Experience the holidays as the McCook family would have celebrated them and hear stories from their rich memories, along with a display of special items from the museum’s collection, as we close out our 2025 season. America's Tapestry will also be stitching at the Butler-McCook House & Garden during this open tour day!
Taking place during the Butler-McCook House & Garden's Open Tour Day, stitchers from America’s Tapestry will be joined by local artists from Hartford Stitch for an afternoon of fun, creativity, and history. Join us to stitch history together! America’s Tapestry is a nationwide community project featuring 13 hand-embroidered panels, one for each of the original colonies, depicting diverse stories from the American Revolution. Each panel is crafted by volunteers from New Hampshire to Georgia, and visitors are invited to contribute their own stitches to the Connecticut panel. All materials will be provided! While you're here, explore the museum’s holiday display and its permanent collection, which includes beautiful embroideries and period archives that bring the revolutionary era to life.
Suffield’s South Main Street bears a particular charm as the holidays approach. Join our costumed guides as they transport guests to the time before electricity illuminated our homes to see the “grand dames” of this historic thoroughfare festively lit and decorated to celebrate the season. Offered in collaboration with the Suffield Historical Society.
Suffield’s South Main Street bears a particular charm as the holidays approach. Join our costumed guides as they transport guests to the time before electricity illuminated our homes to see the “grand dames” of this historic thoroughfare festively lit and decorated to celebrate the season. Offered in collaboration with the Suffield Historical Society.
This holiday season, we will celebrate with Julia and Charlotte Isham in the 1950s and 60s as the Isham-Terry House is transformed into a mid-century delight! Enjoy colored trees, tons of tinsel, and starbursts galore during special tours of the house. Tours will be available on the hour, with the last tour at 3 pm.
Enjoy Vince Guaraldi’s holiday classics “Linus and Lucy” and “Christmastime is Here” from A Charlie Brown Christmas, featuring the Andrew Wilcox Trio. Entry for the performance will be at 1:45 pm. Step back into a mid-century wonderland during special tours of the Isham-Terry House available as an add-on at 1 pm and 3 pm.
Visit the Hempsted Houses to join stitchers from America’s Tapestry and local artists from Hartford Stitch for a morning of fun, creativity, and history. Join us to stitch history together - no experience required!
Join Bob Van Dyke, director of the CT Valley School of Woodworking (Manchester, CT) as he demonstrates the making of more common inlays that were used in 18th-century furniture shops. Guests will have the opportunity to study pieces from the Phelps-Hatheway collection.
Stop into Phelps-Hatheway's Visitor Center for the Season of Change art exhibition by Laurie Tavino and Ray Pioggia. In this exhibit, photographic and hand-rendered images in color and monochrome depict scenes and themes from locations throughout Suffield - a number of which are views that no longer exist.
May 4th marks the 200th birthday of Frederic Edwin Church. Not only was Hartford the birthplace of this renown Hudson River School painter, but the city was also integral to the birth of American art thanks to Daniel Wadsworth and his patronage. On this walk, we'll discuss Church and other Hartford-connected artists, such as Cole, Bierstadt, Wheeler, Tryon and more. Following the walk, the 2 pm tour of the Butler-McCook House will focus on the Butler and McCook families as art lovers.
Visit the Butler-McCook House & Garden, the only 18th-century home remaining on Hartford’s Main Street, for a guided tour to learn about the McCook family, who loved music, art, and travel through explorations of the museum’s collections which include paintings, Japanese samurai armor, furniture, and toys.
New for 2026! Explore Hartford's Revolutionary past in this walk and talk in the south end with Connecticut Landmarks' Jana Colacino and Ruth Shapleigh Brown of the Connecticut Gravestone Network.
When you think of the Bellamy-Ferriday House & Garden, you think of lilacs. Each spring, the stunning variety of lilacs curated by Caroline Ferriday and her mother scent the gardens and show off their fleeting blossoms in shades of purples, pinks, and even whites. Tour the gardens to learn about the long history of the lilacs on the property and how we care for them.
Honor those special maternal figures in your life with a celebration like no other at Phelps-Hatheway's Mother’s Day Tea! Sample exquisite bites created especially for Phelps-Hatheway by Chef Reneé of Blonde on the Run Catering, accompanied by steaming pots of Harney and Sons tea. Tea service will begin with a brief explanation of our favorite beverage’s role in both world and domestic history and will end with a glimpse into the lives of the women who called the property home since 1761.
When you think of the Bellamy-Ferriday House & Garden, you think of lilacs. Each spring, the stunning variety of lilacs curated by Caroline Ferriday and her mother scent the gardens and show off their fleeting blossoms in shades of purples, pinks, and even whites. Tour the gardens to learn about the long history of the lilacs on the property and how we care for them.