Avon’s high gloss finish polished over more than four decades of steady commercial and residential growth, gives it a coveted contemporary suburban lifestyle. It is the Valley’s highest income town and has the highest average home sale price.

The town’s convenient location for commuters, an excellent school system and a relatively reasonable tax rate add to its allure. But, despite the constant pressures for new development, Avon has managed to maintain and enhance many of the best features of its heritage.

Settled in 1645, Avon was originally part of Farmington. In 1750 it became a separate parish, known as Northington, and in 1830 it was incorporated and named after the Avon River in England. Most of Avon’s early residents were dairy or tobacco farmers. Later, the Climax Fuse Company, which became part of Ensign Bickford, drew immigrant factory workers to town and left a legacy of historic brownstone buildings along Route 44 that have been recycled for an assortment of uses, including municipal government offices, boutiques and the Farmington Valley Arts Center.

Enter Avon from the east on Route 44, a steep drop off Talcott Mountain (locally called Avon Mountain), and the town’s rich history and contemporary charisma unfold ahead. The Avon Old Farms Inn (c.1757), once a stagecoach stop on the Albany Turnpike, has polished up all its Colonial features, added a state-of-the-art conference center, and serves nice New American cuisine. The Avon Old Farms Hotel, right across the pike, offers top-notch accommodations, a sophisticated wedding venue and Seasons, one of the Valley’s best restaurants.

Apple Health and Women’s Health share part of the Routes 44 and 10/202 intersection with the hotel. Apple’s Foley-family imprint continues across the road with its Blue Fox Run golf course and a tastefully developed office complex that includes Saint Francis Care and other medical facilities.
Right next door, at the Pickin’ Patch, the Woodfords have for centuries cultivated the Valley’s most fertile acreage, producing a bountiful selection of field-fresh fruits, vegetables and nursery stock.

The intersection of Routes 44 and 10 is also a good place to launch your canoe along the serene, six-mile stretch of family-friendly Farmington River flat water that heads to Simsbury from here. Straight ahead, over the bridge, is the always busy Max a Mia, the Valley’s most consistently excellent restaurant. Across the street is Carmen Anthony’s Fish House; a well-appointed operation perched above the designer boutiques at 51 East.

Just up the hill, Old Avon Village is a cluster of specialty shops and eateries housed in freestanding historic buildings. The old village—Avon’s original town center—spreads out around the junction of Routes 10 and 44 where planners are working to create a distinctive town center in and around some of the town’s landmarks. Recently assembled is a group of nifty boutiques called The Shops at Avon Green.

Housed in an old Colonial next door is local favorite First and Last Tavern that serves mostly Italian comfort food. Across the road The Coffee Trade, a landmark in its own right, has served the Valley’s best coffee for as long as most can remember.

more...