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.