It’s 1993 and You’re Having an Ice House at Carriage House…
Simsbury Historical Society, Simsbury
November 2024
Connecticut museum visit #535. If you’re wanting to read about all of the Simsbury Historical Society buildings and exhibits, you’ve landed on the third of four pages about them, but the ordering doesn’t matter. The Simsbury Historical Society owns over a dozen buildings all located at their complex right in the heart of downtown Simsbury. I was told that only Mystic Seaport has more buildings to tour, which is pretty bonkers. I’ve split up my visit across four CTMQ pages simply because there’s a lot going on here.
Anyone else attend college in the early 1990’s and remember Ice House beer being all the rage? Then came the red beers. Then came the microbrews. Then came craft beer. Then came breweries in every town. Then came seltzers. Then came beers with THC. Okay I’ll stop. We’re talking museums here. So go grab a THC infused alcoholic seltzer and let’s tour.
Ice House
We might as well start at the Ice House. I actually started my tour of Simsbury’s many museum buildings with the Ice House, but that doesn’t matter. If you take the tour here, the chances that you’ll start here are probably rather slim. My guide was very nonchalant, which I enjoyed. And I enjoyed my first stop, as this is a rather nice Ice House.
Perhaps the nicest Ice House I’ve ever been in.
Ice houses large and small were common sights in the 1800s. They stored big blocks of ice cut from rivers or lakes. Carefully cut and packed with sawdust or straw, ice blocks could remain frozen a full year or longer. Ice harvesting was a traditional rural activity and a big business. Ice blocks were used in insulated “ice boxes” to keep food cool at home. Dairy farmers used ice to keep butter, cheese and milk fresh for market. Chipped ice was served in drinks or used to make ice cream. Feverish patients were made more comfortable with cool, damp cloths.
Chipped ice was served in drinks?! In the 1800’s? Oh man, I really hope those people know what fresh water ponds were safe to drink from.
This ice house was built in 1889 for Lemuel S. Ellsworth who lived at 740 Hopmeadow Street here in Simsbury. Ice blocks cut from a man-made pond on East Weatogue Street filled this ice house. More than 40 tons of ice were stored here every winter. Hm. That’s a bold claim, Simsbury Historical Society. I was going to try to figure out how much space 80,000 pounds of ice would occupy, but I don’t feel like it. I’m not buying that claim though.
The Ice House was filled with ice collecting tools for my visit, not ice – which, now that I think about it, you couldn’t collect blocks of ice anymore in Simsbury. When was the last time we had a freeze down a foot into the water column? The saws, the giant tongs… that sort of stuff. We’ve seen all of that before of course, but there were pictures here as well as an old timey ice box and an ice cabinet. Inside the little structure, the temperature did drop a few degrees from outside, which I thought was pretty cool.
As cool as you are right now drinking that THC infused alcoholic seltzer nonsense.
This is here too.
Carriage House
And if you went to UConn, you stood a good chance of going to a party at Carriage House Apartments. Or at least hearing about them. Back in the early 1990’s, much Ice House was drunk at Carriage House, I’m sure. But that whole complex was such a dump, I only went a couple times.
The carriage house here at the Simsbury Historical Society isn’t a dump, though it does appear to be a bit of a dumping ground. Carriage houses were built to store horse-drawn pleasure vehicles such as carriages and sleighs. Common until the early twentieth century, many also stored vehicle maintenance equipment and accessories. Some included living quarters on an upper floor or adjoining space for household or carriage staff.
I don’t know how “common” the need was for houses to store pleasure vehicles were, but what do I know. But they weren’t all giant and pretty I guess – depending upon personal taste or financial status, a carriage house could be very simple or extremely fancy. Many were built according to the design of the main house or current architectural trend.
This fancy carriage house was built for Adelaide Eno Wilcox (1840-1914) probably during the remodeling of her family home, Elmstead, located at 880 Hopmeadow Street. It is an interesting combination of shingle and Queen Anne styles – decorative wood shingles clad the entire building and are not shadowed by deep roof eaves; mixed elements include a cupola, a small double-door balcony, and “Palladian” arched windows.
If you’re curious what the Wilcox mention is today, it’s been the Vincent Funeral Home since 1950 and looks like this:
There was a bunch of junk inside the building when I visited, and I didn’t notice the Ensign-Bickford Fuse Wagon that is typically housed here. It’s a high-bodied bright green and yellow vehicle was used well into the 20th century to safely carry manufactured fuses from the factory to the rail road for transportation. Anyway, my tour guide was enamored with the Carriage House, even suggesting she’d love to live in it.
I guess that’s why some people wind up as volunteer tour guides at historical societies and some sit on their lazy rumps writing about them.
Phelps Barn
Okay, if you’re reading these Simsbury Historical Society pages in order – and frankly, that seems highly unlikely – we’re getting to the centerpiece of the large building collection, Phelps Tavern and Museum. But first, we must check out the Phelps Barn!
This multi-purpose barn was built for Jeffery O. Phelps II in the late 1890s to keep the carriages and matched horses owned by the Phelps family. It was built after a large fire in September of 1896 destroyed the five-barn complex located closer to Phelps Lane. This barn includes two box stalls and a harness room on the left and space for the carriages on the right. The hayloft overhead was probably used for storage in addition to hay. The rear addition with bark-covered rafters was built by the Historical Society in the 1960s to house the 19th century peddler’s wagon used by Lucius Bigelow. The wood floor, stairs to the hayloft and hayloft opening are also modern additions.
A peddler’s wagon you say?
Yes, a peddler’s wagon. In 1869, Civil War veteran Lucius Wilcox Bigelow went to Templeton, MA, to purchase three peddler’s wagons for his employer, Gibson and Nellis, of Winsted. Bigelow chose his own wagon from the three and planned a peddler’s route from Winsted through Canton, Avon, Simsbury, and Granby. Peddlers who worked for shop owners usually worked a specific number of months, selling goods provided by their employers. They earned about $30 or $40 each month and bonuses if sales were good.
Bigelow went into business for himself in 1875, purchasing both horse and wagon. Bigelow sold tin ware, household items, and novelties, and purchased scrap metal and cloth for resale. After 1900, he began buying and selling “antiques,” becoming an active if unknowing participant in the Colonial Revival movement. Called the last Yankee peddler in Connecticut, Bigelow gave up his business in 1925. Ten years later, his widow loaned the still-loaded wagon to the Simsbury Historical Society. In 1954, the Historical Society acquired the wagon as a permanent gift from Mrs. Bigelow’s niece.
If this guy really was the last Yankee peddler in Connecticut, that’s pretty darn cool.
The Phelps Barn is on its original location. It was acquired by the Simsbury Historical Society in 1962 as part of the donation made by Mary (Ensign) Lovejoy, daughter of Joseph and Mary (Phelps) Ensign and granddaughter of Jeffery O. Phelps, II.
Meeting House
This is the only phony baloney building in this whole complex, but you’d never know it unless someone told you. This reproduction meeting house was built in 1970 to serve as the Simsbury Tercentenary Celebration headquarters. The design is based on a 17th century English-style reproduction built in 1935 to celebrate the State of Connecticut Tercentenary. Their reproduction includes several windows and the door of the 1935 structure.
Having been inside it, I can confirm it was perfectly uncomfortable and looked absolutely miserable to have to sit in day on a cold winter Sunday to listen to some preacher drone on and on about going to Hell for having impure thoughts.
Early New England meetinghouses were used for religious services and town meetings. The first meeting house in Simsbury was built in 1683 right here on Hopmeadow Street and was located near the present center gate of Simsbury Cemetery. It cost 33 pounds to build and was used until 1739. A monument erected in 1935 marks its site. I have not made the effort to see that monument, but my friends at the Historical Marker Database did:
First Meeting House In Simsbury Marker
Cool.
After the Meeting House, my guide took me to the Phelps Tavern, which is the heart and soul of the museum’s collection of buildings and exhibits. If you’re interested, continue with the Simsbury Historical Society Museum collection in there, here.
Simsbury Historical Society
CTMQ’s Museum Visits
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