Simsbury

Pettibone’s Tavern (1803)

The original Pettibone’s Tavern, now Abigail’s Grille, on Hartford Road in Simsbury, was built in 1780 for Jonathan Pettibone, Jr., whose father, Jonathan Pettibone, had been killed in the fighting around New York in 1776. The Tavern served as a stagecoach stop on the Boston to Albany Turnpike. The original tavern was burned to the ground by Indians in 1800, but was soon rebuilt and reopened in 1803. In more recent times, the tavern has been a restaurant. It was purchased by the Chart House chain in the 1970s, but under new ownership became known as Pettibone’s Tavern again. In January, the building was damaged after a fire activated the sprinkler system. It was after hours and the sprinklers were not connected to an alarm, so they did extensive damage, which was not discovered until the morning. The Tavern is currently being repaired and will reopen soon under new management. The Tavern is also famous for being haunted, possibly by the ghost of Abigail Pettibone. BOO! The Story of the Pettibone Ghost, a current exhibition at the Simsbury Historical Society, focuses on the Pettibone family and the story of the ghost.

First Church of Christ, Simsbury (1830)

The first meeting house in Simsbury was built in 1683. In 1736 there were lengthy debates over where to build a new and larger second meeting house, which was eventually constructed on Drake’s Hill. Construction commenced in 1740, but in 1743 services began in what was still an unfinished building, only completed in 1777. This was replaced by the current church, at the same location, in 1830. The minister at the time was Rev. Allen McLean, whose grandson, George Payne McLean was later a senator and governor of Connecticut. The First Church of Christ in Simsbury has undergone various restorations and several additions over the years.

Poisson-Belden Cottage (1741)

On the grounds of the Simsbury Historical Society (near the Phelps Tavern) is a eighteenth century cottage, which was moved there in the 1970s. It was originally built by John Poisson, a weaver, and was later owned by Horace Belden (there is a pdf file with information on Belden, who did a great deal for the town during his long life). The front of the house is left unpainted to display the original clapboards.

Phelps Tavern (1776)

Located on Hopmeadow Street in Simsbury, the Capt. Elisha Phelps House served as a tavern run by successive generations of the Phelps family. According to Wikipedia, it was built by Capt. Phelps in 1776, although the Simsbury Historical Society site indicates it was built sometime earlier, purchased by Phelps and raised by him, adding a new first floor, around 1771. Phelps and his brother, Noah Phelps, were involved in gathering intelligence during the Revolutionary War campaign to capture Fort Ticonderoga. In 1962, the house was purchased by the Simsbury Historical Society from the last of the Phelps family members to live there. It can now be visited as the Phelps Tavern Museum, part of a campus of historical buildings moved to the site by the Historical Society.

Simsbury United Methodist Church (1909)

Simsbury’s first Methodist church was built in 1840, centrally located in town on Hopmeadow Street. Remodeled and rededicated in 1882, it was eventually demolished in 1908 to make way for a new church building, designed in the Gothic style by architect George Keller. Built of red sandstone with terracotta roofs, the new church still followed the basic plan he had used for his early Grace Episcopal Church in Windsor, but now in a more mature style. Red sandstone had been used in the earlier church as well, although, in the period in between, he had used granite for the Elizabeth and Northam Memorial Chapels. The Simsbury church has a square castellated tower, similar to one in his design for the Ansonia Library. The Simsbury United Methodist Church also features stained glass windows by Louis Comfort Tiffany.