A Farmington River town under Talcott Mountain, once the Massaco lands, burned in 1676 and rebuilt along Hop Meadow, where carpets were woven at Tariffville and safety fuse has been made since 1836.

Hartford County · Record checked October 11, 2026

24,517Population2020 census1
1670Became a townConnecticut's 21st town, once called Massaco1
165 ftHeublein Toweron Talcott Mountain, built 19142
About 200Civil Waryoung men Simsbury sent to the Union army3
16National Registerplaces, all still standing4

Simsbury on the map

Click the map to look closer.

Map of Simsbury, Connecticut in 2026, with Simsbury center, Weatogue, Tariffville, Talcott Mountain and 34 numbered landmarks

2026

Simsbury today

By KNOWOL

Shaded hills from Talcott Mountain down to the Farmington River and up to Tariffville in the northeast, every street with Simsbury, Weatogue and Tariffville by name, and a guide of 34 numbered landmarks with the National Register sites marked.5

See the 2026 printMore about this map

The story of Simsbury

Carpets at the Falls

Tariffville sits where the Farmington breaks through the ridge, and in 1884 a county history said it had one of the largest and best water powers in the state. By 1827 an incorporated company under H. K. Knight was weaving ingrain carpets and shawls there, and four years later it had 95 male weavers. Many came from overseas. Andrew Ketchin, an Edinburgh carpet weaver, settled here, and Thomas Flynn from Ireland worked a hand loom until power looms took over. When the carpet company moved to Thompsonville, the mills held a screw company, then a silk mill, then lace curtain mills with 75 workers. Ketchin's descendants turned stonemason and built the fuse plants and the town's high and grammar schools.67891011

The fuse works

Safety fuse, a slow-burning cord for blasting, was first made in America in Simsbury in 1836. The first factory stood at East Weatogue, and in 1839 Joseph Toy came over from the Cornish fuse makers to fill an important job there. After fire destroyed that plant, the firm moved to Simsbury village as Toy, Bickford and Company. Toy's son Joseph raised Company H of the 12th Connecticut around town and died its captain in Louisiana in 1862. The work was dangerous. In December 1859 the factory exploded, killing seven women and one man. By 1889 the state listed Simsbury's industries as farming and safety fuse, and the company, now Ensign-Bickford, still has its headquarters in town.512113

Burned and rebuilt

Simsbury was barely six years old when King Philip's War reached it. An 1837 history says the forty or so families buried their belongings and went back to Windsor, and in March 1676 the empty houses were burned. When the settlers came home, they named the peak on the Avon line Mount Philip, and the land records have used that name ever since. They started over along Hop Meadow. Thomas Barber built the first gristmill, sawmill and meetinghouse, and in 1689 the meadows on both banks were fenced into two common fields about seven miles long. Among the oldest stones in the cemetery is Mercy Buel's, from 1688. She was 22.146151617

Through the years

25 moments from 1642 to today.

  1. 1642The General Court gives the Massaco lands on the Tunxis River to be granted to people of Windsor.1
  2. 1660About this year Captain Aaron Cook builds the first house, at Terry's Plain.5
  3. 1670On May 12 the General Court makes Massaco a town and names it Simmsbury.1
  4. 1676About forty families bury their goods and retreat to Windsor, and in March the empty settlement is burned.14
  5. 1688Mercy Buel, 22, is buried at Hop Meadow; hers is among the oldest stones in the cemetery.17
  6. 1689The meadows on both banks are fenced into two common fields about seven miles long.16
  7. 1702The first school opens at Terry's Plain on January 1.5
  8. 1711David Phelps builds the house that becomes Phelps Tavern.18
  9. 1762Captain Noah Humphrey's Simsbury company sails to Havana, where disease leaves only forty of 802 men in the regiment fit for duty.19
  10. 1775Elisha and Noah Phelps are among the men who capture Fort Ticonderoga.18
  11. 1786Granby is set off as its own town, and the Phelps house opens as an inn.1
  12. 1806Canton, once West Simsbury, becomes a separate town.1
  13. 1819A bridge is built by subscription at Hop Meadow, opposite the meetinghouse.20
  14. 1826The Farmington Canal reaches Simsbury.5
  15. 1827A carpet and shawl manufactory is running at Tariffville; four years later it has 95 male weavers.7
  16. 1836The nation's first safety fuses for blasting are made in Simsbury.5
  17. 1839Joseph Toy arrives from Cornwall to work at the fuse factory at East Weatogue.12
  18. 1859On December 20 the fuse factory explodes, killing seven women and one man.1
  19. 1861A town hall meeting is called on April 22, and nine Simsbury men enlist that day.3
  20. 1865Tariffville's three school districts unite in a union schoolhouse costing more than $13,000.21
  21. 1875The brick railroad depot is built.22
  22. 1884J. B. McLean's Simsbury Academy is in its fifth year, and the Free Library, Amos R. Eno's gift, is open to all.23
  23. 1892The Drake Hill Road Bridge, a Parker truss, is built over the Farmington.24
  24. 1914Gilbert Heublein builds his tower on Talcott Mountain.2
  25. 1932Eno Memorial Hall, given by Antoinette Eno Wood, is completed.25

Places to see

The numbers match the landmark guide printed on the 2026 map.

  • 3Heublein TowerTalcott Mountain. Gilbert Heublein's tower of 1914.Visit their website
  • 4Pinchot SycamoreEast bank of the river. The largest tree in Connecticut.
  • 13Old Drake Hill Flower BridgeSoutheast of the center. Parker truss of 1892, flowers along it.
  • 14Terry's Plain Historic DistrictAcross the river. Farmland where the first house stood.
  • 15East Weatogue Historic DistrictEast Weatogue Street. Old farming village below the ridge.
  • 16Simsbury Center Historic DistrictHopmeadow Street. Seven blocks of the town center.
  • 18Phelp's Tavern800 Hopmeadow Street. Phelps family inn, 1786 to 1849.Visit their website
  • 22Eno Memorial HallHopmeadow Street. Temple front and gilded dome, 1932.
  • 29Tariffville Historic DistrictTariffville. The old carpet mill village.
  • 32Former Simsbury Railroad DepotRailroad Street. Brick Italianate station of 1875.

On the National Register

All 16 places in Simsbury on the National Register of Historic Places that still stand today, oldest first, and why each one matters.4

  • Terry's Plain Historic District

    Listed 1993 · Pharos, Quarry and Terry's Plain Roads and the Farmington River

    325 acres of farmland kept as a rural landscape, with farmhouses and tobacco barns. It includes the field where the town's train band drilled in the 1680s.26

  • Simsbury Center Historic District

    Listed 1996 · Roughly Hopmeadow Street from West Street to Massaco Street

    Seven blocks of Hopmeadow Street that grew up near an early ferry over the Farmington. The cemetery dates from 1688, but most buildings are civic and commercial ones of the late 1800s and early 1900s, among them Eno Memorial Hall and the bank building.27

  • Capt. Elisha Phelps House

    Built 1711 · Listed 1972 · 800 Hopmeadow Street

    David Phelps built it in 1711 and his son Elisha, one of the captors of Fort Ticonderoga, enlarged it in 1771. Three generations of Phelpses kept it as an inn from 1786 to 1849, and it's now the Phelps Tavern Museum.18

    Visit their website

  • East Weatogue Historic District

    Listed 1990 · East Weatogue Street from north of Riverside Drive to Hartford Road, and Folly Farm

    A 490-acre farming village between the river and the ridge, one of three villages settled after the 1676 burning. Three of its houses appear on the area's first map, of about 1730.28

  • John Humphrey House

    Built about 1760 · Listed 1990 · 115 East Weatogue Street

    A well-kept Georgian center-chimney house with fine original paneling. Its date comes from land records and the place of the bake oven; the land was granted to Michael Humphrey in 1668.29

  • Amos Eno House

    Built 1822 · Listed 1975 · 731 Hopmeadow Street

    Elisha Phelps built it on land from his father. His daughter Lucy married Amos R. Eno, who made his fortune in New York and summered here, and their grandson Gifford Pinchot was born in the house.30

  • Tariffville Historic District

    Listed 1993 · Winthrop, Main and Elm Streets, Mountain and Laurel Hill Roads

    A 93-acre mill village that keeps the worker housing and street plan of the carpet company's early 1800s village, with Greek Revival and Gothic Revival houses and Trinity Church by Henry C. Dudley.31

  • Simsbury Townhouse

    Built 1839 · Listed 1993 · 695 Hopmeadow Street

    Built after the Congregational church stopped letting town meetings use its new building, it served as town hall until 1931. The Greek Revival hall was moved twice, the last time in 1869.32

  • Simsbury Railroad Depot

    Built 1875 · Listed 1976 · Railroad Avenue at Station Street

    A brick Italianate station, unusual when most stations were wood, built for the Connecticut Western line. It's a restaurant now.22

  • Drake Hill Road Bridge

    Built 1892 · Listed 1984 · Old Bridge Road at the Farmington River

    A pin-connected Parker truss of wrought iron, cast iron and steel, one of three left in the state, all designed by J. H. Buddington. It has carried only walkers since 1992 and is lined with flower planters.24

  • Horace Belden School and Central Grammar School

    Built 1907 · Listed 1993 · 933 Hopmeadow Street and 29 Massaco Street

    Two brownstone Gothic Revival schools: the Belden School of 1907, Simsbury's first high school and town hall since 1983, and the Central Grammar School of 1913, still a school.33

  • Heublein Tower

    Built 1914 · Listed 1983 · Talcott Mountain State Park

    Gilbert Heublein promised his fiancee a castle on the mountain and built this 165-foot tower, modeled on buildings of his native Bavaria, as a summer home about 1,000 feet above the valley.2

    Visit their website

  • Simsbury Bank and Trust Company Building

    Built 1917 · Listed 1986 · 760 Hopmeadow Street

    A Colonial Revival bank by Smith and Bassette for the town's first bank, founded 1916. The town bought it in 1969 and used it as town hall into the 1980s.34

  • Robert and Julia Darling House

    Built 1927 · Listed 1991 · 720 Hopmeadow Street

    A large brick Colonial Revival house for Robert Darling, chairman of Ensign-Bickford, and his wife Julia, a granddaughter of the company's founder. It holds offices today.35

  • Eno Memorial Hall

    Built 1932 · Listed 1993 · 754 Hopmeadow Street

    Antoinette Eno Wood gave the town this hall with a temple front, a clock tower and an auditorium for about 600. It held the town offices until 1969 and is now the senior center.25

  • Massacoe Forest Pavilion

    Built 1935 · Listed 1986 · Stratton Brook State Park

    A timber picnic shelter with a big fieldstone chimney, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps beside Massacoe Pond in what was then Massacoe State Forest.36

In their words

“In the War of the Revolution, few, if any, of the towns of the State furnished a larger number of enlisted men than Simsbury.”

The Memorial History of Hartford County, 188619

“the young men of Simsbury rushed to the front.”

The Memorial History of Hartford County, 1886, on 18613

“now flourishing village of Tariffville, within the limits of Simsbury, possessing one of the largest and best water-powers of the State.”

The Memorial History of Hartford County, 18866

Nearby towns

Sources

  1. Simsbury, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  2. Heublein Tower, Wikipedia
  3. The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884 (1886), on Simsbury in the Civil War, Internet Archive
  4. National Register of Historic Places listings in Hartford County, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  5. Map of Simsbury, Connecticut in 2026, KNOWOL (USGS elevation, Census Bureau roads)
  6. The Memorial History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884 (1886), on Tariffville and Mount Philip, Internet Archive
  7. History of Connecticut in monographic form (1925), on Tariffville carpets, Internet Archive
  8. Commemorative biographical record of Hartford County, Connecticut (1901), on Deacon Andrew Ketchin, Internet Archive
  9. Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography (1923), on Thomas Flynn, Internet Archive
  10. The Connecticut quarterly (1895), on the Farmington River at Tariffville, Internet Archive
  11. Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography (1917), on the Ketchin masons, Internet Archive
  12. Commemorative biographical record of Hartford County, Connecticut (1901), on Joseph Toy, Internet Archive
  13. Register and manual of the state of Connecticut (1889), Internet Archive
  14. Connecticut historical collections (1837), on Simsbury, Internet Archive
  15. Commemorative biographical record of Hartford County, Connecticut (1901), on Thomas Barber, Internet Archive
  16. History of Simsbury, Granby, and Canton, from 1642 to 1845 (1845), on the common fields, Internet Archive
  17. Chapter sketches, Connecticut Daughters of the American Revolution; patron saints (1901), on the Hop Meadow cemetery, Internet Archive
  18. Capt. Elisha Phelps House, Wikipedia
  19. The Memorial History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884 (1886), on Simsbury's soldiers, Internet Archive
  20. History of Simsbury, Granby, and Canton, from 1642 to 1845 (1845), on the bridges, Internet Archive
  21. The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884 (1886), on Simsbury's schools, Internet Archive
  22. Simsbury station (Simsbury Railroad Depot), Wikipedia
  23. The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884 (1886), on the Simsbury Academy and Free Library, Internet Archive
  24. Drake Hill Road Bridge, Wikipedia
  25. Eno Memorial Hall, Wikipedia
  26. Terry's Plain Historic District, Wikipedia
  27. Simsbury Center Historic District, Wikipedia
  28. East Weatogue Historic District, Wikipedia
  29. John Humphrey House (Simsbury, Connecticut), Wikipedia
  30. Amos Eno House, Wikipedia
  31. Tariffville Historic District, Wikipedia
  32. Simsbury Townhouse, Wikipedia
  33. Horace Belden School and Central Grammar School, Wikipedia
  34. Simsbury Bank and Trust Company Building, Wikipedia
  35. Robert and Julia Darling House, Wikipedia
  36. Massacoe Forest Pavilion, Wikipedia