Author: Janet

Museum After Dark events at the Fairfield Museum and Historic Center feature exhibit openings, forums, and presentations by authors, scholars, artists, and historians, with ample opportunities for socializing and networking. The evening begins with a wine and cheese reception followed by a short program and discussion.

On October 8 the theme concentrates on Design and Function for 21st Century Fairfield from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The Town of Fairfield and Fairfield Museum are working together on an exciting plan to revitalize Fairfield’s historic Town Green. The plan will explore ways to enhance the Green’s unique cultural, historic and environmental features to make the Green a more cohesive community park and realize its potential as a vibrant center for Fairfield’s cultural, artistic and educational activities. Please join them and landscape designer Tom Elmore to share your ideas about the Green and its future uses.

Modern Design: Collecting from the Jazz Age to the Space Age is planned for November 19 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Guests will be joined by John Stuart Gordon, the Benjamin Attmore Hewitt Assistant Curator of American Decorative Arts at the Yale Art Gallery for a lively lecture about his role in acquiring design objects for Yale’s collection and the current decorative arts market. What objects and eras are hot among collectors? What aesthetics and issues are of interest to auction houses, scholars, and museums?

John Stuart Gordon, the Benjamin Attmore Hewitt Assistant Curator of American Decorative Arts at the Yale University Art Gallery, has a Ph.D. from Boston University and is the author of A Modern World: American Design from the Yale University Art Gallery, 1920–1950 (Yale University Press, 2011). He specializes in American design from the late 19th through 21st centuries. In addition, he supervises the Furniture Study, the Yale University Art Gallery’s large study collection of American furniture and wooden objects.

For more information visit http://www.fairfieldhistory.org/

When night settles on creaky old buildings during the scariest time of the year, you never know what you may bump into . . . ! This spooky evening for kids ages 8 – 12 will take place on Saturday, October 10, from 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. at the Wilton Historical Society.

During a candlelight walk through the dimly lit period rooms, and up and down groaning stairs of the 1740 Betts House and the 1772 Fitch House, kids will hear stories of the families who lived there. They will wend their way to the Burt Barn, where deep in the darkest chamber they will hear classic scary Halloween stories and folklore told in the dark by actress Mara Fleming.

The evening will conclude with games, cider and donuts.
This is a drop-off program. Registration required. Members: $15 per child; maximum $25 per family. Non-members: $25 per child, maximum $35 per family. To reserve: e-mail info@wiltonhistorical.org or call 203-762-7257. For more information, When night settles on creaky old buildings during the scariest time of the year, you never know what you may bump into . . . ! This spooky evening for kids ages 8 – 12 will take place on Saturday, October 10, from 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. at the Wilton Historical Society.
During a candlelight walk through the dimly lit period rooms, and up and down groaning stairs of the 1740 Betts House and the 1772 Fitch House, kids will hear stories of the families who lived there. They will wend their way to the Burt Barn, where deep in the darkest chamber they will hear classic scary Halloween stories and folklore told in the dark by actress Mara Fleming. The evening will conclude with games, cider and donuts.
This is a drop-off program. Registration required. Members: $15 per child; maximum $25 per family. Non-members: $25 per child, maximum $35 per family. To reserve: e-mail info@wiltonhistorical.org or call 203-762-7257. For more information, www.wiltonhistorical.org The Wilton Historical Society, 224 Danbury Road, Wilton, CT 06897 The Wilton Historical Society, 224 Danbury Road, Wilton, CT 06897.

For more area event information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

Beer, brats and live music are featured as the 6th Annual Brew-Ski Fest returns bigger and better than ever to the Salisbury Fall Festival on Sunday, Oct. 11th 2015 at Satre Hill in Salisbury.

The event is sponsored by Stateline Wine and Spirits and hosted by the Salisbury Winter Sports Association (SWSA) boasts a record number of breweries in attendance this year according to Stateline representative and Brew-Ski organizer with more than 30 breweries signed up. Popular brands like Big Elm, City Steam, Charter Oak, Goose Island, Sam Adams and Berkshire Mountain will return as well as new names like Black Hog, Broad Brook and Fool Proof.

Live music also returns to the Brew-Ski this year when the popular local band The Nice Ones perform. NASCAR Dave and his group will serve up brats and burgers with proceeds to benefit the Country Food Drive.

Tickets for Brew-Ski Fest cost $30 per person in advance and are available at Stateline Wine and Spirits in Canaan, 860 824-7295 and Ledgebrook Spirit Shop in Winsted 860 379-4216. Tickets will cost $35 the day of the event. The tented tasting will be held rain or shine. For more information visit http://www.brewskifest.com. For more area information www.litchfieldhills.com

The members of the Merwinsville Hotel Restoration will host their 28th Annual Arts and Fine Crafts Show on Columbus Day Weekend at the Merwinsville Hotel located on 1 Brown’s Forge Rd. in Gaylordsville Connecticut. Gaylordsville is located in the northwest corner of New Milford and is conveniently located 15 minutes from Kent, Sherman, New Milford and the Harlem Valley/Wingdale Railroad Station.

This event will kick off with a gala preview “Meet the Artists” reception on Friday, October 9th from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.. In addition to a sneak peek at all the goodies for sale, there will be passed hors d’oeuvres prepared by the Community Culinary School of Northwestern CT, beverages, dessert and live music provided by Patrick James McHenry. Tickets to the gala event are $25 at the door or $20 if you prepay using paypal.

The arts and crafts show opens to the public on Saturday, October 10 and runs through October 12 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. There is a $2 donation at the door that will go toward the restoration of this historic gem. There will be more than 75 quality arts and crafts vendors at the Merwinsville Hotel on all three days showcasing items such as: artwork, photography, jewelry, and fine artisan crafts.

For further information, please call 860-350-4443 or visit www.merwinsvillehotel.org to prepay for Friday evening’s gala.

For more area event information visit www.litchfieldhills.com

Join former First Selectman and Wilton historian Bob Russell on the final walking tour offered this fall of the Wilton Historical Society’s preserved Lambert Corner buildings. To be held on Saturday, October 17 at 11:00, the hour-long guided tour includes the Lambert House, which was built on the site c.1726, and eight other buildings moved there in order to preserve them. They are the Lambert Cottage, Kent District School, Hurlbutt Street Country Store and Post Office, Wilton Railroad Station, Davenport Barn, Cannon Family General Store, 18th-century Cannon Family Corn Crib and the not-to-be-missed George Davenport Greek Revival Privy. The entire site comprises Wilton’s Historic District #1. The group will set out from the porch of the Historical Christmas Barn.

Mr. Russell, Wilton historian and author of Wilton, Connecticut: Three Centuries of People, Places, and Progress, will share some of the interesting stories of the people associated with the buildings. He may well recount the details from a chapter in his book concerning “the most sensational crime in Wilton’s history, which took place in December 1897, when the last Wilton member of one of the town’s most prominent families, a quiet unassuming gentleman schoolteacher, David S. Lambert, was shot down in cold blood in his home, the Lambert House”.

The buildings at Lambert Corner were moved to the site of the original Lambert homestead, know as “Lilacstead” at the intersection of Routes 7 and 33 over the past 40 years. Most of the buildings are now used as shops and offices. The Wilton Historical Society was a pioneer in what is now called adaptive re-use – historic structures which have been updated for contemporary use. The Society has rescued, in total, 18 buildings typical of a New England rural community on three campuses in Wilton, all visible from Route 7.

Tours will end at noon at the Historical Christmas Barn store, 150 Danbury Road, where cider and cookies will be served. Other businesses in the complex will be open. Comfortable walking attire is suggested.

Please register for this event: by e-mail: info@wiltonhistorical.org or call 203-762-7257 The Wilton Historical Society, 224 Danbury Road, Wilton CT 06897 www.wiltonhistorical.org For more area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

Edward F. Gerber, president of the Westport Historical Society, will host a walking tour of the Kings Highway North Historic District on Saturday, Oct. 3 from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. The tour will be an opportunity for participants to learn about one of the town’s oldest settled areas, some homes of which date to the mid-1700s.

“I want to talk about the fact that Kings Highway is a historic district and what that means,” said Gerber. “I hope to get onto the grounds of at least one house and have the owners talk about renovations they are doing.

Gerber said he will talk about the style of the houses and the fact that, although they were built from the early 1700s to the mid-1900s, “you can’t tell the later houses from the older ones. The architects did a good job of blending old and new.”

Kings Highway North was established as a local historic district in 1972 and named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. It encompasses 106 “contributing buildings” – structures that add to the district’s historical qualities – and four historic sites. Most of the contributing buildings are homes in the Colonial style. The historic sites include a small triangular green at the intersection of Old Hill Road and Kings Highway North that was used as a military drill ground, the adjoining Christ and Holy Trinity and Church of the Assumption cemeteries across Kings Highway from Old Hill Road, and an earlier graveyard, laid out in 1740, at the northwest corner of Kings Highway North and Wilton Road.
Originally, Kings Highway North was part of a postal road laid out between New York and Boston in 1762. Unlike the Post Road, which was built later, it followed a circuitous route through town, crossing the Saugatuck River over an old wood bridge just upstream from the present one.

According to the filing information for the district’s National Register of Historic Places certification, “The two earliest houses in the district are the c. 1730 Lt. John Taylor House and the 1736 Daniel Freelove Nash House.” The Taylor house was destroyed by fire in 1935 and replaced by a replica on the original foundation. It was the home of film and stage actor Arthur Kennedy during the 1950s and served as the model for the home of Lucy and Ricky Ricardo when the “I Love Lucy” television show moved to Westport for its final season.
Gerber will be accompanied on the tour by Edward Hynes, a specialist on the history of Westport during the American Revolution. Hynes will discuss the planned ambush by Continental troops under Benedict Arnold to fire cannons from the high ground on Old Hill down on British soldiers returning from a raid on Danbury to prevent them from crossing the river on the bridge below. But the British outsmarted the Colonials and crossed upriver near the site of present Ford Road.

“Kings Highway North Walking Tour,” Saturday, Oct. 3, 3 to 4 p.m. Meet at the cemeteries across from the foot of Old Hill Road; park along Kings Highway North. There is a $10 donation. Westport Historical Society, 25 Avery Place, across from Town Hall. For more information about the WHS, call (203) 222-1424 or go to westporthistory.org.