Editing Avon, Connecticut (section)

==History==
At the end of the [[Last Glacial Period|last Ice Age]], {{circa}}12,400 years [[Before Present|BP]] of the [[Younger Dryas]], nomadic peoples built a campsite adjacent to the river that would become known as the [[Farmington River]]. They were apparently the first people to populate the region that would become known as southern [[New England]], including the region that would become Avon. Over the [[Paleoindian]] period the site was revisted multiple times by other nomadic peoples until it gradually became buried by [[sediment]] from the river's occasional flooding. In the winter of 2019, the campsite remains were excavated in Avon, along with stone tools and artifacts constructed from materials in neighboring regions.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://portal.ct.gov/DOT/CTDOT-Press-Releases/2019/CTDOT-ARCHAEOLOGICAL-INVESTIGATIONS-ENCOUNTER-EARLY-NATIVE-AMERICAN-SITE-IN-TOWN-OF-AVON |title=CTDOT ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS ENCOUNTER EARLY NATIVE AMERICAN SITE IN TOWN OF AVON |last= |first= |date=January 27, 2020 |website=Connecticut Department of Transportation |publisher=Ct.gov |language=en |access-date=January 28, 2023}}</ref>

Avon was settled by Europeans in 1645 and was originally a part of neighboring [[Farmington, Connecticut|Farmington]].  In 1750, the parish of Northington was established in the northern part of Farmington, to support a Congregational church more accessible to the local population.  Its first pastor was Ebenezer Booge, a graduate of [[Yale Divinity School]] who arrived in 1751. The Farmington Canal's opening in 1828 brought new business to the village, which sat where the canal intersected the Talcott Mountain Turnpike linking Hartford to Albany, New York. Hopes of industrial and commercial growth spurred Avon to incorporate. In 1830, the Connecticut General Assembly incorporated Northington as the town of Avon, after [[Avon (county)|County Avon]] in England.  Such expansion never came and, in the 1900s, the rural town became a suburban enclave.

In the 1960s Avon rejected the proposal for [[Interstate 291 (Connecticut)|Interstate 291]] coming through the southern edge of the town and successfully denied the expressway going through the town.

[[U.S. Route 44#Connecticut|U.S. Route 44]] passes through a section of [[Talcott Mountain]] known as Avon Mountain, between Avon and [[West Hartford, Connecticut|West Hartford]].  Several vehicle crashes prompted the state to modify Route 44 for safety.{{cn|date=December 2024}}