About the town » Avon, Hartford County, Connecticut, United States

Avon is a town in the Farmington Valley region of Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. As of 2010, the town had a population of 18,098. Avon is a suburb of Hartford. Avon Old Farms School, a prestigious boarding school, is located there. In 2005, Avon was named the third-safest town in America by Money Magazine. It is home to the Pine Grove School House, which was built in 1865 and remains open today as a museum. Avon is home to Avon High School; as well as two elementary schools, Pine Grove Elementary and Roaring Brook Elementary; an intermediate (grades 5–6) school, Thompson Brook; and a middle school (grades 7–8), Avon Middle School. One of the worst traffic accidents in Connecticut history occurred at the intersection of US 44 and Route 10 at the foot of Avon Mountain. This occurred on July 29, 2005, when a runaway dump truck plowed into many stopped vehicles, causing four deaths. Former Governor M. Jodi Rell proposed safety improvements for this road in the aftermath of the accident. A second, nonfatal crash occurred at the same location on September 7, 2007, when a runaway truck crashed into Nassau's Furniture store. Since these accidents, a run-away truck ramp has been built to avoid future fatalities.