Located at 1294 Enfield Street, the Old Town Hall has been a part of Enfield history for over 200 years. Opened on January 1, 1775, the Old Town Hall began its service to the community as the third meetinghouse of the First Ecclesiastical Society. By 1848 overcrowding led to plans to abandon the building. Fortunately, a local businessman, Orrin Thompson, provided funds to save the building and convert it into a town hall. The building was greatly modified at this time; the steeple was removed, the front portico was added, and the balcony was converted into a second floor. In the year that followed, the Old Town Hall was the site of many political rallies, elections, town meetings, and social events. In 1892 a new town hall was opened and the Old Town Hall began to suffer from neglect. Many lean years passed before the Enfield Town Hall Community Association came to the aid of the Old Town Hall in 1923. Through the efforts of that civic group and the Penelope Terry Abbey Chapter of the D.A.R. the building was renovated and opened as a community house. For three decades the Old Town Hall was alive with club meetings, movies, dances , and parties of all kinds. However, during this period maintenance was poor and the building fell into serious disrepair. In 1964 the building was condemned. The end was very near.
Several years of marginally successful attempts to save the building served only to delay demolition. Finally, in 1972, the Enfield Historical Society was able to begin complete restoration of the Old Town Hall. In 1974 the Old Town Hall was placed on the National Historic Register of Historic Places. Eight years of hard work and meticulous attention to detail went into the restoration effort. On September 27, 1980, the building was opened for public inspection. The following year the Old Town Hall Museum opened for regular business.
Today the Old Town Hall is again a center of activity. The main floor and basement house a fine local history museum with an extensive collection of items ranging from bottles to clothing to horse drawn sleighs and even a horse-drawn Shaker hearse. The Hazard gun powder factories, the carpet mills of Thompsonville, and the Shaker settlements of Enfield are all represented in permanent exhibits. Local agriculture is represented by the Raymond C. Abbe (my ancestor) collection of farm implements and tools featured on the lower floor of the museum. Concerts, lectures, demonstrations, and shows enliven the second-floor meeting hall, most open to the public.
Located at the intersection of Wallop School Road and Abbe Road in Enfield, The Wallop School was one of the last one-room school houses in use in Connecticut (my father Ernest L. Oliver attended school here). The original structure, probably of wood, was built in 1754. It was in that year that the local citizens voted to establish school districts. In about 1800 the original structure was destroyed by fire and replaced by the present one-room brick structure. The new school housed several grade levels. It operated continuously until 1947, when its only teacher became ill.
A fire in 1959 severely damaged the unused structure. Anxious to obtain a meeting place, the Enfield Historical Society gained possession of the remaining ruins in 1961. The building was restored to its original character by Society members.
Currently used for periodic Society functions, the school is also available for special tours by appointment only.
Located at 1387 Enfield Street, the Martha Parsons House was built in 1782 by John Meacham. The Parsons house is an unusually well built eighteenth-century home. The hall and south room have particularly good paneling and moldings and the decoration on the staircases is quite distinctive. An interesting and functional cupboard with curved shelves is located in the south room under the stairs and next to the chimney. The kitchen boasts one of the few old brownstone sinks still in use. An unusual feature in this type of house, the hall on the second floor is located to the rear of the front chambers, so that all the chambers open into the hall instead of each other. Obviously built for convenience, the Parsons' House has three stairways. Perhaps the most striking feature of the Parsons' House is the George Washington Memorial wallpaper in the front hall. This paper is found in only one other house in this country in Burlington, Vermont. Each room is fully furnished with furniture and other items passed down through generations of the Parsons family.
The house was willed to the Enfield Historical Society in 1963 and is maintained and managed by the Martha Parsons Memorial Trust.