A river town on the Massachusetts line that began as Southfield, where Simeon Viets started making Spanish cigars in 1810 and a long Main Street of old houses grew up on tobacco money.

Hartford County · Record checked October 12, 2026

15,752Population2020 census1
1670Settledas Southfield, a Massachusetts town2
1749Joined Connecticutafter its people asked to be admitted3
14,482,000Cigars in 1849made in 21 Suffield shops4
11National Registerplaces, all still standing5

Suffield on the map

Click the map to look closer.

Map of Suffield, Connecticut in 2026, with Main Street, West Suffield, the Congamond Lakes and a guide of 34 numbered landmarks

2026

Suffield today

By KNOWOL

Shaded hills from West Suffield Mountain down to the Connecticut River, every street, Suffield, Suffield Depot, West Suffield, Ebbs Corner and Rising Corner, and a guide of 34 numbered landmarks with the National Register sites marked.6

See the 2026 printMore about this map

The story of Suffield

Simeon Viets and the Spanish cigar

Cigars were rarely seen in Suffield before 1800. Then, in 1810, a Cuban cigar maker drifted into West Suffield and met Simeon Viets, who bought a little Spanish tobacco, gave him work and began making genuine Spanish cigars, the first business of its kind in the Connecticut valley, an 1886 history says. Girls came as apprentices to learn the Principe cigar and its twisted kink head. Clarissa Rose and Sally Olds, the first two learners, still had the knack fifty years later. James Loomis carried the cigars into New York State as a peddler. Viets failed in 1821 and died poor in 1836, but the trade he started stayed. In 1849 Suffield's 21 cigar shops made more than fourteen million cigars, and dealers kept whole cargoes of Cuban tobacco in quiet farmhouse cellars.748

The town that bought its land

Suffield began in 1670 as Southfield, a Massachusetts plantation. A 1921 book says Major John Pynchon bought the land for thirty pounds from a local leader named Pampunkshat, and an 1895 magazine noted that no one was killed within the town's bounds in all the colonial wars. The first baby, Ephraim Bartlett, was born on June 17, 1673. The first meetinghouse went up in 1680, and by January 1682 the town had one hundred proprietors, 62 of them men with families. For 157 years town meetings were held in the meetinghouses, and they were run with great decorum. Suffield stayed a Massachusetts town until 1749, when its people asked to join Connecticut and were admitted.293101112

Washington under the great elm

On October 21, 1789, President George Washington rode north from Windsor on his New England tour. In his journal he called the land between Windsor and Suffield a level, barren plain. Suffield remembered the day more warmly. As the story was handed down, cannon fired when his carriage came in sight and thirteen young women walked down the road to meet him. So many people came that the welcome was moved from the church to the great elm opposite the south end of the park. That common had long been a pasture and a place to dig gravel. In 1859 the town graded it into a park in three parts, each bordered with trees, and in 1888 a Soldiers' Monument was dedicated there, in a downpour.131415166

Through the years

24 moments from 1670 to today.

  1. 1670Settlement begins at Southfield, a new plantation of Massachusetts.2
  2. 1673Ephraim Bartlett is the first child born in the new settlement.10
  3. 1674The Massachusetts court grants the name Suffield, the southernmost town in that country.1
  4. 1680The first meetinghouse is built, with Rev. John Younglove as minister.11
  5. 1682Suffield is incorporated as a town, with one hundred proprietors holding lots.1
  6. 1723Lieutenant William King builds the saltbox now called King's Field House, about this year.17
  7. 1726Captain Joseph Kellogg of Suffield, once a captive at Deerfield, takes command of Fort Dummer.18
  8. 1742The Gay Manse, among the oldest houses in town, bears this date.9
  9. 1749Suffield is admitted to Connecticut at its people's request.3
  10. 1755Phinehas Lyman of Suffield begins eight campaigns in command of Connecticut's forces.19
  11. 1762The center of the house now called the Phelps-Hatheway House is built, about this year.20
  12. 1764Dr. Alexander King builds his house on South Main Street.21
  13. 1775After the Lexington alarm, Elihu Kent raises 94 men in less than a day and marches them to Boston.22
  14. 1789President George Washington rides through Suffield on his New England tour.13
  15. 1795Richard Crosby builds a cotton factory in Suffield, one of the first in the country.16
  16. 1810Simeon Viets hires a Cuban cigar maker and starts making Spanish cigars in West Suffield.7
  17. 1832A wooden bridge to Enfield is built with money from a lottery.15
  18. 1833The Connecticut Literary Institution, now Suffield Academy, is founded.2
  19. 1849Suffield's 21 cigar shops make more than fourteen million cigars.4
  20. 1859The old common on Main Street is graded and laid out as a park.15
  21. 1888The Soldiers' Monument is dedicated, in the rain.16
  22. 1913George M. Hendee of Indian Motorcycle starts Hilltop Farm.23
  23. 1920Suffield marks its 250th anniversary with a three-day celebration and pageant.24
  24. 1929Bridge No. 455, a concrete arch, carries Route 159 over Stony Brook.25

Places to see

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

  • 1Babbs BeachMiddle Pond, Congamond Lakes. The 1930s dance hall still stands.
  • 3Hilltop FarmMapleton Avenue. George Hendee's gentleman's farm of 1913.
  • 4Enfield CanalAlong the river. Opened around Enfield Falls in 1829.
  • 6Suffield AcademyNorth of the center. Founded in 1833.Visit their website
  • 8King's Field HouseNorth Street. A saltbox of about 1723.
  • 12Suffield Historic DistrictNorth and South Main Street. Two and a half miles of old houses.
  • 15Hastings Hill Historic DistrictHill Street and Russell Avenue. Baptist church of 1842.
  • 17Phelps-Hatheway House & GardenSouth Main Street. Oliver Phelps's mansion, open in season.Visit their website
  • 21Bridge No. 455Route 159 at Stony Brook. Open-spandrel concrete arch of 1929.
  • 27Alexander King HouseSouth Main Street. Dr. King's house of 1764.Visit their website

On the National Register

All 11 places in Suffield on the National Register of Historic Places that still stand today, oldest first, and why each one matters.5

  • Suffield Historic District

    Listed 1979 · North and South Main Street, from Muddy Brook to north of Mapleton Avenue

    Two and a half miles of Main Street with houses from the 1700s to the early 1900s, laid out in narrow lots that never gave way to big commercial buildings. It takes in the Baptist and Congregational churches, the old Kent Memorial Library by Daniel Burnham and the new one of 1972 by Warren Platner.2

  • King's Field House

    Built about 1723 · Listed 1982 · 827 North Street

    A saltbox built by Lieutenant William King, son of an early settler, on land given to him in 1722. Later Kings ran a blacksmith shop and a cooperage here, and Delphina Clark, the first woman admitted to the Yale School of Architecture, restored it in the 1930s.17

  • Hastings Hill Historic District

    Listed 1979 · 987-1308 Hill Street, 1242 Spruce Street and 1085-1162 Russell Avenue

    A crossroads village on a ridge road laid out in 1726, where Joseph Hastings gathered one of the first Baptist congregations in Connecticut. Its Greek Revival church of 1842 stands beside the Hastings house, once a tavern, and a tobacco barn nearby still has the stage of a summer theater.26

  • Hatheway House

    Built about 1762 · Listed 1975 · 55 South Main Street

    Oliver Phelps, a partner in the Phelps and Gorham Purchase of six million acres, bought this house in 1788 and made it a mansion, adding a north wing and a portico designed by Asher Benjamin in 1795. Connecticut Landmarks opens it from May to October.20

    Visit their website

  • Alexander King House

    Built 1764 · Listed 1976 · 232 South Main Street

    Built for Dr. Alexander King, a Yale graduate who served in the legislature and helped ratify the Constitution in 1788. Its parlors hold one of the state's finest collections of Georgian woodwork, and the Suffield Historical Society runs it as a museum.21

    Visit their website

  • Lewis-Zukowski House

    Built 1781 · Listed 1990 · 1095 South Grand Street

    Hezekiah Lewis built this farmhouse of brick, rare for a house in Connecticut at the time. Michael Zukowski, an immigrant from eastern Europe, bought the farm in 1905, one of the newcomers who renewed Suffield's farming.27

  • John Fuller House

    Built 1824 · Listed 1982 · 463 Halladay Avenue

    A brick house built by George Fuller in a Georgian style already long out of fashion. From 1887 to 1952 it was the main house of the town farm, where Suffield cared for its poor.28

  • Gothic Cottage

    Built 1846 · Listed 1982 · 1425 Mapleton Avenue

    David Lyman Sikes built this cottage on old family land, apparently from a design in Andrew Jackson Downing's Cottage Residences of 1842. Its lancet windows and carved bargeboards make it one of the only houses of its kind in town.29

  • Babb's Beach

    Listed 2006 · 435 Babbs Road

    The old amusement park on the Middle Pond of the Congamond Lakes, where Nelson Babb's dance hall drew up to 3,000 people on 1930s weekends to hear bands like Tommy Dorsey's and Harry James's. The town has owned it since 1977, and the dance hall, arcade and shooting gallery still stand.30

  • Hilltop Farm

    Built 1913 and after · Listed 2005 · 1550-1760 Mapleton Avenue

    The gentleman's dairy farm of George M. Hendee, a founder of the Indian Motorcycle company, on more than 230 acres toward the river. The manor house is gone, but the dairy barn, chicken house and tobacco barn still stand, and the town owns the farm.23

  • Bridge No. 455

    Built 1929 · Listed 2004 · Route 159 at Stony Brook

    An open-spandrel concrete arch with a 132-foot main span, 55 feet above the stream. It was built when Route 159 was the main road between Hartford and Springfield, and it's one of only six such bridges left in the state.25

In their words

“Old Suffield, dear Suffield, our home on the lea. Our hearts as we wander turn fondly to thee.”

A song recalled at Suffield's 250th anniversary, 192031

“Always a conservative town was Suffield, and is now for that matter.”

The Connecticut quarterly, 18953

“Suffield is one of the most beautiful of New England villages, and is noted for its healthfulness and quiet.”

The historical, statistical and industrial review of the state of Connecticut, 188432

Nearby towns

Sources

  1. Suffield, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  2. Suffield Historic District, Wikipedia
  3. The Connecticut quarterly (1895), on Suffield's land and its move to Connecticut, Internet Archive
  4. The Memorial History of Hartford County, Connecticut 1633-1884 (1886), on Suffield's cigar shops in the census, Internet Archive
  5. National Register of Historic Places listings in Hartford County, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  6. Map of Suffield, Connecticut in 2026, KNOWOL (USGS elevation, Census Bureau roads)
  7. The Memorial History of Hartford County, Connecticut 1633-1884 (1886), on Simeon Viets and the first cigars, Internet Archive
  8. The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884 (1886), on the Spanish tobacco trade, Internet Archive
  9. An architectural monograph on the town of Suffield, Connecticut (1921), Internet Archive
  10. Historic towns of the Connecticut River Valley (1906), on Suffield's first settlers, Internet Archive
  11. Historic towns of the Connecticut River Valley (1906), on Sylvester Graham and the first meetinghouse, Internet Archive
  12. The Memorial History of Hartford County, Connecticut 1633-1884 (1886), on Suffield town meetings, Internet Archive
  13. The history of ancient Windsor, Connecticut (1859), on Washington's ride of 1789, Internet Archive
  14. The Connecticut magazine (1905), on Washington's welcome in Suffield, Internet Archive
  15. The Connecticut quarterly (1895), on the Enfield bridge and the park, Internet Archive
  16. The Connecticut quarterly (1895), on Suffield's celebrations and early mills, Internet Archive
  17. King's Field House, Wikipedia
  18. The Memorial History of Hartford County, Connecticut 1633-1884 (1886), on Captain Joseph Kellogg, Internet Archive
  19. The Memorial History of Hartford County, Connecticut 1633-1884 (1886), on General Phinehas Lyman, Internet Archive
  20. Hatheway House, Wikipedia
  21. Alexander King House, Wikipedia
  22. Chapter sketches, Connecticut Daughters of the American Revolution (1901), on Elihu Kent, Internet Archive
  23. Hilltop Farm, Wikipedia
  24. Celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of Suffield, Connecticut (1921), on the pageant, Internet Archive
  25. Bridge No. 455, Wikipedia
  26. Hastings Hill Historic District, Wikipedia
  27. Lewis-Zukowski House, Wikipedia
  28. John Fuller House, Wikipedia
  29. Gothic Cottage (Suffield, Connecticut), Wikipedia
  30. Babb's Beach, Wikipedia
  31. Celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of Suffield, Connecticut (1921), the closing address, Internet Archive
  32. The historical, statistical and industrial review of the state of Connecticut (1884), on Suffield, Internet Archive