I Got Phelps’d Up
Simsbury Historical Society, Simsbury
November 2024
Connecticut museum visit #536. If you’re wanting to read about all of the Simsbury Historical Society buildings and exhibits, you’ve landed on the fourth 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.
If you’ve been reading the four pages of this website chronicling my visit to the expansive Simsbury Historical Society complex of museums, you’ve made it to the finish line. Well, you’re nearing it anyway. You still have this page to read.
This is it! The showpiece of the collection! The centerpiece! The Phelps Tavern Museum & Homestead! Congratulations. You’ve seen the Phelps name throughout the previous three Society CTMQ pages and now you get to learn all about the Phelps family and their business here, which existed for half of the time that Simsbury has existed. The funny thing is, this one historic house/tavern museum would be THE museum in many Connecticut towns. But here in Simsbury, there are over a dozen other buildings in the museum complex.
Simsbury does not mess around with its history.
The Phelps house and tavern was owned by five generations of the Phelps family for nearly two hundred years. The building served as family home, canal hotel, lodge meeting site, entertainment hall, and local tavern. From 1786 until 1849, three generations of fathers and sons, and one widow, served as tavern-keepers.
I usually try to not go too deep with genealogies and ownership family trees, but it’s kind of unavoidable here. Built for Elisha Phelps in 1771, the house may include part of an earlier “dwelling” constructed by 1761. The building was a family residence until Noah Phelps, Elisha Phelps’ brother, acquired a tavern license in 1786. His son Noah A. Phelps ran the tavern from around 1805 until his death in 1817. His widow Charlotte operated the tavern herself until her son, Jeffery Phelps, purchased the property in 1820.
Shout out to Charlotte – not just for keeping the business running as a woman in the early 19th century, but also for selling it to her son and not just giving it to him. Gotta teach the boy some business lessons from the outset I suppose.
Jeffery Phelps ran the tavern for 29 years, closing the business in 1849 to devote himself to agriculture and other interests. The building was remodeled in 1879 and 1915 by resident family members, and remained a family home until it was given to the Simsbury Historical Society in 1962 as a gift by Mary Phelps Ensign Lovejoy. The last family occupants were the family of Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey O. Phelps, 4th.
That’s a lot of Phelps. And you surely noticed the Ensign name as involved in the bequeathment. Huh. This website software accepts bequeathment as a word. Turns out that it is a word, even though I thought I was making it up. Anyway, yes, the Simsbury Historical Society largely exists because of Phelpses and Ensigns (of Ensign-Bickford fame). I’m not sure about the Bickfords though, they don’t seem to be as charitable.
The estate is now, of course, a museum. The Society has set it up in such a way that you could take three different tours here in a sense. There’s the house/Inn itself which would satisfy plenty of other historical societies. Then the period rooms and interactive exhibits and galleries interpret the use of the house as an inn from 1786 to 1849. Three successive generations of the Phelps tavern-keepers are chronicled along with the social history of taverns in New England. From Masonic meetings to ordination balls, the Phelps Tavern hosted townspeople and travelers who arrived by horse, stagecoach and canal.
The canal… there is a whole room dedicated to the failed New Haven and Northampton Canal line which passed right in front of the tavern. Ground was broken for the canal in 1825 and by 1828 the canal was open from New Haven to Farmington. By 1835 the complete route to Northampton was finished and operating. It never made the canal operators money and was replaced by the railroad in 1848.
But it was good for tavern owners like the Phelps’ along the way for the short time it was open. In addition to the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail that splits and courses through town, there is one remaining stretch of original canal that exists, right off of Old Canal Way of course.
My tour was nice. What was funny about it is that I got the typical Historic House Museum Lite Tour – which is not a knock on my docent, as it’s what I asked for.
I almost always ask for that, since I’ve been to over 100 of these places. The open hearths, the pantry, the women’s work, the sleep-tight beds, the bedpans, etc. I got all of that, sure, but the Phelps Tavern is much more than that! I figured I’d take pictures of the signs talking about the local and specific Phelps-y things, but in the end, I missed a lot of that stuff.
Which is fine. It was stuff about caloric intakes in the early 1800’s. The amount of ingredients needed to feed a tavern-full of traveling men. The games people played. The Battle of Ticonderoga. Y’know, Phelps stuff.
We went upstairs to see the bedrooms – I do like to learn that back in the day, weary travelers were forced to share beds with random other weary travelers. There’s a ballroom of sorts with an amazing arched ceiling which is the one thing I wish I had a picture of. Local organizations hold meetings in this room now so I figured I’d find one online elsewhere. I have not.
Again, it’s funny… this beautifully restored, large, historic house, absolutely brimming with stories, would be more than enough for most small towns in Connecticut. But here, it was simply a stop along the way during my afternoon of touring the Simsbury Historical Society Museum complex.
But don’t be intimidated! You can pick and choose what you want to see more in depth for the most part. Even I didn’t go into the schoolhouse, for example. And you would be better-served going in the spring or summer, which the gardens throughout the grounds are in full bloom.
There are several of them, initiated/started by various organizations and people – yes, often with a Phelps or Ensign or both surname – and they are cared for by volunteers. I visited in March and November like a bum.
Don’t be like me.
Simsbury Historical Society
CTMQ’s Museum Visits
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