Explore Simsbury on Connecticut’s June 10th Open House Day

On June 10th, Simsbury will be observing the CT Office of Tourism’s 13th Annual Open House Day all through downtown.

Make the Simsbury Visitors Center at 749 Hopmeadow Street your first stop to get oriented. Located in the basement of the Simsbury Free Library, the Visitors Center will be open from 10am to 4pm offering three free Simsbury post cards to each visitor as well as free coffee, lemonade and cookies, town brochures, a Simsbury map and an introduction to the town’s self guided mobile phone tour of 11 historic buildings along both sides of Hopmeadow Street.

At the Visitors Center you can also pick up a $1 off coupon for a beverage at the Red Stone Pub which just one of many businesses located in historic buildings which are participating in CT Open House Day. The Red Stone Pub and a specialty home furnishings boutique called In the House and Through the Garden are located at a large U-shaped two-story complex made of red sandstone called the Courtyard. Built in 1904, it was the site of the stables belonging to a wood-framed house owned by the wealthy Darling family which unfortunately burned down in 1918. Opening at noon, the Red Stone Pub is offering a tour of the stable and Carriage House and In the House will be offering complimentary refreshments as well as tours of the Darling House servants' quarters within the Courtyard building.

Just a short distance away from the Courtyard is the newer Darling House, a colonial revival built in 1927 to replace the one that burned down. In 1958, it was repurposed into a medical building. More recently, Bill Selig’s Jewelry Studio and Gallery moved into its former Garden Room. It’s offering an Open House Day tour of the studio which has been fully restored. They’ll also give you a peek into the elegant Darling House parlor which now serves as a doctor’s waiting room.

The Simsbury Public Library also has a special program which includes a lecture on the Revolutionary War in the Farmington Valley at 11am. That will be followed by a picnic box lunch on the grounds of Simsbury’s Historical Society, a self-guided tour of the revolutionary era graves at Simsbury’s landmark Center Cemetery and a rowdy audience-participation skit about Simsbury’s involvement in the Revolutionary War at the Historical Society. The whole event is free.

And should you want a souvenir of the day, stop by the Simsbury Historical Society’s Museum Shop. It’s in the Ellsworth Visitors Center right next to the Phelps Lane parking lot diagonally opposite Plan B Burgers. It will be open from 12 noon to 4pm.