 1820 House.

The Mill at 2T in the Tarrifville section of Simsbury. Old mills seem to be a theme here.

The Mill at 2T
Simsbury's third New York Times reviewed restaurant, The Mill at 2T offers local, seasonal fare. According to the Times, "The Mill at 2T is fresh, enjoyable, and unpretentious. The Joneses are charming, the space ingenious, the seating comfortable." The small restaurant is in an old mill in the Tarrifville section of Simsbury. We recommend the signature dessert (a trio of brioche donuts). The Mill at 2T tends to be fully booked, so making reservations early is a good idea. 

Plan B Burger Bar

Plan B Burger Bar 

Located in an old train depot, Plan B is currently Simsbury's trendiest restaurant. Plan B specializes in burgers, beer, and bourbon.

Meadow 

The Asian fusion cuisine at this somewhat upscale restaurant ranges from sushi to pad thai to sizzling Mongolian beef. Everything is good and people love Meadow on yelp!

The Local Grill (Avon)

This new gastropub in Avon's Riverdale Farms, The Local Grill serves upscale comfort food, such as meatloaf benedict and three cheese and chorizo macaroni and cheese. Every entree is under $20 and a children's menu is available. Happy hour is daily from 4:30-6:00pm, with 25% off drinks and appetizers.

Maple Tree Cafe
Also casual, family-friendly fare. We haven't been to the new Maple Tree, but the new chef has recently updated the menu. Live music.

Seasons Restaurant, Avon Old Farms Hotel
We've never been to Seasons, but this farm-to-table restaurant gets great reviews. 

Breakfast

Harvest Bakery 

The town's most popular breakfast spot.

Brookside Bagel

Benny's

Drinks

Red Stone Pub

Red Stone Pub--I've been told that this is the best place for a beer in Simsbury!

Plan B Burger Bistro
Maple Tree Cafe

Iron Frog Tavern

(See also the CT Beer Trail for brewery recommendations on the "Things to Do" post)

Coffee 

Peaberry's—712 Hopmeadow Street, in the Drake Hill Shopping Center across from First Church. 

Starbucks--930 Hopmeadow Street, Simsbury Town Shops—It's just Starbucks, but it is housed in the Rev. Benajah Root house (c. 1762). 

Starbucks at the Simsbury Town Shops

Ice Cream
J. Foster's Ice Cream--Homemade, small batch ice cream at the Simsbury Town Shops.

Places to Go, Things to Do

CT Beer Trail (This one's for you Bill, Kim, Mike, Aaron, and Nick)

The Thomas Hooker Brewing Company and Back East Brewing Company (very small) are in nearby Bloomfield. Cambridge House Brew Pub, Granby (near Old Mill Pond Village Shops) comes highly recommended. The City Steam Brewery Café is in Hartford. 

Historic Simsbury Walking Tour

Find instructions for the cell phone tour and walking tour brochure here. 

Granby Town Green (near Cambridge House Brew Pub and the Old Mill Pond Shops)

Old Mill Pond Village Shops, Granby

It will be past Christmas, but these shops are very cute.

Hillstead Museum, Farmington

This Colonial Revival house in nearby Farmington, CT was designed by architect Theodate Pope. Pope and her industrialist father were early collectors of Impressionist paintings. Theodate Pope's will established the house as a museum with the provision that no painting ever leave the house. The collection includes works by Monet, Whistler, Renoir, Cassatt, Degas, as well as a collection of Japanese woodblock prints. 

Hillstead Museum

Mark Twain House, Hartford, CT

Which is right next to...

Harriet Beecher Stowe House, Hartford, CT

Noah Webster House, West Hartford, CT

A Little Farther Afield...

Mystic Seaport

A recreated 18^th century seafaring village and maritime museum. About an hour and a half from Simsbury. Kid-friendly. Includes over 60 historic buildings and the only surviving wooden whaler, the Charles W. Morgan.

18th-century sea captain and privateer, Captain Gideon Olmsted of Hartford, CT would have been familiar with the port of Mystic. Olmsted's legal fight for ownership of a prize he captured began in Continental Congress (with the help of Benedict Arnold) and ended in the Supreme Court thirty years later in a decision influential to maritime law.

21st-century sea captain, Captain Jonathan Olmsted visiting Mystic Seaport. Note the family resemblance.

Historic Deerfield and Yankee Candle Village

Authentic restored 18^th century settlement in the CT River Valley in Western Massachusetts (Pioneer Valley). A little over an hour from Simsbury. The Yankee Candle Company Village nearby is surprisingly fun to visit.

Deerfield was raided several times by French and Indians over several decades, most famously during the Deerfield Massacre of 1704, an event that unsettled the entire colony. 56 were killed and 109 taken captive. Captain Johannes Schuyler, Indian Commissioner and Mayor of Albany, was called upon  to mediate between the French, Mohawks, and English families of the captives. William Olmsted was killed in another attack on Deerfield a few months later. 

Yankee Candle Village. Surprisingly fun.

Old Sturbridge Village 

An 18^th century living history village. Kid-friendly. Just over an hour from Simsbury.

Stockbridge, Mass.

About an hour and twenty minutes from Simsbury. Visit the Norman Rockwell Museum or tour the town for this scene: 

Which is the model for this painting: 

Take Route 8 for a scenic drive. 

Activities

Ice Skating at Simsbury Farms or the International Skating Center

Skiing at Ski Sundown, a small local mountain

Snickerdoodle and Charlie recommend Simsbury Farms and the Simsbury Dog Park.

Please let us know if you're interested in information on hiking or walking trails (weather permitting!)

Another of Snicker and Charlie's favorite places: a portion of the McLean Game Refuge off of Westledge Road (past my grandfather's house) in Simsbury. The hilltop village of Pilfershire was mostly abandoned in the 19th century. You can still see some of the house foundations. (It's hard to find, so let me know if you want directions!)

About Simsbury

Phelps Tavern Museum, Simsbury Historical Society

       

Simsbury, CT was first settled in 1640 and become incorporated in 1670. The original settlers sought land, pine forests for pitch and tar manufactory, and, in true Congregationalist fashion, wanted to break away from their church in Windsor to start a better one. Simsbury was on the very western edge of King Philip's War, a conflict between several native American tribes and colonists.The town was burned in 1676; the settlers returned a year later. In 1737, Dr. Samuel Higley of Simsbury  minted the first coins in America from his copper mine. Manufacturing currency was, of course, illegal. Higley skirted the law by stamping his coins with "Value me as you please." According to legend, it was understood that the coins were worth 2-3 pence, or the price of a beer. In the nineteenth century, the production of safety fuses dominated local industry.

Tobacco Barns, Firetown Road

Credit: Jim Darling, Flickr             

While a student at Morehouse College, Martin Luther King picked tobacco in Simsbury. The old tobacco barns on Firetown Road (by Barndoor Hills Road) and Hoskins Road (by County Road) give a sense of what the fields looked like then. King's summer in Connecticut was formative. In his memoirs, he writes, "After that summer in Connecticut, it was a bitter feeling going back to segregation. It was hard to understand why I could ride wherever I pleased on the train from New York to Washington and then had to change to a Jim Crow car at the nation’s capital in order to continue the trip to Atlanta." In a letter to his mother, he recounts his experience going out in Hartford, "Yesterday we didn’s work so we went to Hardford we really had a nice time there. I never thought that a person of my race could eat anywhere but we ...ate in one of the finest resturant in Hardford." In another letter, he tells her, "We went to church in Simsbury and we were the only negro’s there Negroes and whites go to the same church,”: the church he refers to here is First Church, where our ceremony will be held.

Tulmeadow Farm, Old Farms Road. The Farm Store is open year-round. Tulmeadow ice cream has been named best in CT. (Red raspberry chocolate chip is the signature flavor.)

You can glimpse Simsbury's history in the East Weatogue Historic District of Simsbury (East Weatogue Street off Hartford Road), Phelps Tavern and other 18th and 19th century buildings on Hopmeadow street, and Tulmeadow Farm, which has been farmed by the Tuller family since before the American Revolution.

Flamig Farm is just down the street from Tulmeadow on West Mountain Road. The backwards EGGS sign has become a Simsbury landmark. It was originally spelled forwards, but a local crank complained that Flamig should have no advertisements since it isn't zoned for commercial purposes. The Christensens decided to re-install the letters backwards and call it "art."

The Simsbury Civil War Memorial. On your way from the ceremony to the reception, you will pass the Civil War Memorial on your right shortly before you turn left onto Hartford Road from Hopmeadow Street. 

Watercolor of Highview Barn, Simsbury

Watercolor of Highview Barn, Simsbury, by my grandfather, Alfred M. Schuyler. This watercolor was painted from a photograph of the horse barn that became my grandparents' house (below).

My grandfather's maple sugar house (below)

Registries

Amazon
Macy's