A, B, C! School – house 3! R-I-P!
Avon History Museum, Avon (Location)
December 2025
Connecticut museum visit #552.
For many years, this page started thusly:
This museum will remain “closed” for the foreseeable future. In the world of historical museums, progress can be quite slow. Glacial even.
To wit, this one room schoolhouse was built in 1823. It was used until 1949. It was almost razed in 1981, but was saved as part of the Avon Historical Society cadre of museums. Then it closed in 2018.
It’s set to reopen in – checks calendar – 2023.
Boarded up in 2019.
It didn’t open in 2023 or in the summer of 2025 as promised. A few inspections fell short which pushed its grand re-opening to Labor Day weekend of 2025.
And here we are… it’s fully renovated, open, and ready for you to visit. The 200+ year old one-room schoolhouse in the center of Avon, right on busy Route 44, has been transformed from “just another” old schoolhouse to a modern town history museum.
Schoolhouse No. 3, as it was known, was originally built over on what is now Country Club Road where the town’s library is located today. Students attended there from 1823 to 1938 and today it stands as Avon’s oldest building.
When it was threatened with demolition in 1981 to make room for that library, the Society and others funded its dismantling, relocation, and restoration to its current location.
And the Society has done an amazing job with converting it into a historical museum. They cover the history of Avon from the Tunxis tribe through the 20th-century. There’s also a nice sign in front of the building and the fresh paint job looks great.
Also great? An explanation of the Farmington Canal that passed right through next to the building. You know we love our Farmington Canal references here. (The Farmington Canal
At that time we plan to display Native American artifacts, textiles, signs, farm implements and many more items from the early days of Avon’s agrarian settlement. The site also houses drawings from the 1840’s showing the architectural renderings of the Farmington Canal as well as a topographical diorama of the canal through Avon showing the exact specifications of how it was built in town. The Farmington Canal operated from 1835-1847 and crossed the Albany Turnpike at this very site. In 2012 two plaques showing the crossing location are next to the schoolhouse and across E. Main Street (Route 44) at the entrance of the current daCapo’s restaurant.
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