Outside the Norm
Vernon Historical Society Outdoor Museum, Vernon (Location)
September 2026
Don’t be confused by the multiple mentions of Rockville below. Rockville is a section of Vernon but it’s one of those place names that residents really, really like to hang on to, so I’ll honor that here.
This is Connecticut museum visit #560.
I visited the Vernon Historical Society Museum 17 and a half years before swinging by again to visit this museum. Or rather, this “museum.”
I have no idea when the fine folks in Vernon decided that their trees and bells and stuff on their grounds constituted a separate outdoor museum, but they did. And here we are.
Does this rise to a museum on its own? Not to my mind… not even close. And to their credit, they do call it a “museum” with scare quotes. But as you all know by now, with CTMQ in its 20th year, if “they” call it a museum, or even a “museum,” it gets the CTMQ treatment.
Over the years, the collection in the Vernon Historical Society’s Museum has grown through the generous donations of members of the community who appreciate local history. In addition to the materials housed within the Society’s building, a number of objects and plantings have been placed on the grounds of our home, the historic Vernon Grange. Several of these items relate to our local history. Others honor members of the community who have supported the mission of the Society or who were active in civic or social organizations in our town.
I swung by late one afternoon to gaze upon this collection. I remembered one thing from my long-ago visit: a big bell in front of the museum. It’s still there. The bell originally hung in the steeple of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Rockville. Then the church moved and the bell lived a pretty fun life for a while.
It was used at Rockville High School football games to ring out after touchdowns. This brought unwanted attention to it from opposing high schools and it was vandalized several times. The school built a protective house for it but it became too much of a pain in the bells so it was given to the Society.
There’s another, smaller, bell here over in “Myrtle’s Garden.” This one is from 1834 from some mill. Bells never die.
Trees die though. So hurry up and get thee down to the Vernon Historical Society Outdoor Museum before their museum pieces (trees) die. I figure you have fifty years or so, but I’m just looking out for you.
There’s the cherry tree in front – which is quite beautiful – donated on an Earth Day by a local women’s group. In the late 1990s, a white oak seedling was given to the Society as part of a state-wide program commemorating an anniversary of Connecticut’s famous Charter Oak.
Soooo… it was just a white oak seedling? C’mon, I love the idea of this place, but it’s just an oak tree! What else y’all got? A Shademaster Locust tree by any chance?
Yes! There is a Shademaster Locust tree here next to the parking area! It was donated by some friends of a couple for their 50th anniversary! The husband, Norman Strong, was active in the community and really liked this species of tree. (It doesn’t require raking, and apparently he appreciated that.)
On the other side of the driveway there’s a Cleveland Pear tree donated in memory of a local surgeon, Dr Howard Abbott, who happened to be married to the museum’s director at the time.
Then there’s Myrtle’s Garden, established in memory of Myrtle Loftus, a lifelong resident and dedicated volunteer. When is the name Myrtle going to come back? So many names have. Still waiting on Myrtle, Gertrude, Dorothy, and Phyllis.
Underneath a statue of Myrtle’s at Puff are two sort of museumish pieces: two cobblestones from Market Street in Rockville. So that’s kind of cool.
Behind the garden, two large stones lie in a “V” formation. These stones originally served as the entrance steps for a tavern along the Tolland Turnpike (Route 30) during the early 1800s when stagecoaches took travelers from Hartford to Tolland.
They include the rhododendron in their museum too, but that’s a bush too far for me. So is the fact that they also include the sign out front. Now don’t get me wrong, the fact that everything in this “museum” was donated by a local resident is fantastic. They all means something to someone and the trees make the place look a heck of a lot better than it would without them.
And I love that Vernon does their own thing here and honors all the donors with a write-up of the “museum,” but my word, if every town history museum starts calling its grounds a “museum,” I’m doomed.
Doomed I tells ya.
Screenshot
Vernon Historical Society
CTMQ’s Museum Visits
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