Derrin Family History Program Scheduled at Avon Senior Center

The Special Projects Committee of the Avon Historical Society is pleased to present the third installment of a year-long lecture series focusing on local agriculture and farm families. Professor Kathy Hermes, Central Connecticut State University professor of history, will present something new and exciting in the local history realm-a computer program called ‘Digital Farmington’ at 1:00pm on Saturday, January 9, 2016 at the Avon Senior Center, 635 West Avon Road, Avon. It is open to the public free of charge.

This program was created for their degree requirement by graduate students at CCSU. Three teams competed in creating a user-friendly program incorporating historic ‘points of interest’ (POI) in the town of Farmington and superimposing them onto satellite maps. When one clicks on a specific point, information about that point is revealed. One winning team’s program, an ongoing project, was chosen by a focus group of assembled historians, educators, and students and ‘Digital Farmington’ was launched in 2014.

Kathy Hermes, Professor of History at Central Connecticut State University spearheaded the creation of ‘Digital Farmington’ after consultation with the Stanley-Whitman House, to create a program that would be useful for tourism in highlighting historic sites in Farmington. This program is modeled after one already in existence called ‘Digital Harlem’ that is useful to both historians and the general public. Additional POI’s have been added to ‘Digital Farmington’ as well as student submitted articles about their corresponding data points and the program is ongoing!

Avon, formerly part of Farmington, is a natural extension with additional historic sites that now lie within the boundaries of the Town of Avon, have been added to the program. These latest additions of historic sites in Avon include the Derrin houses along West Avon Road along with historical narrative information one can access simply by clicking on the relevant POI. The Society invites the public to contribute any POI’s they may know of, perhaps something historic on their own property, to add to the comprehensive project.

The Society invites the public to attend to learn about this innovative computer program and how to access it and hopefully learn about the Derrin family homes POI’s. Refreshments will be served after the presentation and Professor Hermes will be available for questions.

UPCOMING LECTURES AND EVENTS

• “From Bedrock to Bedroom Community – The Evolution of Avon” on Saturday, March 5th, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. the Avon Senior Center/Community Center, 635 West Avon Road, presented by Robert M. Thorson, Professor of Geology at UCONN Storrs campus.
• “One Quilt Square in Avon’s Heritage Quilt” is the final lecture with speaker to be announced on Saturday, June 4th, 2016 at the Alsop Community Room of the Avon Free Public Library at 1:00 p.m. A companion exhibit entitled “A Heritage Quilt - The Derrins of West Avon” will be on exhibit outside the Local History Room in the glass display cases.

· Saturday, June 12th-A Celebration of the 250th Anniversary of the signing of the 1766 deed on the Derrin Farmhouse. Additional details will be published in a timely manner. This lecture series is generously sponsored in part by the Avon-Canton Rotary Club and co-sponsored by the Avon Senior Center/Community Center.

Photo courtesy of Avon Historical Society