Category Archives: Looking back

Unsung Hero #338

Posted on June 12, 2024 | 24 comments

Longtime local historian Bob Weingarten writes:

Peter Jennings is an 11th-generation Westporter. His family settled in this area around 1650.

For the past 23 years Peter has quietly maintained Jennings Trail, Westport’s network of roadside historic markers.

And he’s done it at his own cost.

Jennings Trail is named in honor of Peter’s cousin, beloved educator and well- known authority on Westport history, Bessie Jennings.

Originally conceived in 1974 as part of Westport’s plans to celebrate the Bicentennial, the Trail was initiated by the Westport Historical Society in collaboration with the Westport Young Woman’s League.

One of the plaques on Jennings Trail marks the Elmstead Lane home where Bessie Jennings was born, and died.

23 markers were installed at historic locations throughout Westport. They are made of bronze, mounted on stone plinths, and contain brief narrative descriptions that describe the significance of each site. Jennings Trail is now under the stewardship of the Westport Historic District Commission.

As it has been nearly 50 years since the markers were first installed, maintenance is necessary. On a recent weekend, Peter was spotted at Machamux Park off Greens Farms Road – site of our community’s very first meeting house.

Peter Jennings, rebuilding the Machamux marker base …

He carefully rebuilt the masonry base and reinstalled the bronze marker for the park’s Jennings Trail marker.

… and reinstalling the marker …

Meanwhile Peter, together with a small group of other local historians, is currently planning the first major expansion of Jennings Trail since the Bicentennial.

The group knows that a number of Westport’s most historic sites remain hidden in plain sight. Initially, 4 new markers will be installed. Each has a fascinating story to tell.

In the meantime: Thank you, Peter, for keeping Westport’s past alive.

(Unsung Hero is a weekly “06880” feature. To nominate a hero, email 06880blog@gmail.com. To support our work, please click here. Thank you!)

… and inspecting a site for a new marker. (Photos/Bob Weingarten)

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Posted in History, Looking back, Unsung Heroes

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D-Day + 80 Years: Westport And Marigny, Together Again

Posted on June 6, 2024 | 13 comments

As the anniversary of D-Day approached, Westporters Jeffrey Mayer and Nancy Diamond visited France.

It was much more than an ordinary journey. They write:

Eighty years to the day have passed since Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, launching a 2 1/2-month operation to liberate France from 5 years of Nazi occupation.

American soldiers move through the ruins of Marigny, 1944.

For Marigny-le-Luzon the “débarquement” (as the French call the landing), remains fresh, in part because of a remarkable bond of friendship with the town of Westport.

Devastated in World War II, this would become Place de Westport.

Two years after the war, Staples High School French teacher Charlotte MacLear visited this small town of 2,700, and asked what she could do.

Staples French teacher Charlotte MacLear, with her Sorbonne diploma.

Over the next 15 years, Westporters helped Marigny rebuild. They funded construction of the school cafeteria, destroyed in the fighting. They restored the stained glass windows of the Gothic church.

Ruins of Marigny’s Sainte-Pierre Church.

They sent Christmas presents to the town’s children, every year for 15 years.

A few of those children met us this week in the Place de Westport, Marigny’s main square.  They took us to the Mairie, the town hall, where the council chamber is named for Charlotte MacLear.

The walls of the chamber have only two decorations: a portrait of French President Emmanuel Macron, and Charlotte MacLear’s signature.

In the corner, a glass case contains some of the gifts sent by Westporters: a doll carriage, ruler, board game, and a small horse received by one of our hosts.

The room with Charlotte MacLear’s signature, and a display case of Westport memorabilia.

The gratitude of the citizens of Marigny is on display everywhere.  Throughout town, the American flag flies.

In the town library, a thick binder contains the history of our relationship. It includes pictures of Charlotte MacLear, and of children receiving gifts from the mayor at the time, plus lists of the Westport and Marigny exchange students who visited each other over the years.

In the restored church we visited the colorful 18 stained glass windows that were restored “grace à Westport,” as our hosts told us.

Each window contains an inscription in lead: “Don de la ville de Westport, Etats-Unis d’Amérique” (“Given by the town of Westport, United States of America”).

Inscription in the Marigny church.

On the edge of Marigny we found a large stone, dedicated to 3,070 American soldiers temporarily buried in Marigny before being moved to the American cemetery at Omaha Beach.

The monument to 3,070 American soldiers buried in Marigny, before being moved to the American cemetery at Omaha Beach.

Our hosts had prepared a beautiful bouquet of flowers, which we placed at the foot of the monument.

Before leaving Marigny, Nancy and I presented to Deputy Mayor Huguette Masson several books by Dan Woog and Woody Klein about the history of Westport, and one from the Westport Permanent Art Collections; caps and medals from the Westport Police Department courtesy of Chief Foti Koskinas, and Westport memorabilia sent by First Selectwoman Jen Tooker.

Members of the Marigny-Westport Association, wearing their new Westport police caps. From left: Huguette Besson, Marie Charles, Marcelle Bleas-Franke, Cecile Turgid, Bernadette Hommet.

We were given, in turn, a book for the Westport Library written by René Gautier, the town’s passionate historian. We visited him in the France-USA Memorial Hospital in St. Lô, where he has been undergoing medical tests.

Jeff Mayer and Nancy Diamond visited Marigny historian René Gautier at the France-USA Memorial Hospital in St. Lo, where he is having tests.  They presented him with gifts from Westport.

We were also presented with caps bearing the names of Westport, Marigny and Lyman, the Ukrainian town that Westport and Marigny have supported since 2022.

As one of our hosts observed, the fight for liberty does not end.

Westport Pharmacie on the Place Westport. Note the street sign on the corner.

Window of the Westport Pharmacie, with a display of memorabilia from World War II and the liberation of Marigny on July 17, 1944. (All photos courtesy of Jeffrey Mayer and Nancy Diamond)

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Posted in History, Looking back

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Bob Dylan, Eric Von Schmidt, And The Birth Of The Blues

Posted on May 15, 2024 | 12 comments

Yesterday’s New York Times carried the obituary of Daniel Kramer. The man Rolling Stone once called “the photographer most associated with Bob Dylan” died last month, at 91.

The story noted that Kramer shot (among many other photos) the cover for Dylan’s “Bringing It All Back Home” album.

That classic photo has a Westport connection.

Among other items scattered on a table, it shows a record called “The Folk Blues of Eric von Schmidt.”

Von Schmidt — a Staples High School graduate, and son of famed painter/ illustrator Harold von Schmidt — followed a stint in the Army with a Fulbright scholarship to study art in Florence.

But he was also a musician. In 1957 he moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and fell in with the coffeehouse scene. He influenced Tom Rush, then Dylan. According to Wikipedia, he and von Schmidt “traded harmonica licks, drank red wine and played croquet.”

Eric von Schmidt, in his folk days.

Dylan gave von Schmidt a shout-out on his first album, for teaching him “Baby, Let Me Follow You Down.”

That relationship may be how von Schmidt’s magazine cover landed on one of the most famous album covers in music history.

The album on the cover of “Bringing It All Back Home.”

Von Schmidt later segued into a career as a full-time artist. He painted enormous, compelling scenes, including the Civil War and Custer’s Last Stand, in the Evergreen Avenue studio where his father once painted.

 

He died in 2007, after tragically losing his larynx to cancer.

But Eric von Schmidt’s art lives on. His magnificent “Birth of the Blues” — seven works, showing the broad scope of American music, including jazz and folk — hangs in the auditorium foyer of Staples High School.

Every day students and staff pass by, without even noticing the brilliant art.

At every event there, many others walk right by it too.

What a shame.

Waiting in the Staples High School lobby for a Players’ show. The painting is part of “Birth of the Blues” by Eric von Schmidt. (Photo copyright Lynn U. Miller)

When he finished his paintings, Von Schmidt was in talks to donate the works to the Smithsonian Museum.

Instead, he chose his alma mater.

He was bringing it all back home.

Eric von Schmidt, with “Storming the Alamo.” (Photo by George R. Janecek)

 

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Jean Tucker: At 99, Clear And Warm Westport Memories

Posted on May 14, 2024 | 12 comments

Last September marked the first time in 74 years that Jean Tucker returned to Westport.

Much has changed in the town where she grew up, graduated from Staples High School with the Class of 1941, then stayed in while working as a rare female aircraft engineer during World War II.

She’ll be 100 in November. But she remembers with superb clarity her childhood, youth and early adulthood in Westport.

When we spoke last weekend — just days after she visited the Connecticut Air & Space Museum, to recount her years as a “Rosie the Riveter” (though mainly at a drafting table) — her voice was as strong as her mind.

Jean Tucker at the Connecticut Air & Space Museum earlier this month. She’s with (from left) her granddaughter Nevada Marion, grandson-in-law Heath Marion, and great-granddaughter Lexy Vanderford.

Her descriptions of life here were fascinating.

So were some of the tidbits she dropped in to the conversation.

Like the fact that the Hunt & Downes building — the one with Arezzo restaurant, Winfield Coffee and Stephen Kempson, wrapping around the Post Road West/Riverside Avenue corner — is named in part for her father, Leon Hunt. He was in the real estate and plumbing businesses.

Oh yeah: He also owned Gorham Island.

“06880” has reported on Jean before. We’ve described how, beginning at age 18, she worked at Chance Vought Aircraft in Stratford. She made drawings of parts for electrical installations — without ever seeing the actual equipment. She also worked on fuselages.

In 1945 Jean entered Northeastern University, in one of its first class of women.

She married in 1949. When Chance Vought moved to Dallas, she stayed here. She earned a degree in industrial engineering, then taught math for 38 years in 3 states and 2 foreign countries.

Jean Hunt has never forgotten her days at Chance Vought Aircraft. In her Florida home, a model Corsair hangs from the ceiling.

But our conversation last weekend reached back years earlier than even that. Jean told fascinating stories about Westport’s history — and America’s.

Take the Open Door Inn. Located on the site of the present Police headquarters, it was where Westport Country Playhouse actors stayed.

Jean’s father — who apparently was a many of many talents — took it over during the Depression. At 10 or 11 years old, Jean operated the switchboard. She got to know Tallulah Bankhead, Tyrone Power, many other stars, and non-actors who stayed there like boxer Max Baer.

The Open Door Inn. (Photo courtesy of Paul Ehrismann)

When her father was young, he was a guard at the Westport Sanitarium.

It’s been long since demolished (though it’s the reason for the asphalt paths near where it stood — now Winslow Park).

He may have gotten the job through connections: His grandmother (Jean’s great-grandmother) ran the sanitarium.

In 1923, Jean’s father Leon built their house on Imperial Avenue. It was a wonderful place to grow up.

After 100 years, the home still stands. Sharon Levin owns it, and gave Jean a tour when she made that first-time-in-74-years visit to Westport last September.

Jean says the Levins did “a superb renovation.”

Jean attended Staples High School when it was on Riverside Avenue. She had classes in what is now Saugatuck Elementary (it was then “new”), as well as the original 1884 high school building (located where the Saugatuck El auditorium is today).

Jean Hunt with some Staples classmates. She’s in the middle of the 2nd row, with short black hair and wearing a jumper.

She made her mark on the school. Her yearbook — which she still has — lists these activities: junior class play, secretary of the junior and senior classes field hockey and rifle (!) teams, Photoplay Club, yearbook, editor of the school newspaper Inklings, senior play committee, assistant basketball team manager.

Jean Hunt, in the 1941 Staples yearbook.

Her life outside Staples was full too. On Saturday afternoons, she and “every teenager in town” would have lunch at Achorn’s Drugstore on Main Street, then head to the movie matinee at Fine Arts Theater (now Barnes & Noble).

Tickets were 10 cents, until age 16. The price then jumped to 15 cents.

Jean played tennis on the courts behind Staples (still there), went to football games, and enjoyed events like roller skating parties at the YMCA (now Anthropologie).

Jean Hunt (3rd from right), with her Staples field hockey teammates.

In the summer, Jean and her friends took the Westport bus from the old library at the corner of Post Road (State Street) and Main Street, to Compo Beach.

They would lie on blankets, then swim out to the rafts. “We spent the whole day in the sun,” Jean says. “I’m paying for that now.”

World War II brought the loss of young friends. She still remembers names like Lloyd Nash and Bill Reilly.

“Everyone who could went to war, or worked,” she says.

In Westport, there were ration books for everything from gas and butter to stockings. Chicory was “the worst substitute ever” for coffee.

Jean did her part. She drove her Model A Ford up the Merritt Parkway to work. Chance Vought treated her well.

Jean Tucker still has — and loves — her Model A.

Her life after the war was very fulfilling: college, a family, and a teaching career in math at schools in Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, England and Honduras.

But I wanted to hear more about Westport. Jean offered more memories.

“I loved it. I felt very safe. In the snow we slid down the Imperial Avenue hill. I just felt so comfortable.”

She has many stories about her father too. Somehow, he took title to Gorham Island (the site now of an office building off Parker Harding Plaza).

He lost it during the Depression, when he could not pay the note.

The old house on Gorham Island. (Photo/Peter Barlow)

Years later, on the day World War II ended, a large crowd gathered downtown. Jean was at Taylor Place, facing Main Street.

On the block to her left — the one that now houses South Moon Under — was a diner, a tavern, and shoemaker Nick Geremia.

Suddenly, a parade began. “It was riotous, chaotic and wonderful,” Jean says.

It was also a reminder of a story her father often told. He stood on that same corner less than 3 decades earlier, at the end of World War I.

“He and Johnny Coyle, another plumber, found a tub,” Jean says. “They started their own parade.”

On November 21, Jean Tucker will be 100 years old. She will celebrate in her St. Petersburg, Florida home with her son, daughter, granddaughter and great-granddaughter.

But she also plans a return trip to Westport soon.

After hearing so much about this place, her son wants to visit.

He could not ask for a better tour guide.

Jean Tucker in the cockpit of a Delta Airlines jet, before her flight here last month.

(Without knowing yesterday, we can’t appreciate today. And without readers’ help, “06880” can’t produce stories like this one. Please click here to support your hyper-local blog. Thank you!)

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Posted in Beach, Downtown, Looking back, Staples HS

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Roundup: Compo Shopping Center, Mother’s Day …

Posted on May 12, 2024 | 17 comments

There is one less Brooks, Torrey & Scott property in town.

And one more owned by Regency Centers.

Compo Shopping Center — anchored by CVS — was sold last week for $45.5 million, by the local family commercial real estate firm, to the Jacksonville, Florida-based company.

Compo was one of the first shopping centers in town (along with Westfair Village near Southport, across from what is now Stop & Shop — also built by the current Brooks principals’ father, B.V. Brooks.

Initial tenants includes McClellan’s 5-and-10 store, Compo Barber Shop, a supermarket and Gold’s delicatessen.

McClellan’s is now CVS. The barber is now Dunkin’ Donuts. The supermarket is Awesome Toys & Gifts.

Gold’s is still there.

Torrey Brooks — a third generation member of the Brooks company — told CT Insider, “basically, my brother and sister pretty much wanted to cash out.”

Compo Shopping Center recently underwent a major exterior renovation. The parking lot remains, however, one of the most difficult to navigate in Westport.

It’s right down there with Compo Acres Shopping Center — the one with Trader Joe’s — across the street.

It too is owned by Regency Centers.

Gold’s Delicatessen — a Compo Shopping Center mainstay for nearly 70 yeas.

A common sight: a wrong-way driver entering Compo Shopping Center.

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Pickleball America — one of the largest such indoor venues in the US — was formerly Saks Fifth Avenue, in the Stamford Town Center.

It’s also the site of art shows.

The latest — “Mothers and Fathers,” featuring members of the Connecticut Society of Portrait Artists — includes work from Westport artist Nancy Stember. The show runs through June 28, and is open daily until 10 p.m.

A special Father’s Day reception is set for June 13 (6-8 p.m.).

Stember’s painting — drawn from a family photo taken years ago, with husband Rishon and children Doron, Atara and Joey — is featured on marketing materials for the show.

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Speaking of mothers: “06880” joins Weston’s Jolantha the pig (below) in wishing all moms, in 06880, 06883 and beyond, a happy Mother’s Day.

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Also joining in Mother’s Day wishes (we think): today’s “Westport … Naturally” subject, Tessie, at Compo Beach:

(Photo/Richard Abramowitz)

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And finally …

(“06880” is your hyper-local blog. We rely on reader support. Please click here to make a tax-deductible contribution. Thank you!)

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Preserving Westport’s History, One House (And Town Hall) At A Time

Posted on May 10, 2024 | 3 comments

Last night’s Historic District Commission meeting was special.

It was the one night a year that members did not review proposed demolitions.

Instead, they celebrated buildings that have not fallen to the wrecking ball.

The HDC honored 10 that have been preserved, thoughtfully and lovingly.

Nine were residential homes. One was the very place they met: Town Hall.

The Preservation Award honorees are:

15 BRADLEY STREET

OWNER: Holly Jaffe

The Colonial Revival at 15 Bradley Street originally consisted of the gabled section that was later extended to the south, with a perpendicular garage wing.

Remaining details include the exposed purlins and second story sleeping porch, both typical of a summer cottage architecture of its period.

This lovingly preserved home has been featured in “06880,” as well as the April 2023 issue of “Connecticut Cottages & Gardens.”

Holly Jaffe, the property owner and principal of the boutique design firm Wowhaus, renovated the house in 2021. Working with local architect Jon Halper and builder Alan Dreher, they maximized the space without changing the footprint.

29 NORTH AVENUE

OWNER: Annette Norton

The Mills Farmstead has several different build dates, ranging from c. 1775 to c.1850.

However, it is believed that the house was built c.1775 by Daniel Mills, then either rebuilt or remodeled by Hezekiah Mills c. 1820.

The property remained in the Mills family for 5 generations, until it was
sold in 1982. For the next 40 years the house deteriorated.

In the spring of 2021, Savvy + Grace owner Annette Norton bought the house. Her extensive interior and exterior renovation included removal of a stockade fence that hid the house from view, extensive foundation repair work, and repairs to the cedar clapboard siding, copper gutters and downspouts.

Her home was featured in last fall’s first “Historic Homes of ‘06880’” tour.

Annette Norton was honored for renovating a home that yields information important to Westport’s historic record.

60 LONG LOTS ROAD

OWNERS: Sophie and Victor Nordenson

60 Long Lots Road is a Colonial Revival house built by Daniel Burr in 1767. It was originally located at 71 Long Lots Road, and moved to its current site between 1848 and 1851.

Greens Farms Church records indicate the congregation met in this house after their meeting house was burned down by General William Tryon’s troops in his 1779 raid on Connecticut.

This house was constructed as a 5-bay, central chimney Colonial. It is unclear if the central chimney was replaced with twin stacks during the relocation, or if this occurred later.

The home was renovated in the Colonial Revival mode with 6-over-6 windows, and a leaded transom over the central entrance.

Sophie and Victor Nordenson acquired the house in 2019, and have kept it safe.

61 clapboard hill road

OWNER: 61 Clapboard Hill Road LLC

McCune House is one of the finest examples of Mediterranean Revival architecture in Westport.

Despite being renovated recently, it remains a well-proportioned, textured stucco structure that is casually arranged to suggest the vernacular building traditions of Spain and Italy.

The house’s significant features include steel casement windows, a tile roof, a projecting arched porch and shallow balconette with iron grill.

Built by William McCune c. 1920 on the frontage of an 8-acre parcel, it was a seasonal home for his son and daughter-in-law, William and Edgarda Rowe.

After William’s untimely death, Edgarda married Thomas Coggeshall. They lived in a larger house on Turkey Hill Road, and used this as a rental property.

67 LONG LOTS ROAD

OWNERS: Elaine and Andrew Rankowitz

In 1851, after the Daniel Burr House at 60 Long Lots Road was relocated, this impressive Italianate dwelling was built for William Burr, Sr.

The house passed through the family to his son William, Jr., and then to grandson Morris who owned it into the 1960s.

One of the first Italianate homes in Westport, this 5-bay, 2 1/2-story house has a hip-roof that appears slightly more pronounced today than originally intended as the full-façade veranda was reduced in length.

Some of the splendid exterior details, including coupled brackets under the
overhanging eaves and 6-light frieze windows, are hallmarks of Italianate design.

It was purchased by Elaine and Andrew Rankowitz almost 30 years ago. The 2024 Preservation Award commemorates their caregiving.

83 LONG LOTS rOAD

OWNERS: Elizabeth and Andrew Crossfield

This was built in 1830 by Greens Farms Church minister Reverend Thomas F. Davis, on land purchased from John Hyde. Davis was an owner of the academy on Morningside Road North purchased from Ebenezer Adams, whic became known as Adams Academy.

The Peffers-Everly House has been enlarged, and reworked in the Colonial Revival style.

Its original form was a 3-bay, side-hall plan, Federal building with a Grecian
frontispiece. In the 1930s it was extended on both sides, and the cross gable, lunette window, Doric cornices and a flat-roofed solarium with a Chinese trellis
balustrade were added.

While these additions are not necessarily period appropriate, they represent the fine revival craftsmanship that transformed many of Westport’s early houses
into gracious country estates.

The Preservation Award was given to the Crossfields to commemorate their continued guardianship of this gracious home.

90 hillandale road

OWNERS: Abby Majlak and John Vine.

The Patrick O’Connor House is named for the man who acquired a 2-acre parcel east of Muddy Brook in the 1880s.

He built this house with a vertical, gable-front orientation with deep
overhanging eaves, typical of late 19th-century vernacular Victorian design. The original building had a wraparound porch running along its front and side elevations.

The house was completely renovated in 2021 by previous property owner Kim Walin, utilizing the services of Leonard + Lees Design. It was featured in the April 2023 issue of “Connecticut Cottages and Gardens.”

Abby Majlak and John Vine purchased the house in 2022. A 2024 Preservation Award was given to honor their continued stewardship.

100 HILLSPOINT ROAD

OWNERS: Carolyn and Joseph Wilkinson

100 Hillspoint Road is a Colonial Revival structure built in 1920.

It is a rectangular plan building with a gable roof main block. The symmetrical 5-bay façade has a center entrance set beneath a projecting, pedimented portico supported by classical columns.

Fenestration consists of 2-over-2 double-hung sash windows. A central brick chimney and gable dormers interrupt the asphalt shingled roof.

Carolyn and Joseph Wilkinson have lovingly cared for this home for over 20 years. They receive a 2024 Preservation Award for excellence in ongoing
care and maintenance.

110 MYRTLE AVENUE

OWNER: Town of Westport

The neo-Classical building at 110 Myrtle Avenue serves as Westport’s Town Hall.

It was built as a school in 1927 with the help of local philanthropist Edward T. Bedford. Bedford Elementary School educated many generations of children until 1978, when it was converted to Town
Hall.

The 2024 Preservation Award commemorates the recently completed façade
restoration project of the portico and columns.

The building’s central street facing elevation consists of a porch with 6 2-story fluted Corinthian columns, supporting a classical gabled portico. A flight of stairs provides access from the driveway to the raised porch.

The entire assembly is the focal point for the overall symmetrical composition of the façade, and presents an impressive and serious “face” to Westport Town Hall.

In 2020, though the portico was in good structural condition, evidence of some
surface deterioration and missing details were noted. An assessment was prepared by the Architectural Preservation Studio under the supervision of John Broadbin, deputy director of the Department of Public
Works, and former HDC historic preservation specialist Dr. Daryn Reyman-Lock.

Work began in 2023. The project included coating removal and repairs to the wood columns, pediment, ceiling and trip. The concrete porch, steps and metal railings were also repaired and repainted. Finally, the original bronze and glass bulletin board wasrestored to its original appearance.

136 riverside avenue

OWNER: Town of Westport

Riverside Avenue (the Post-Goodsell House) was built in the Queen Anne style by John Croker.

The building’s name is a combination of 2 property owners; Robert Post, who
occupied the house from 1896 to 1921, and Elizabeth Goodsell, who lived there from 1921 until 1958.

In 1998, the town of Westport purchased the property, adjacent to Saugatuck Elementary School. For the next 17 years it was used as office space for the Westport Public Schools.

This property is now leased to Abilis, a non-profit that has served the special needs community since 1951.

Under an agreement with the developers of the Mill Westport condominium complex, the building has been converted to 5 independent living units. Three are deed-restricted for disabled people earning 60 percent or less of the state median income.

The other 2 units are for individuals earning less 40 percent or less of the state median income.

This project is an excellent example of adaptive reuse. The asymmetrically massed house retains its bold roof silhouette — an excellent example of the rich, varied picturesque mode that dominate the late 19th century.

The wown of Westport receives a 2024 Preservation Award for adaptive reuse.

(The Historic District Commission thanked 1st Selectwoman Jen Tooker, former HDC chair Bill Harris, former HDC member Bob Weingarten, and HDC administrator Donna Douglass. The HDC chair is Grayson Braun; vice chair is Scott Springer; clerk is Wendy Van Wie; members are Bill Ryan and Martha Eidman, and alternates are Ben Levites, Arthur Hayes and Elayne Landau.)

(Every day, “06880” covers Westport current events. We always look to the future — and honor the past. If you enjoy this hyper-local blog, please click here to support our work. Thank you!)

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Roundup: General Judah’s Grave, 246 Hillspoint Road

Posted on April 21, 2024 | 5 comments

After 158 years, Henry Moses Judah has a headstone.

The Westporter was the last Civil War general in the nation with an unmarked grave.

For 158 years, his remains lay in the town cemetery at the corner of Wilton Road and Kings Highway North. He shared his grave with several dozen others — including his father, Rev. Henry Judah, and mother Mary Jane. — in a tomb marked for Ozias Marvin.

The Judah family was among the first Jewish residents of Westport (then part of Norwalk). Michael moved from New York City in 1742 because of anti-Semitism. He was a merchant trader, specializing in corn shipped to the West Indies.

His son Henry became an Episcopal minister. (There was intermarriage in the family with non-Jews, including the Jesup family.)

Rev. Judah’s Henry Moses Judah fought in both the Mexican-American and Civil Wars. He died at 44 less than a year after the Civil War ended, apparently of alcoholism.

The Judas family owned an estate in Saugatuck, which was named for them. Over the years, Judah’s Point morphed into Judy’s Point.

Peter Jennings — an 11th generation Westporter, and the author of a book on local cemeteries — helped give General Judah his headstone. He also cleared brush from the site, before the headstone’s installation.

It was paid for by the US Department of Veterans Affairs. Installation costs were covered by Shrouded Veterans. The non-profit identifies, marks and restores 19th-century graves.

Meanwhile, plenty of restoration is needed for the graveyard at one of Westport’s most visible corners.

Grayson Braun, chair of the Westport Historic District, notes with chagrin that debris has been dumped throughout the cemetery.

Before the headstone was laid, she caught a neighbor dumping yard waste there.

(Want to learn more about this, and other Westport’s cemeteries? Click here.)

Brigadier General Henry Moses Judah’s tomb …

… and headstone. (Photos/Grayson Braun)

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The end is near for 246 Hillspoint Road.

The tiny wooden shotgun house has stood — if not tall, then proudly — as all its neighbors were torn down and replaced by far larger homes.

The 2-bedroom, 1-bath, 695-square foot house sold in 2022 for $1.5 million.

A demolition sign hangs on the side.

Another in front says “Luxury Homes.”

And though this is not luxurious — it’s just one of the last beach shacks left in Westport — we all know: This soon will be a luxury home too.

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Johanna Keyser Rossi describes today’s “Westport … Naturally” photo:

“This squirrel outfoxed the fox. He knew how to get to the bird feeder attached to the outside window at the Senior Center.

“He climbed up the wall. It was funny to watch. Then he chased  away the dove on the ledge.”

(Photo/Johanna Keyser Rossi)

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And finally … today in 1965, the New York World’s Fair opened for its 2nd (and final) season.

“06880” featured the fair in Friday’s “Flashback.” Readers added many comments.

Plenty of them referenced Disney’s “It’s a Small World After All.” They still remember it, 6 decades later.

So here, for your listening pleasure — and to bring back visual memories too — is that classic earworm.

(It’s a small world — and “06880” connects Westport with all of it. But we can’t do it without our readers’ support. Please click here to make a tax-deductible contribution. Thank you!)

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Posted in History, Looking back

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Norbert Lux’s Light Advice

Posted on April 7, 2024 | 13 comments

In Latin, “lux” means “light.”

Lux was also the last name of a much-loved Long Lots science teacher.

Yesterday — nearly 2 decades after his death — Norbert Lux got a shout-out in the New York Times.

Melissa Kirsch — who writes the paper’s “Morning” newsletter every Saturday — wrote about tomorrow’s eclipse.

She said:

The first time I heard of an eclipse, I was in sixth grade. My science teacher, too aptly named Mr. Lux (“light,” in Latin), described the mechanics of the event, but what stayed with me, an anxious child, was not the idea of a world plunged into daytime darkness but the risk of permanent retinal damage posed by looking directly at the eclipse.

I couldn’t believe I was permitted proximity to this much peril, this much responsibility over my safety. One glance skyward and I could damage my eyesight forever. Why was I just learning about this now?

Norbert Lux

Staples High School Class of 1975 graduate Doug Davidoff spotted the Times piece, on SHS ’77 grad Dawn McCabe’s Facebook page.

“I’m glad Mr.Lux made it to the New York Times,” Doug writes. “He would have so enjoyed the eclipse on Monday.”

Doug adds: “As Mr. Lux taught, don’t look directly at the sun. It might cause permanent retinal damage and harm your eyesight forever!”

The weather report for tomorrow is “partly cloudy.” Unfortunately, there may not be all the “lux” we need to appreciate the show of nature Mr. Lux taught so well.

(For Melissa Kirsch’s entire story on the eclipse, click here.)

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BONUS ECLIPSE FEATURE: David Pogue no longer lives in Westport, but the “CBS Sunday Morning” correspondent is never far from our hearts.

Here’s his piece today, on what to expect from tomorrow’s eclipse:

(Nothing eclipses “06880” ‘s Westport coverage. Please click here to support our work. Thank you!)

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Posted in Education, Looking back, Media

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[OPINION] Phil Ochs, LBJ, Westport And The World

Posted on March 31, 2024 | 19 comments

Keith Hagel graduated from Staples in 1963, then 4 years later from Tufts University, where he was editor-in-chief of the student newspaper.

Keith Hagel, back in the day.

He was a reporter and editor at Fairpress in Westport, and an editor in Norwalk and Maine. He and his partner, Andrea Hatch, live in Maine and Colorado, play in competitive Scrabble tournaments nationwide, and haunt used bookstores.

56 years ago today, Keith attended a memorablle Staples concert. It was not, however, the Doors, Cream, Yardbirds or Animals. Keith writes: 

1968 was a crazy, hazy year — a seemingly incessant drumbeat of slogans, opposition to the Vietnam War, and violence.

“Hell, no, we won’t go!”
“Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?”
“Girls say yes to boys who say no.”
“One, two, three, four, we don’t want your fucking war.”

Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy were murdered. With the safe harbor of graduate school draft deferments ending, anti-Vietnam War protests exploded on campuses and in the streets, rupturing families and friends into verbally armed camps spewing rhetorical bullets at each other.

Protesters’ chants of “the whole world is watching” — as it was — did not stop Chicago police from battering and bloodying them at the Democratic National Convention.

Anti-war protestors and police clashed, at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

1968 was an awful year. But it wasn’t all bad.

Now, 56 years later, in another bitterly divided nation, many of us who have morphed from social unrest to Social Security still vividly, and perhaps nostalgically, recall those slogans that often were uttered with a combination of defiance, anger and moral righteousness.

But very few, even among geezers and soon-to-be geezers, remember Phil Ochs.

Yet I will never forget him, nor will any of the approximately 1,000 others who on March 31, 1968, packed the Staples High School auditorium to hear him in a benefit concert for a Peace Corps project.

Phil Ochs

I was 22, had just flunked out of law school, and was hoping I could dodge the draft (though I was not candid enough then to say “dodge”).

A folk singer, acoustical guitarist, prolific songwriter and outspoken critic of the Vietnam War, the slim, intense 28-year old blended sardonic comments and lyrical napalm in his songs and commentary on that early spring Sunday night in 1968, as he repeatedly lashed out at President Johnson on Vietnam. The overwhelmingly anti-war audience loved it.

Until, from the wings, a young woman called out urgently.

“Phil! PHIL!!”

I froze in my seat. I’m sure others did too.

This was not part of the show. The memory of hearing in a college class in 1963 that President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated flashed back, chillingly.

Ochs turned and went to talk briefly to the woman in the wings, then came back to address the stunned, suddenly hushed audience.

“I’ve been told that President Johnson has just announced he will not be a candidate for re-election,” Ochs said quietly.

One of Westport artist David Levine’s most famous works was of President Johnson, who had revealed a gall bladder operation scar to the public (photo). Levine envisioned it as a map of Vietnam.

Pandemonium. Utter, freaking pandemonium. Roars of “Gene, Gene” erupted from supporters of insurgent Democratic presidential candidate Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota.

Some people in the audience thought the news was an April Fools’ joke.

I didn’t. The urgency in the voice of the woman from the wings could not have been practiced.

Ochs motioned for quiet.

Few would have faulted him for taking a few more verbal or musical potshots at a bombastic, swaggering president now figuratively knee-capped by cascading opposition to the Vietnam War he had so aggressively escalated.

Instead, Phil Ochs softly said he thought Johnson’s announcement probably was the most noble act the president had ever made.

And so he dedicated his next song, about change, to the man he had been skewering only moments before.

Ochs made his point, and chose not to rub it in.

And that was it. The concert was over, prematurely, as people in the audience literally sprinted to the parking lot to listen to the bombshell news on their car radios. No cell phones in 1968.

The euphoria was short-lived. Only 4 days later Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was gunned down in Memphis. Then in June, Senator Kennedy also died from an assassin’s bullet.

In August Chicago cops, egged on by the city’s bully boy mayor Richard Daley, broke heads, in what investigators later described as a police riot, at the Democratic convention.

In an anticlimax, the nomination went to warhorse Vice President Hubert Humphrey, a former liberal and “Happy Warrior” who had become a sad mouthpiece for Johnson.

The cover of Phil Ochs’ 1969 “Rehearsals for Retirement” album.

Richard Nixon cruised to the presidency. The war, the protests, and the deaths of the young went on

Phil Ochs tried to go on.

For a while he did, continuing to compose, perform and protest. As a defense witness at the trial of the radical dissenters who became known as the Chicago 7, Ochs offered to sing his trademark anti-war song, “I Ain’t Marching Anymore.” Judge Julius Hoffman, whose major credentials were being a relative and former law partner of Mayor Daley, rebuffed him.

So Ochs sang his protest to reporters outside the courtroom. When Walter Cronkite ran the clip on his evening television news show, millions heard Ochs’ message.

But he would not be the same for long. Devastated by the deaths of King and RFK, he spiraled down into a dark hole of depression and substance abuse. He thought he was washed up.

In April 1976 — little more than 8 years after his unforgettable concert in Connecticut — Phil Ochs hung himself. He was 35.

It’s 56 years since March 31, 1968. I’m 78 now. As mobility outranks nobility for me, I have come, grudgingly, to appreciate the benefits of a walker and priority parking privileges.

I probably ain’t marching anymore, anywhere. Weed is now legal in Maine and other states. The longhairs of the ‘60s and ‘70s increasingly have become gray hairs and no hairs.

The enticingly mini-skirted young women we called “chicks” in those days now have to deal with artificial knees and/or hips, not to mention still-pervasive sexism and ageism.

Almost no one remembers Phil Ochs.

Phil Ochs

I  asked 15 people, mostly 50 or older, if they knew who Ochs was. Only one did: a bearded, white-haired former newspaper reporter who, to my delight, spat out “I Ain’t Marching Anymore.”

The others were clueless. That was a shame.

In March 2024,  the US remains sharply and hostilely divided as ever. Another egotistical, swaggering politician, this time a former president, having tried and failed to bring about a coup, continues to lie that he won the last election, while he tries to run out the clock on multiple criminal charges before this year’s vote.

Keith Hagel today.

Rogue cops and gutless legislators oppress minorities. COVID is still around and deadly, while some fools continue to deny or minimize its existence.

A lyrical, moral comet, Phil Ochs sang truth to power. He faded from the spotlights long ago. But on a spring night in late March 1968, he shone with a class act before 1,000 Westport concertgoers And he still matters today.

Ochs didn’t get to take a bow that night or do an encore. So — very belatedly — let’s give him a cheer, adapted from youth sports:

“Two, four, ’68, who do we appreciate?

Phil! PHIL!”

(That 1968 concert was not Phil Ochs’ only Westport appearance. Click here for a story about his very different performance, here in town.)

(“06880” is “where Westport meets the world” — yesterday, today and tomorrow. Please click here to support our work. Thank you!)

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Posted in Entertainment, History, Looking back, Politics

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Homes With Hope: 40 Years Of Helping

Posted on March 29, 2024 | 2 comments

For a place as contentious as Westport — some folks opposed building a playground at Compo, and half the town thought building a nuclear power plant on Cockenoe Island was just ducky — you’d think putting a homeless shelter in the heart of downtown would ignite World War III.

But you would be wrong.

As Homes with Hope prepares to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Gillespie Center on April 9 with a video and reception, it’s a great time to look back on the origins of one of the first shelters in a suburban town, anywhere in the US.

Sure, there was a bit of debate about the opening of Westport’s first homeless shelter in 1984, at the former Vigilant firehouse (where OKO restaurant is now, in the parking lot between Bartaco and National Hall).

The Vigilant Firehouse on Wilton Road, circa 1977. In 1984, it became the town’s first men’s shelter.

But the moral leadership of Reverend Pete Powell, Reverend Ted Hoskins, Rabbi Bob Orkand and businessman James Bacharach, plus town support from 1st selectman Bill Seiden, human services director Barbara Butler and David Kennedy, tamped much of the controversy.

A few years later, as Arthur Tauck redeveloped National Hall into an inn, moving to Jesup Road — catty-corner from the police station — made sense.

Many hands helped make the new 15-bed home possible. (The toilets were rescued from a Beachside Avenue home that Phil Donohue was razing.)

A 5-bed facility for women — now called Hoskins Place — was built next to the men’s shelter, when the Westport Transit District office moved.

Over the years, the Gillespie Center’s conversion from a beat-up old maintenance shed behind what was then the Fine Arts Theater (now Barnes & Noble) to a well-maintained shelter has enhanced the look of the entire area.

The Gillespie Center and Hoskins Place — Westport’s men’s and women’s shelters. (Photo/June Rose Whittaker)

Less visible is what goes on inside. But the men and women who seek shelter there — and others who use the very active food pantry — know and appreciate the hard work and tremendous care given by Homes with Hope to many in town over the past 40 years.

For 4 decades the Gillespie Center — the name honors Jim Gillespie, the 1st president of Homes with Hope (then called the Interfaith Housing Association) — has provided housing, meals and hope to thousands of men and women.

And many more Westporters than that have contributed food, setup and cleanup help, equipment and funds to keep that hope alive.

Dolores Bacharach and Pete Powell reminisce about the early years of the Gillespie Center.

Several years ago, Dolores Bacharach and Rev. Pete Powell reminisced about the early days of what is now Homes with Hope. Both are featured in the new video, to be shown April 9.

Homes With Hope has grown significantly since 1984. In addition to emergency shelter for men and women, and the community kitchen and food pantry, today the non-profit agency provide supportive housing for individuals and families, rapid re-housing, diversion services, youth development programs na mentoring.

The staff develops individualized case management plans with sustainable solutions, so clients can achieve and maintain independent lives

If you’re looking for controversy — or a story about an affluent suburb that shunned its homeless — stay away from the Gillespie Center. You won’t find it there.

All you’ll see are beds, meals, and Westport’s support for our fellow humans, down on their luck.

(The April 9 celebration of Homes with Hope’s 40 years features a documentary film by Livio Sanchez, including interviews with some of the founders. For more details, contact CEO Helen McAlinden: hmcalinden@hwhct.org.)

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Posted in Looking back, Organizations

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