This multi-used path was formerly a railroad track, used over time by both passenger and freight trains. The building perpendicular to the street replaces an earlier structure, a barn/tobacco warehouse. Growers brought tobacco there to store until shipment via rail to cigar manufacturers in the South.
In more recent history, from 1956-1963, a nearby site was the base for launching Nike Ajax surface to air missiles. Named for the Greek goddess of victory, the Nike program established some 250 sites around the nation, with 13 in Connecticut.
Nike HA-85 Avon/Simsbury was operated by the U.S. Army, with a launch site in Simsbury and a radar control site in Avon on Talcott Mountain. Both were manned 24x7, and included on-site barracks. Nike Ajax sites were eventually either converted to launch Hercules missiles, carrying nuclear warheads, or they were de-commissioned, as in Simsbury.
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