With a 6-part HBO Max series and a newly published memoir, Paul Newman has been back in the spotlight lately.
Both include plenty of details about his half century in Westport.
It’s well known that Newman and his wife, fellow actor Joanne Woodward, found our town thanks to the Nike Sites.
Proposed at the height of the Cold War as missile defense systems to protect electronics manufacturing facilities in Bridgeport — with the missiles housed underground on North Avenue, and a launch center on Bayberry Lane — they were highly controversial. (Click here for the full back story.)
Westport writer Max Shulman wrote about the Nike Sites — the town’s reaction, and how it dealt with frisky GIs — in his novel Rally Round the Flag, Boys!
In 1958, the book became a movie. Newman and Woodward played characters based on town official Ralph Sheffer and his wife Betty. They soon moved here — and never left.
The defense system was outdated from the moment it opened. In 1960, control was transferred from the US Army to the National Guard. The Nike Sites were closed 3 years later.
The Bayberry Lane barracks are now the Aspetuck Health District office; behind it is the Westport Astronomical Society’s observatory. (Now it makes sense why those structures are there, right?)
A typical Nike site — much like the North Avenue one. Missiles were buried underground.
For years the North Avenue site — just north of Staples High School — was abandoned. In 1973, the US government transferred control of the land to the town.
Neither CNN nor Newman’s memoir mention what happened next.
The Westport Astronomical Observatory — the former Nike Site launch center on Bayberry Lane — in 1975.
On October 1 of that year, a ceremony was held. Paul Newman took part.
He called it “a great day for Westport.” The Staples band played a couple of tunes, including — inexplicably — “On Wisconsin” and Chicago’s “25 or 6 to 4.”
Paul Newman (far left) at the Nike Site ceremony on October 1, 1973. From left: 2 unidentified men; 1st Selectman John Kemish. (Photo courtesy of Jim Kemish)
First Selectman John Kemish said, “The land once needed for war will now be dedicated to the pursuit of peace. The property will now be redeveloped by our Board of Education as a facility for our children.”
It took a while for that to happen.
A plan to create a “Workshop to Nike” for Staples students — with bedrooms, bathrooms, a kitchen, storage space, dorm rooms and a dining hall for any school group to use — was never completed.
Project Adventure — a one-quarter physical education option — installed a ropes course, high wire and 30-foot balance beam there. It too was abandoned.
Generations of Staples graduates recall the Nike Site as an overgrown, unpatrolled area — perfect for teenage mischief, tantalizingly close to the school.
Finally, the town found good use for the land. Today — shorn of any trace of both the military and its then-derelict state — it is the site of Bedford Middle School.
Few people remember those days. Fewer still remember the Paul Newman connection.
The North Avenue Nike site today.
What was WDJV
Hard to believe but around 1960, give or take a few years, our neighbor Sgt. Joe Buccieri (a policeman) took my brother John, me, and his son Richard over to walk around the grounds while they were doing some kind of drills at Nike Site. We were walking around with missiles coming out of the ground through metal doors. As I recall, the missiles were at a slant with nose up and even as a young child I was thinking, this doesn’t feel very safe. Am I hallucinating or did anyone else get to “tour” Nike Site while they were doing drills?
I did. Pretty scary stuff, for sure. And then when the silos were abandoned, my High Point Road buddies and I would play in them. Unbelievable to think of that now.
I went to Bayberry Kindergarten in the old barracks buildings, must have been 1975. Many fellow students also graduated from Staples. The Nike site was a place to sneak off from Staples during free periods to get off campus or hang around the spooky missile silos. To this day I don’t think I’ve seen the movie, but now I will find it and watch it.
This is so interesting! I never knew, or questioned, what the full meaning of having a Nike Site in Westport meant.
In the 1950s my best friend, Claudia, lived a few doors down on North Avenue. We were adolescents and tried to tease the guards into breaking their rigid stance and blank stares, but of course never succeeded.
So… As I understand it, Nike never actually manufactured their famous jogging shoes here in Westport? 😉
The first Westport community garden was located on Nike site…although no water available, town fire department filled barrels for those of us needing to water…gardeners entered from Staples parking lot through a break in the woods — a bucolic setting.
My understanding at that time was that Wassell Lane was developed and built to house folks who worked at the Nike site. I could be wrong.
Yes, I believe that housing was for married soldiers.
For years, there was a blue and white helmeted guard that stood as a deterrent to all those who might seek to enter either the North Avenue and/or Bayberry properties. Behind the town’s compost facility, and atop the hill are two 40-foot-tall corrugated metal cubes that once supported the Nike site radar. One of these sits rusting in the woods, the other has been outfitted with an observatory dome and an awesome telescope which is open to the public by our local astronomical society.
The dome off Bayberry is still there with a working telescope. Come out on any clear Wednesday night to see the night sky. This fall, the sky includes Jupiter & Saturn plus a nice set of deeper sky objects. Check out http://www.was-ct.org.