Loved the CHEM 101: The Science of Photography exhibit. The Salon and reception for the CHEM…read moreexhibit was fabulous. I got to meet the talented artists who contributed to the exhibit. The museum is on the UCONN campus and it is free admission but they accept donations. Excellent staff at the museum. Enjoyed two very pleasant evenings at the Benton. Definitely worth a visit and nice place to bring the kids.

From the owner: The Benton is Connecticut's State Art Museum, located on the University of Connecticut campus at…read moreStorrs. The museum draws largely from its collection of over 6,000 works to present exhibitions of art dating from the 15th-21st centuries. Special events include lectures, gallery talks, art forums, campus art walks, music performances, and family programs. Admission is FREE.

The Roseland Cottage is truly a beautiful historical gem in CT! I recently took a tour of the house…read moreand it was super interesting. Though the grounds are always open to visitors, guided tours of the house are only available June through mid-October, Thursday-Sunday from 11AM-3PM, every hour on the hour. Timed tickets can be purchased online in advance (and this is recommended). Adult admission is $20. Once I arrived, I was greeted by staff who were very friendly. The tour guide, MaryLou, took me through the house and explained the history of Henry Bowen (the original resident of the house) and his family. She was extremely knowledgeable and it was very interesting! The tour was supposed to last around an hour, but she went for about an hour and 15 minutes. After the tour you are free to roam the grounds and take photos, and there's also a small gift shop. Non-flash photography is allowed inside the house, but no video. Overall I found this to be a really beautiful historical spot in Woodstock, CT and would definitely recommend taking a tour!

My husband and I had our wedding here, the place was absolutely beautiful and that is the only…read morething that made the venue worth it. Laurie the women who handles Roseland cottage, on the other hand ended up being a bit difficult as our wedding got closer and closer. Sadly on the rehearsal day and wedding day she was rude and did things that we did not agree upon or said she wasn't going to do. She made herself seem understanding up until those days. She gave me sass remarks and honestly made the rehearsal day and wedding day more stressful. The only thing that made it worth it, like I said, was the beautiful venue. But Laurie in the end did make things feel way more stressful and difficult. Our catering was wonderful though, I could not have asked to better catering. They handled Laurie and everything else with class. Thank you renees Bistro.

Outstanding opening with live artillery (Brown's Company) and flint-lock firings. This was all I…read moreaddition to some great docent work within the museum itself!! Please do not miss this gem of history moments from Route 395!

A MOST excellent tour today, Filled with fun facts, entertaining banter and our family…read morehistory--This Family of America was born here-- where our government developed, was fought for and ever evolving from--straight up from the floor boards....I enjoyed walking where Washington walked, -wondering whose DNA might still be on me right now---I remain amazed !!! Thank you--Cam and Greg for saving this treasure trove of American History!

Samuel Slater Experience recently had a community day and my husband and I went to check it out…read more This was amazing! I can't believe what a beautiful job that they did with this. It was so professional and I was pleasantly surprised how much we enjoyed it. I highly recommend visiting!

Fantastic exhibit explaining how Samuel Slater came from England and modernized the textile…read moreindustry. Very nice use of period props and modern video to tell the story in an inviting and interesting way. Worth the visit.

You should travel from far and wide to experience the visual fiesta of fair-trade arts & crafts at…read morethe Mansfield Art Center!! This is a truly local, small, family run business and the owners/shopkeepers have quite the tales to tell... The goods and crafts sold at the Arts Center are collected by the owners who have traveled to all these destinations around the world making connections with the artisans . The items here are more unique and vibrant than I see at a lot of boutique craft/jewelry shops and there is usually an interesting story the shopkeepers can tell about where the items come from/who made them. Just perusing the store feels like a trip around the world (or at least Epcot ) and is genuinely fun. Most locals know to come here for their Holiday gifts though I live in Boston and make a point to come every year! The store is typically open only seasonally as owners are traveling much of the rest of the year- so make it happen this Christmas season. Some good restaurants in nearby Willimantic, UConn on the other side, and the subtle beauty of the Quiet Corner of CT makes a stop here a lovely day trip. Check it out!

The perfect place to find a gift for almost anyone. I did much of my Christmas shopping here and…read moreeveryone loved their gifts. This is the place to find unique gifts and jewlery from all over the world. The owners go all over the world and come back with beautiful items to sell at a very fair price. I love the set up of this store also- differant sections for differant countries from India to Mexico to China. Also, the owners are so friendly. You will most definetly be offered free tea and maybe even cookies too when shopping.

We love Biomes! It's definitely an eclectic mashups of aquatic animals, but entertaining for sure…read more They do a good job at setting up things from all ages, whether your kid is only 2 or 10. We had my son's birthday party here in the fall and it was wonderful. They open at noon because the earlier slot is reserved for birthday parties. It's super nice to have the whole place to yourself for a very reasonable price. There is a guided tour and the kids get to see all sorts of animal feeds along the way. A great spot to spend some time on a rainy or freezing day, or to host a party for an aquatic creature lover.

This was my first time at Biomes and I was highly impressed! The outside looks pretty unassuming,…read morebut inside is super cool! They have a wide diversity of fish, reptiles, and even a couple of ferrets! I appreciated the focus around our local biodiversity and found my visit to be educational. They have many different touch tanks, including horseshoe crabs, eels, rays, and a huge sulcata tortoise. It's a nice, open space. They also have a small area with tons of cool books for kids and adults. Biomes offers birthday parties as well complete with animal feeding opportunities and a guided tour.

Awesome Clam Strips made to order hot fresh tender crispy craggly coating. Good quality tat tar…read moresauce on the side. The Chicken tenders are made fresh not frozen and awesome Hand Cut Fries are sweet and delicious! Well done! Probably best clam strips around . Must try. Highly recommend! Next time will take photos to share

An honest review......Let me start with the positive…read more It's a beautiful place. It's well cared for. Beautifully manicured. Nice plantings and nice things to see. They even have a nice area for kids to play and a little raised up covered deck for live music. A tiny Antiques shop in it's own out building. They had two porta potties that were also clean which was nice. They had picnic tables and little bistro tables set up throughout. Nice plantings and a large boulder painted like a frog. The service was friendly. They were busy. The area was well kept. They had a station for trash and recycling and it was organized. Our order was easily placed through square and my recipt was texted to me. All that was great! Now for the not so great.... Our food. It was flavorless. For four of us: * Bowl of New England clam chowder.... It was very watery. No creaminess and the flavor was meh... boring. There was hardly any clams or potatoes. I ate only half of it and tossed the rest. * onion rings, out of all the items we ordered we liked these the best. They were crispy. And has some flavor. * 3 clam fritters- we're not sure what the batter was, if I were to completely guess, wheat based batter, it was brown inside and out. Doughy inside, crispy on the outside but no flavor, hardly any clams in them. They did LOOK big and nice though. But still, no flavor. We didn't finish them. * mushroom and Swiss burger with fries. Their attempt at home made fries was a nice touch but the fries were soggy. Not crispy. The burger had no flavor but it was juicy. The standard roll was ok. * 1 kids meal burger (with fries) my son only ate the meat and tomato and was also not impressed with the soggy fries. * Texas toast grilled cheese sandwich, the main complaint was there was no flavor. We ordered 1 water and 3 sodas. Our bill was almost $70.00 We did not order icecream like we had originally planned. We went elsewhere. The reason being they only serve icecream in soft serve. And also considering we were not too thrilled with our food. Over all, great atmosphere! It is a nice family place. But the food needs improvement in our opinions. For Atmosphere we give 5 stars For food we give 2 stars. We believe in supporting small businesses. And we give credit where it is due. And give our best honest reviews. We hope that frog rock takes our review as kind criticism. We can clearly see they love their business. But we were not impressed with the food.

I had never heard of this museum, but I got a tour as part of training for the visitor center…read more I am so glad I went. The house is an immaculate Victorian piece with over 25 rooms and about 3 stories. Wayne, our tour guide was very knowledgeable and he said that many times, people with specific interests come to the museum to learn more about certain pieces (people come to learn about clocks, rugs, paintings, wood furniture, Asian pieces, bathrooms, etc). The museum has been used in several TV shows like The Gilded Age and Treasures Inside The Museum. General entrance is $12 per adult and the best thing is to call them to schedule a tour. Well worth it.

Stunning architecture, furniture, and history behind this high design Victorian house. Our tour…read moreguide was a family member and so wonderfully passionate and fun! Enjoyed the tour and recommend anyone to visit!!

Excellent tour and tour guide by Joan DiMartino, Museum Director and Curator. Joan is a spell…read morebinding extremely knowledgeable lecturer with a vast repository of historical data about the life and times of Prudence Crandall. Prudence Crandall was a Quaker who opened the first school of color for girls in the state of CT in 1831. The school faced exordinary opposition and persecution from the local town government and citizenry of Canterbury. Town merchants refused to sell the school supplies; mobs of town folks broke windows, threw eggs, garbage, poisoned the well with manure and eventually tried to burn the school down. She was arrested and spent a night in jail for starting a school of color without first securing permission from the town council. Prudence was tried 2 times at the state level but was acquitted, it was the first civil rights trails in America. CT passed the Black Laws in 1834 denied black students an education without local town approval which in most cases would not be granted. She and her students eventually were driven out of town and the school closed. Her court case impacted the 13th,14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall cited the Prudence Crandall case as precedent in the over turning of Brown vs The Board of Education which desegregated America's schools.

It's sad what happened to this house. We went in fall of 2024. The entire upstairs was closed…read moreoff. We had to sign up for a "tour" and pay money to get in. The "tour guide" was a fast talker and rattled off a lot of details about the new version of Prudence Crandall's life which was apparently edited by a legal scholar. We often take out of state company to the Prudence Crandall House. Will not make that mistake again

Recently went to a murder mystery event here and had a blast. It was so much fun walking through…read morethe museum, which I never knew existed. Seeing the historic importance, the displays and fascinating information. I really loved just looking at the displays, absorbing the culture and history and seeing the varied rooms (loved the church!!!) So thrilled they held this event here so I could see this lovely museum!

Coming from Pawtucket, the home of the American Industrial Revolution, I'd never made the trek all…read morethe way out to Woonsocket to check the museum out. But my now LA-based daughter was visiting, and wanted to see the Welcome blanket exhibit since her friend had one on display. (I'm not certain how a museum here is the recipient of 330 handmade quilts and blankets - 99 of which are on display - that will be distributed by Dorcas House to new immigrants, but it's pretty cool right? Maybe because southern New England was the center of US cloth manufacture through the early-mid 20th century?) Ad for the Museum itself: the cultural component of this mill community is front and center. The space is set up in a number of immersive dioramas - rooms and areas visitors walk through to get an experience of those who lived there. The first stop is a farm cabin in Quebec in snowy winter where (push the doorbell) a family decides to move south in the hope of a better life working in the mills. In the replica of a French Canadian Catholic Church we read about religious life in America, and sit in pews near the actual mosaic altar boys to learn a bit about the wave of immigration and the mill worker experience, there's a credit union (kind of explains the Bailey Savings & Loan in It's a Wonderful Life). There's a school room, complete with a teacher/priest and books in the desks in French and English. On the stairs to the second floor, pass posters and stories about others groups of immigrants to the area, along with the rooms upstairs: Woonsocket baseball players, tenement houses, mill and factory memorabilia, and a room set up with the equipment workers toiled at. Oh - dint miss the display of a union hall! My daughter buzzes through art museums. We were here for about 2 hours. And then we got to the room with the blankets. Quite a relevant history lesson here!