Category Archives: Photo Challenge

Photo Challenge #596

Posted on May 31, 2026 | 17 comments

The “baron’s mansion” — the building at the crest of a hill on Baron’s South, the largely overrun park between Compo Road South and Imperial Avenue — was the subject of last week’s Photo Challenge. (Click here to see.)

Built in the 1950s for Baron Walter Langer von Langendorff — the perfume executive behind Golden Shadows, for whom his home was named — it is hardly a “mansion.”

And anyone who has been inside, and seen the linoleum flooring and green wallpaper — knows that taste is, um, subjective.

But the building — and his property, bought by the town 30 years ago, still undeveloped — have long been part of Westport’s history, and imagination.

The park — though not his “mansion,” and other buildings — are open to the public, from dawn to dark. If you’ve never hiked the property, it’s worth a visit.

Dave Eason, Morley  Boyd, Lisa Hayes, Sal Liccione, Paul Cahill, Matt McGrath, Seth Braunstein, Seth Schachter, Andrew Colabella, Lynn Untermeyer Miller, Martha Witte and Dana Kuyper have obviously all been there. They correctly identified last week’s Photo Challenge.

What about this week’s? If you know where in Westport you’d see this, click “Comments” below.

(Photo/Ed Simek)

(Every Sunday, “06880” hosts this Photo Challenge. We challenge you too to support your hyper-local blog. Please click here to make a tax-deductible contribution. Thank you!)

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Photo Challenge #595

Posted on May 24, 2026 | 17 comments

Westport is — or was — a “Tree City USA.”

We’ve got a sign to prove it.

It’s right there on Jesup Green.

But 1) the honor might be outdated, and 2) not many people ever notice the sign. (Click here to see.)

Morley Boyd, Lynn Untermeyer Miller, Robert Mitchell and Sal Liccione were the 4 who did, when we posted last week’s “Photo Challenge.”

And no one offered up a back story about it.

So it’s on to this week’s puzzler.

If you know where in Westport you’d see this, click “Comments” below.

(Photo/Amy Schneider)

(Every Sunday, “06880” hosts this Photo Challenge. We challenge you too to support your hyper-local blog. Please click here to make a tax-deductible contribution. Thank you!)

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Posted in Downtown, Environment, Photo Challenge

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Photo Challenge #594

Posted on May 17, 2026 | 10 comments

Chess is usually an indoor game.

But it can be played outside too — think Washington Square Park.

Or Soundview Drive.

Giant pieces on Jim Hood’s lawn captivate passersby. (Click here to see.)

Matt Murray, Pat Saviano, Karen Como, Beth Berkowitz, Cat Malkin and Andrew Colabella were quick to note the location, as last week’s Photo Challenge.

We’re not sure if anyone ever moves those pieces, in an actual game.

But they’re quite something to see, mate.

Today’s Photo Challenge honors Arbor Day (a few weeks late).

If you know where in Westport you’d see this, click “Comments” below.

(Photo/Ed Simek)

(Every Sunday, “06880” hosts this Photo Challenge. We challenge you too to support your hyper-local blog. Please click here to make a tax-deductible contribution. Thank you!)

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Posted in Beach, Photo Challenge

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Photo Challenge #593

Posted on May 10, 2026 | 7 comments

In 1923, Edward T. Bedford built the YMCA, in downtown Westport.

As a boy decades earlier, he’d watched from outside as men played pool in the Westport Hotel — the social (and, in a way, geographic) center of town, at the intersection of State Street and Main Street.

The Y served anchored that spot — and provided healthy, community activities for boys and men (and later, girls and women) — for the next 90 years.

It expanded north, on Church Lane. It weathered all the changes that 9 decades bring (including the renaming of State Street to the Post Road). Through it all, a large concrete logo announced what it was, to all.

In 2013, the Y — now called the Westport Weston Family YMCA — moved to land it owned off Wilton Road, next to its Mahackeno Outdoor Center.

Anthropologie — the new tenant of the original Bedford building — kept the old logo.

It’s not very prominent. It’s propped up against a wall, inside.

But it’s still there. It was the subject of last week’s Photo Challenge (click here to see). 

And Cat Malkin, Andrew Colabella, S. Jonas, Jonathan McClure, Seth Schachter, Lynn Untermeyer Miller, Tom Feeley, Sal Liccione, Katie Carmody, Richard Hyman and Matthew McGrath all knew exactly where it sits.

We’d give you a prize — like a free membership to the Y. Except:

We don’t give anything to Photo Challenge winners (beyond recognition), and

The Y is so popular, they’ve had to cap membership and start a wait list.

So instead, our winners — and everyone else — can turn their attention to this week’s Photo Challenge. (It’s more difficult.)

If you know where in Westport you’d see this, click “Comments” below.

(Photo/Ed Simek)

(Every Sunday, “06880” hosts this Photo Challenge. We challenge you too to support your hyper-local blog. Please click here to make a tax-deductible contribution. Thank you!)

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Photo Challenge #592

Posted on May 3, 2026 | 12 comments

After nearly 600 of these Photo Challenges you’d think I’d know which ones are tough, and which are easy.

Nope.

I thought no one would guess last week’s image: Jerry Kuyper’s criss-crossing blue pattern.

Very quickly, 14 readers responded correctly.

There were various descriptions, but all nailed it: one of the 2 “Mobi-mats” at Compo Beach, that allow easy access to the sand and water for wheelchair users.

As many pointed out, the mats are also great for folks using walkers and canes, parents with strollers, and just about anyone else who needs a little help at the beach.

Congratulations to Elaine Marino, Katie Carmody, Debra Levin, Seth Schachter, Lynn Untermeyer Miller, Matt Murray, Michelle Garvey, Richard Hyman, Nathan Greenbaum, Clark Thiemann, Andrew Colabella, Amy Schneider, Linda Vita Velez and Matt McGrath.

See you at the shore!

Now it’s on to this week’s Photo Challenge. If you know where in Westport you’d see this, click “Comments” below.

(Photo/Colleen Coffey)

(Every Sunday, “06880” hosts this Photo Challenge. We challenge you too to support your hyper-local blog. Please click here to make a tax-deductible contribution. Thank you!)

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Posted in Beach, Photo Challenge

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Photo Challenge #591

Posted on April 26, 2026 | 17 comments

The Westport Public Art Collections feature over 1,500 works.

Some are by artists like Picasso. Some are famous, like Muhammad Ali’s fist. Many are by local illustrators, and/or show local landmarks.

But not all are oils, watercolors and photographs.

WestPAC includes a number of outdoor sculptures. They’re at sites like Jesup Green, Grace Salmon Park — and Canal Park.

That one –“Seagull,” by Christopher Ray — was the subject of last week’s Photo Challenge. (Click here to see.)

According to Kitty Graves, one of several readers who correctly identified the Challenge — he created it for his mother’s garden. (She was the well known garden designer Eloise Ray. A park named in her honor on Riverside Avenue features a different (non-Christopher Ray) sculpture.

Others who knew where “Seagull” landed were Morley Boyd, Andrew Colabella, Lynn Untermeyer Miller, Claudia Sherwood Servidio, Sal Liccione, Maja Sholler and Jen Fridland.

Here’s a hint to today’s Photo Challenge: It’s outdoors.

You probably figured that out on your own. If you also figure out where in Westport you’d see this, click “Comments” below.

(Photo/Jerry Kuyper)

(Every Sunday, “06880” hosts this Photo Challenge. We challenge you too to support your hyper-local blog. Please click here to make a tax-deductible contribution. Thank you!)

17 Comments

Posted in Arts, Photo Challenge

Photo Challenge #590

Posted on April 19, 2026 | 11 comments

Eleven readers identified the old cast iron box stuck to the side of a brick building — last week’s Photo Challenge. (Click here to see.)

But only 2 of them knew what it was used for.

Morley Boyd and Andrew Colabella noted it’s an alarm box, on the side of what for decades was the Westport Bank & Trust building, where Church Lane runs into Post Road East.

They did not explain exactly what kind of alarm. But it was a lot more important for a bank than for its next use (Patagonia).

Soon, the building will house the offices of Compass real estate. No need for alarm!

Besides Morley and Andrew, the other readers who knew the location — though not the function — were Seth Schachter, Jaime Bairaktaris, Clark Thiemann, Susan Iseman, Pete Powell, Jude Siegel, Jack Backiel and Sal Liccione.

This week’s Photo Challenge is an outdoor sculpture — that much is clear.

We have plenty of great art, all over town.

But where exactly is this one?

If you know where in Westport you’d see it, click “Comments” below.

And if you know the title and sculptor, please add that in too.

(Photo/Janine Scotti)

(Every Sunday, “06880” hosts this Photo Challenge. We challenge you too to support your hyper-local blog. Please click here to make a tax-deductible contribution. Thank you!)

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Posted in Downtown, Photo Challenge

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Photo Challenge #589

Posted on April 12, 2026 | 11 comments

Spring will come.

Eventually.

To goose it along, last week’s Photo Challenge featured a farm implement.

It was rusted, and looked like it had been in the field forever. But, in true New England fashion, it still seemed usable. (Click here to see.)

Susan Iseman, Seth Schachter, Brian Taylor, Sal Liccione and Ivy Gosseen all knew exactly where to find it: Wakeman Town Farm.

Westport’s environmental and educational center gets thousands of visitors a year. There’s a lot to see and do at the Cross Highway fields and farms.

And one day – hopefully very soon — we’ll all be able to enjoy it, in actual spring weather.

Here is this week’s Photo Challenge. If you know where in Westport you’d see it, click “Comments” below.

(Photo/Mark Mathias)

(Every Sunday, “06880” hosts this Photo Challenge. We challenge you too to support your hyper-local blog. Please click here to make a tax-deductible contribution. Thank you!)

11 Comments

Posted in Environment, Photo Challenge

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Photo Challenge #588

Posted on April 5, 2026 | 6 comments

Back in the day, model trains ran on small tracks above the tables at Dunville’s.

It wasn’t random. The popular restaurant/bar sits a few yards from the Saugatuck train station.

Times change. Dunville’s is now Little Pub. The model trains are gone.

But a sign — “Beware of the Trains” — remains.

It sits above the kitchen door.

It seems — judging by the responses to last week’s Photo Challenge — to be little noticed. Only 3 readers — Richard Stein, Andrew Colabella and Dave Eason — knew the answer.

And many who do notice it may not appreciate why it’s there.

But Richard, Andrew and Dave are townies. IYKYK.

This week’s Photo Challenge may be tough too. But it sure is appropriate for spring.

If you know where in Westport you’d see this, click “Comments” below.

(Photo/Scott Smith)

(Every Sunday, “06880” hosts this Photo Challenge. We challenge you too to support your hyper-local blog. Please click here to make a tax-deductible contribution. Thank you!)

6 Comments

Posted in Photo Challenge, Restaurants

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Photo Challenge #587

Posted on March 29, 2026 | 6 comments

For a while, I worried that last week’s Photo Challenge would be perhaps the first ever to completely stump every reader.

Then Amy Schneider — followed 2 days later by Dave Eason — struck gold.

Both knew that the image of a bus shelter — incorrectly identified by a couple of readers as located near the Senior Center — is actually on Post Road West. (Click here to see.)

Dave gave a full description: “north side just east of North Kings Highway near #176. For the real Westporters, between the old Steele’s Texaco and The Small Car Company.”

Or, in 2026 terms: diagonally across from Schulhof Animal Hospital.

Will this week’s Photo Challenge prove easier?

If you know where in Westport you’d see this, click “Comments” below.

(Photo/Steve Stein)

(Every Sunday, “06880” hosts this Photo Challenge. We challenge you too to support your hyper-local blog. Please click here to make a tax-deductible contribution. Thank you!)

6 Comments

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