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In July 1741 the preacher Jonathan Edwards delivered his fiery sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God to a congregation in Enfield, and the town has been part of American history books ever since. Set on the east bank of the Connecticut River at the Massachusetts line, Enfield is a town of about 42,000 halfway between Hartford and Springfield.
Its villages tell an industrial story. Thompsonville grew around giant carpet mills, whose brick buildings still stand near the river, while Hazardville produced gunpowder in the mills of Powder Hollow, a major supplier to Union forces during the Civil War. A Shaker community also farmed here for more than a century.
The Enfield Historical Society keeps the past close with the 1775 Old Town Hall, the 18th-century Martha A. Parsons House and a one-room schoolhouse, and Scantic River State Park offers wooded river trails. Bradley International Airport lies just across the river, and the Connecticut Trolley Museum is a few minutes south.
A white clapboard meetinghouse built in 1775 on Enfield Street, used for town meetings and worship and now a museum of the Enfield Historical Society, with exhibits on local Shakers, mills and early town life. Open on Sunday afternoons in the warmer months; check the society calendar before going.
An 18th-century house on Enfield Street that stayed in the same family for nearly two centuries, left to the town by Martha Parsons with its furniture, china and keepsakes intact. Guided tours reveal everyday life across generations. It is run by the historical society with seasonal open days.
A restored one-room schoolhouse from the 1800s, moved and preserved by the Enfield Historical Society, with wooden desks, slates and a teacher's stove that show how local children once learned. It opens on select days alongside the Old Town Hall. School groups visit often, so it suits families.
The site of the Hazard Powder Company along the Scantic River in Hazardville, once one of the country's largest gunpowder makers and a major supplier to Union forces in the Civil War. Stone foundations and mill ruins lie along wooded paths. Read the signs and stay off the old walls.
A narrow state park following the Scantic River through Enfield and neighboring towns, with wooded trails, riverbanks for fishing and paddling stretches in spring. It is quiet and lightly used, and the Powder Hollow area makes a good starting point. Expect muddy trails after rain.
Enfield's riverside village that grew around the Bigelow-Hartford carpet mills, with large brick mill buildings converted to apartments, old churches such as St. Adalbert and the Pearl Street library. Walk the streets near the river to see the mill architecture, then look across to the old rail bridge.
The oldest operating trolley museum in the country, founded in 1940 and set a short drive south of Enfield in East Windsor, with a collection of restored streetcars and rides along a few miles of track. Kids can see inside the car barns, and seasonal events include a winter lights ride.
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