Nellie McKnight Museum    
Open Thursdays 1 - 4     May - October
Nellie McKnight left her home and all it's contents to the Ellington Historical Society to use as a museum. 

The museum is open during the Fair on the Green,  at Winterfest, and during other special events.

The museum is also open by appointment.

Directions to the museum.

Nellie was born the second of six children on July 22, 1894 on her father's farm in Ellington CT in the house her grandfather built in 1850 at the intersection of Sadds Mill Road and Muddy Brook Road. Educated in the local schools, she was graduated from Rockville High School in 1913.  Nellie attended Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley MA and graduated in 1917.

Nellie taught school until 1929 when she returned to Ellington and became the librarian of  the Hall Memorial Library until her retirement in 1967.

The Nellie E. McKnight  Museum, formerly owned by the McKnight family, was built in 1812 in the Federalist style by the Sexton family.  It has eight rooms and originally had seven fireplaces.  Purchased by Howard McKnight (Nellie's father) on December 22, 1922, it was occupied by the McKnight family until Nellie's death in 1981 when it was bequeathed to the Ellington Historical Society to be used as a museum.

The major renovations occurred in the 1920's when central heating, plumbing, wiring, hardwood floors, new ceilings and wall paper were added. Two fireplaces were removed and an archway was installed to connect the two adjoining rooms. Of special interest in the house is the decorative wall stenciling in the kitchen dating from the 1830's.

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