Starting in 1825, a mill and associated factory housing were built in the village of Tariffville in Simsbury. The original carpet factory burned in 1867 and was replaced the following year by the current factory. Built by the Connecticut Screw Company, a business that did not succeed, the Tariffville Mill, at 2 Tunxis Road, served a variety of industries over the years. Today, the structure is a mixed use office building, called the Mill at Tariffville, housing a restaurantseveralotherbusinesses.
The Captain James Cornish House is a colonial saltbox structure at 26 East Weatogue Street in Simsbury. The house has an original barn, also constructed in 1720. The property has recently undergone some remodeling and the construction of an extensive rear addition.
Simsbury’s first meeting house was built in 1683 and was used until 1739. A reproduction of that now lost building was constructed in 1970 to serve as the Simsbury Tercentenary Celebration headquarters. It’s design was based on an earlier 1935 reproduction and it contains some windows and the door used on that building. Today, the reproduction Meeting House is a museum building on the grounds of the Simsbury Historical Society.
The Simsbury 1820 House is an inn which is housed in an elaborate gambrel roofed Federal mansion. The house was built by Elijah Phelps, the son of Maj. Gen. Noah Phelps, who was a hero of the Revolutionary War. Elijah Phelps’s son-in-law, Amos R. Eno, became wealthy by investing the profits of his dry goods business in real estate in New York. He used the 1820 House as a summer residence. His grandson, Gifford Pinchot, a conservationist and governor of Pennsylvania, was born in the house in 1865. In 1884, Amos Eno retreated to the Simsbury House after his son, John C. Eno, embezzled millions from his father’s bank and fled to Canada. In 1890, Amos Eno added a large rear extension to the house, which was later inherited by his daughter, Anoinette Eno Wood, who called the home “Eaglewood,” in reference to her family’s patriotism and her last name. She had the house renovated in the Colonial Revival style. The house remained in the family until 1948, afterwards becoming a restaurant called the Simsbury House. When a developer bought the house and started to auction off its fixtures in the 1960s, the Town of Simsbury decided to purchase it. Little was done to renovate it, however, until in 1985 it was bought and restored by Simsbury House Associates to become an elegant inn.
