Simsbury, Connecticut | ||
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Town | ||
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Location in Hartford County, Connecticut |
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Coordinates: 41°52′14″N 72°49′31″W / 41.87056°N 72.82528°WCoordinates: 41°52′14″N 72°49′31″W / 41.87056°N 72.82528°W | ||
Country | United States | |
State | Connecticut | |
NECTA | Hartford | |
Region | Capitol Region | |
Named | 1670 | |
Government | ||
• Type | Selectman-town meeting | |
• First selectman | Lisa Heavner (D) | |
• Selectmen | Sean P. Askham (R) Cheryl B. Cook (R) Mike R. Paine (R) Elaine Lang (D) Chris M. Kelly (D) |
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Area | ||
• Total | 34.3 sq mi (88.8 km2) | |
• Land | 33.9 sq mi (87.9 km2) | |
• Water | 0.4 sq mi (1.0 km2) | |
Elevation | 233 ft (71 m) | |
Population (2010) | ||
• Total | 23,511 | |
Time zone | Eastern (UTC-5) | |
• Summer (DST) | Eastern (UTC-4) | |
ZIP code | 06070, 06081, 06089, 06092 | |
Area code(s) | 860 | |
FIPS code | 09-68940 | |
GNIS feature ID | 0213506 | |
Website | www |
Simsbury is a suburban town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 23,513 at the 2010 census. The town was incorporated as Connecticut's twenty-first town in May 1670. Simsbury was named the 4th best town in Connecticut on Connecticut Magazines list of top places to live 2013 and 9th best town to live in 2015 in the United States by Time magazine.
Simsbury boasts a highly recognized educational system. In 2016 Simsbury High School ranked 4th best high school in CT by Niche and 9th by U.S. News & World Report. The suburb also houses multiple private schools including The Ethel Walker School, Westminster School, The Master's School, St. Mary's Elementary School, and The Cobb Montessori School.
Simsbury built the Simsbury Meadows Performing Arts Center in 2005.
At the beginning of the 17th century, the area today known as Simsbury was inhabited by indigenous peoples. The Wappinger were one of these groups, composed of eighteen bands, organized not as formally as a tribe, but more of an association, like the Delaware. These bands lived between the Hudson and Connecticut rivers. The Wappingers were one of the Algonquian peoples, a linguistic grouping which includes hundreds of tribes. One of the Wappinger bands, the Massaco, lived near, but mostly west of what is now called the Farmington River, the area now known as Simsbury and Canton. The river was called the Massaco by the native inhabitants. The term Massaco may refer to the indigenous peoples, the river itself, the village occupied by the indigenous peoples, and the land adjacent to the river.
In 1633, Windsor was the second town in Connecticut settled by Europeans and the first English settlement (the first European settlement being Huys de Goede Hoop, established by the Dutch in the Hartford area as a frontier settlement for the New Netherland Colony ten years earlier). For some time, the area of Massaco was considered "an appendix to the towne of Windsor." Settlers in Windsor forested and farmed in the area, but did not come to Massaco permanently for a number of years. In 1642, the General Court [of the colony of Connecticut] ordered that: