Connecticut Travel

In the early years of the Connecticut Colony, the area known today as Westport was called Saugatuck and was a part of the towns of Fairfield and Norwalk. The river was the boundary between the two towns. But by 1835, the river’s growing economic importance moved Saugatuck’s business leaders, concerned that their river was playing second fiddle to ports closer to the centers of Norwalk and Fairfield, to have Saugatuck incorporated as a town to be called Westport.

Saugatuck’s Past Come Alive in Westport’s Artist Mural. Robert L. Lambdin’s meticulously researched mural depicting Saugatuck as a center of manufacturing and river commerce in 19th century Westport will anchor the exhibition “Saugatuck @ Work – Haven of Community, Commerce and Innovation” hosted by the Westport Historical Society on 25 Avery Place.

Saugatuck’s location near the mouth of the river, allowing raw materials to be delivered by boat and products to be shipped to New York and other ports, made it an ideal setting for manufacturing and maritime commerce. One of Saugatuck’s longtime employers was Elonzo Wheeler’s button factory, and some of Wheeler’s buttons, produced from ivory nuts imported from Brazil, along with local produce, can be seen in the foreground of Lambdin’s mural waiting to be loaded onto a market boat. Saugatuck eventually became a tight-knit community of Irish and Italian immigrants who came to Westport to work in factories and as stonemasons, gardeners and laborers on the railroad.

The late Westport artist’s large wall painting, “Saugatuck in the 19th Century,” was created for the Westport Bank & Trust Company’s Saugatuck branch when it opened in 1970. It measures 6 by 10 feet and shows the various types of vessels that plied the river over the course of the century, as well as such long-gone landmarks as the Saugatuck Bank, precursor of Westport Bank & Trust, and the Methodist Church, and those that still survive: Saugatuck original firehouse and the village’s historic swing bridge and train depot. Though I-95 did not come into being until the mid 20th century, its bridge over the river appears as a huge arc framing the riverfront scene.

The exhibition will also display historic photographs of workers and workplaces of the village, antique maps of Saugatuck harbor, vintage tools made there, patents by Saugatuck inventors, costumes, and ship and railroad logs.

A companion exhibit devoted to the life of those immigrants, “Framing Saugatuck,” will run in the WHS’s Mollie Donovan Gallery concurrently with “Saugatuck @ Work.”

For more information on the Westport Historical Society http://westporthistory.org/

Art Walks is a new event that is happening on the first Friday of every month in Torrington located in the Litchfield Hills. Many businesses start the “hop” as early as 1pm, with festivies lasting into the early evening, later as the days become longer. Experience your creative side, visiting with local artists and arts minded businesses. Venues will be offering debuts of guest artisans, art talks, music, refreshments, introductions of their newest works, raffles, and SALES!

During the Art Walk — Wine and Chocolate on February 6 four businesses have teamed up to offer something special. Dawn Hill Designs is offering free samples of wine plus chocolates from local chocolate makers. A Free box of Russel Stover chocolates for your Valentine with a qualifying purchase from Feb. 1-14. *While supplies last. All items with a heart within the studio are 25% off Feb. 1-7.

Kelly’s Crystals Boutique is featuring Valentine’s Day themed gifts. Free chocolates with any purchase and Swarovski Crystal Heart Earrings with any $25 purchase.

Karen Rossi Studios is offering a Free box of chocolates with qualified purchases. All items with a heart within the studio are 25% off their regular price. Karen Rossi Studios is also featuring the work of textile artist Doreen Breen and $10 off mixed-media scarves during Arts Walk. Doreen Breen’s wine reception will be from 4-7pm. For more information on Rossi and her creations visit www.karenrossi.com.

Stepping Stones Studio will display work by sculptor Dennis Bialek with a 25% discount on his small bird sculptures during Arts Walk (regularly priced at $50). Also on February 6th will be the opening reception for the work of mixed-media painter Amber Miada. The reception for Amber will be held from 4-7pm.

The next “Art Walk” is planned for March 6. For more information visit http://www.artswalk.info. For area event information and more www.litchfieldhills.com

Xiomáro (SEE-oh-MAH-ro), an artist at Weir Farm National Historic Site in Wilton/Ridgefield, presents The Other Side – Charles, Caesar, Harry, Sam, Pompey, Lon and Isaac from January 11 to March 29, 2015 at Oyster Bay Historical Society in New York.

The collection of twenty-nine photographs presents General William Floyd (1734-1821), who fled to Middletown after the British occupation of his plantation on Long Island. During his period of exile, his wife Hannah died and remains buried at Middletown’s Mortimer Cemetery. Floyd, a slave owner, served in the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia where he set his signature to the Declaration of Independence in July 1776. His plantation is now a National Park unit of Fire Island National Seashore, which commissioned Xiomáro after seeing his photographic work for Weir Farm. Xiomáro was an Artist-in-Residence at Weir Farm in 2010 and, since 2011, continues his relationship with the park as a Visiting Artist.

At the heart of the collection are photographs of undated wooden crosses bearing generic slave names, set apart on the other side of a fence from the elaborate individualized stones of the Floyd family cemetery. The photographs serve as spiritual memorials to the laborers—both enslaved persons and paid house servants of color—who worked on the estate. These plain wooden crosses, put in place sometime in the 1870s, represent in part the Floyd family’s evolution from slave ownership to active military service in the Union army during the American Civil War.

Xiomáro is a nationally exhibited artist whose work has been covered by The New York Times, News 12 and The Huffington Post. On January 5, The Other Side will be featured in the prestigious Aspect Ratio, a London-based photography magazine. His other National Park Service commissions include President Theodore Roosevelt’s Sagamore Hill mansion, which was exhibited at Harvard University. At present, Xiomáro is photographing the home of poet and abolitionist Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in Massachusetts and will be living in a Florida swamp for a month documenting the fragile ecosystem that feeds into the Everglades.

The Other Side is on view January 11 to March 29, 2015 at the Oyster Bay Historical Society, 20 Summit Street, Oyster Bay, NY 11771, (516) 922-5032, oysterbayhistorical.org. A free opening reception and lectures by Xiomáro are scheduled. A free limited edition photo e-book can be downloaded at www.xiomaro.com.