Upcoming Tours & Lectures
Ye Trodden Path: A History of the Knox Trail
Join us on Sunday, November 1, 2026, from 1:00-2:30 PM at the Avon Senior Center, 635 West Avon Road (https://www.avonct.gov/community/senior_center/index.php) for an entertaining, memorable presentation with Ronald Bernard, past president of the Farmington Historical Society. Bernard will bring to life the largely untold story of Colonel Henry Knox and an epic event on an ancient Indian trailway that changed the course of the American Revolution. Admission is $5, payable at the door.
For more information, contact Joanne Lawson, jlawson@fhs-ct.org.
Previous Tours & Lectures
FEATURED PAST PRESENTATION
Why They Came: Stories of Immigration to the Farmington Valley
Sponsored by CT Humanities, FVHN’s "Why They Came" program in November 2023 offered a personal perspective on the people who shaped our towns. The program took place in two parts. Enjoy the wonderful videos taken of both sessions!
Part One featured stories from the Avon Historical Society ("Prince Thomas of Savoy"), the Farmington Historical Society (Asian immigrants), Stanley-Whitman House ("The Legacy of Mrs. Julia Roper"), and the Unionville Museum ("The Irish in Unionville"). Click on the image to watch the video.
Part Two featured stories from the Barkhamsted Historical Society ("A German Immigrant Family Takes Over One of Barkhamsted’s Biggest Farms"), the Canton Historical Museum (“Farmington Valley Immigration 1830-1920”), the Salmon Brook Historical Society ("Granby to the White House"), and the Simsbury Historical Society ("Frank Zablocki, Polish Immigration, and the Industrialization of Simsbury"). Click on the image to watch the video.
Additional Past Programs
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![A Granby Haunting]()
Lively Lore & Legends: Fact or Fiction?
APRIL 2022: Part one of a three-part bus tour series exploring the legends of the Farmington Valley.
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![Hill-Stead farm staff with some of the bones excavated, 1913. Allen B. Cook Collection, Archives, Hill-Stead Museum]()
The Pope-Farmington Mastodon
NOVEMBER 2022: Dr. Nicholas F. Bellatoni offers a dramatic look into Post-Glacial times and CT’s first inhabitants in this fascinating lecture.
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![Unionville Depot and Train]()
Lively Lore & Legends: Fact or Fiction?
APRIL 2023: Part two of a three-part bus tour series exploring the legends of the Farmington Valley.
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![Theodate Pope Riddle (Hill-Stead Museum Archives)]()
Lively Lore & Legends: Fact or Fiction?
APRIL 2024: Part three of a three-part bus tour series exploring the legends of the Farmington Valley.
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![Myrtle Mills Annex historic sign]()
The History of Myrtle Mills Factory Store
NOVEMBER 2024: Tim LeBouthillier revisits the fascinating journey of Myrtle Mills Factory Store, from its early beginnings to its post-war retail innovations and eventual closure in the mid-1970s.
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![A postcard of Main Street, Collinsville, CT in the early 1900s]()
Way Back When: A Witness to History
APRIL 2025: Part 1 of a 4-part bus tour series offering a fascinating peek, from diaries and interviews, into everyday life in the 1870s to 1920s.
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![John Trumbull, The Declaration of Independence painting]()
Painting Patriotism, Healing Wounds
NOVEMBER 2025: CT State Historian emeritus Walter Woodward discusses the art and struggles of Col. John Trumbull (1756-1843), who painted iconic images of the Revolutionary War.
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![Lebanon Towne Militia 2026]()
Way Back When: Witnesses to the Revolution
APRIL 2026: Relive the Farmington Valley’s Experience in the American Revolution in Part 2 of our bus tour series.
