Town HallWelcome to the Suffield Historical Society website.

We are a group of over 250 members who share an interest in American history in general and New England history in particular. Meetings are held at the Kent Memorial Library on the third Wednesday of the month, September to November and March to June, for lectures, historical entertainments, and other programs. The public is invited.

The Society owns and operates the King House Museum, which is open to members free and to the public for a small fee on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons from May through September. Built in 1764 by Dr. Alexander King, an influential figure in Suffield history, the museum's period rooms house an excellent collection of local furnishings. The gallery rooms contain a fine exhibit of local tobacco growing and cigar manufacturing history, as well as significant special collections of early flasks and bottles, embroidery samplers, Bennington pottery, Suffield postcards, and other local memorabilia.

First National Bank

An old stable at the museum houses a number of early carriages and sleighs and an expanding collection of the larger pieces used locally in growing and processing tobacco. The stable is not in condition to be open to the public, and the Society is in the early stages of planning a new museum building. As now conceived, the new facility would exhibit Suffield history more generally as well as provide a suitable showcase for many items in our present collection, with space for archival storage and future acquisitions.

The Society sponsors an annual spring bus trip to nearby places of historical interest and opens the King House Museum for a special holiday exhibit on the first weekend of December. The museum's Curator, Town Historian Lester Smith, assembles a monthly column in The Suffield Observer excerpting news items from "100 Years Ago in Suffield." (He can sometimes answer inquiries about local history, but genealogical questions are best addressed to the Kent Memorial Library, which offers an excellent historical and genealogical collection.)

Main Street

We welcome new members and offer, besides the programs and trips mentioned above, opportunities to volunteer as a museum docent or as an occasional helper during special events and in work parties at the museum. At the present time, we particularly need help in producing the Society newsletter that we hope to initiate.

Most importantly, we offer the opportunity to learn and socialize with like-minded friends and neighbors.