Exhibit of Historic Avon Center to be Displayed at Library

The Avon Historical Society is pleased to announce a new exhibit, “A Canal Runs Through It: Faith, Commerce and Education in Old Avon Center.”

The exhibit, highlighting the restoration of the twenty-foot tall cupola that now stands on the front lawn of the Avon Board of Education building on Simsbury Road, will be open September through October in the display cases outside the Local History Room of the Avon Free Public Library.

This exhibit will showcase the historic center of the Avon Congregational Church (1819), Farmington Canal (1827-1847), Farmington Canal Railroad (1850-1991) and three schools. This area saw businesses start and grow, such as O’Neil’s Chevrolet-Buick, which has its origins on a barn still standing on Simsbury Road. There was also the Avon Congregational Church (1819), the Avon Baptist Church (1818), both Towpath Schools (the first built in 1879 and the second in 1949), and the very early District Center School. The town center was the main stop on the Farmington Canal and later the Farmington Canal Railroad.

In 1830, the State Legislature approved Northington’s incorporation as the Town of Avon. The Avon Congregational Church had gathered as one parish in 1751, splitting years later into the West Avon Congregational Church (1818) and the Avon Congregational Church (1819).

According to the U.S. census of 1830, Avon had 1,025 residents. Many original inhabitants lived by the Farmington River on Nod and Waterville Roads; others lived along what is now Old Farms Road and in the original town center that is today the crossroads of East/West Main Street (Route 44) and Simsbury Road (Route 10.) The Town’s intersection of Route 44 & 10 was a lively, vibrant center with a church, stagecoach roads that led in all four4 major directions, a post office, stores, and schools.

This exhibit will feature photographs, textbooks and yearbooks; there will be artifacts and records of commerce, religion and business that occupied the center at various times. Scrapbooks from the former Towpath Schools including graduation booklets, drawings, and even photos of a 1960s Teen Club.

The Avon Historical Society welcomes any additions to its collection of Avon Center entities or for the archives of the Local History Room at the Avon Free Public Library. For more information on both, please visit: www.avonhistoricalsociety.org.

Photo credit: Avon Historical Society