The luxurious lifestyle enjoyed by two wealthy eighteenth-century Connecticut Valley families - until their fortunes collapsed - is displayed in the Phelps-Hatheway House & Garden.

Merchant Shem Burbank built the house in 1761. As a Tory sympathizer, his business suffered during the American Revolution. In 1788 he sold the house to Oliver Phelps, who in 1794 flaunted the riches he had earned from land investments in western New York by adding a wing, an architectural masterpiece that still features original Paris-made wallpaper. Eight years later, Phelps left Suffield, bankrupted by his failed land schemes.

The house is furnished with outstanding eighteenth-century Connecticut furniture and landscaped with formal flower beds. The Hatheway family owned the house throughout the 1800s, accumulating an attic full of artifacts that document life during that century.