Category Archives: Photo Challenge

Photo Challenge #224

Posted on April 14, 2019 | 18 comments

I’ve lived in Westport my whole life.

I know Routes 1, 33, 53 and 136. Of course I know I-95, and I know the Merritt Parkway is officially called Route 15. (I gave up on News12 once when a reporter called it that.)

But I never had a clue that the Sherwood Island Connector is an official state route.

Yep: It’s 476.

That’s one amazing factoid I learned from Patrick Laffaye. I also was impressed with the 2 images he supplied for last week’s Photo Challenge. They show dirt roads, and an impossibly overgrown path (with signs pointing in opposite directions).

All were taken at Sherwood Island State Park. (Click here for the photos.)

Very impressively, Brian Stern posted the right answer just 2 minutes after it went live. (He did not, however, mention Route 476.)

Nor did Diane Bosch, Jalna Jaeger and René Fontaine, when they checked in with the correct answer.

But Wendy Cusick knew that arcane Route 476 fact. Well done!

This week’s Photo Challenge is from the other end of town (duh). But where in Saugatuck is it? If you know, click “Comments” below.

(Photo/Jeff Manchester)

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Posted in Environment, Photo Challenge

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Photo Challenge #223

Posted on April 7, 2019 | 10 comments

On the one hand, it might be called cheating that Rick Benson immediately knew the site of last week’s Photo Challenge.

Alec Head’s image showed the Rotary International symbol in cement. Rick said it was at a bus stop shelter — either in front of Super Stop & Shop, or on Kings Highway North near Canal Street. (It was the latter. Click here for the photo.)

Rick should know. As a longtime Westport Rotary Club member — he’s active at the state level too — he was a driving force behind both shelter projects.

On the other hand, it’s not cheating when we’re highlighting such good works. So let’s give Rick — and all of Rotary — a hand!

This week’s Photo Challenge is a 2-fer. They’re both taken in the same area. And — believe it or not — both are near a state route running through Westport.

If you think you know where you’d see these sights, click “Comments” below.

(Photos/Patrick Laffaye)

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Posted in Organizations, Photo Challenge

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Photo Challenge #222

Posted on March 31, 2019 | 6 comments

Last week’s Photo Challenge was a seahorse.

Okay, not a living one. This one’s a much larger sculpture.

For some reason, it’s located next to the Parker Mansion (former Mansion Clam House) outdoor dining area.

Diane Silfen, John D. McCarthy, Sue Iseman, Andrew Colabella, Christine Utter, Joelle Malec, Elizabeth Devoll, Peter Barlow, Susan Miller and Richard Santalesa all knew where to find it. (Click here for the photo.)

But no one has yet explained why it’s there. Or for how long. Or who created it. Or any other bit of back story.

If you know anything about this very cool seahorse, click “Comments” below.

Click “Comments” too if you know where in Westport you’d find this week’s Photo Challenge.

(Of course it’s the Rotary International symbol. But which particular local project does this honor? That’s the question!)

(Photo/Alec Head)

6 Comments

Posted in Organizations, Photo Challenge, Restaurants

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Photo Challenge #221

Posted on March 24, 2019 | 16 comments

This past Monday, beach stickers went on sale.

For decades, that meant standing in line at the Parks & Rec office. Same for registration for tennis and golf handpasses, program registration — basically, if you wanted to do anything fun in Westport, you had to head down to Longshore, then stand in a long line in a tired old Mediterranean-style building opposite the much more handsome Inn.

These days, it’s all online. As a result, many new residents have no idea where Parks & Rec headquarters is.

The building was spruced up a few years ago. It’s much more user-friendly — and now it shows its age well, not poorly.

The roof of the Parks & Rec office was barely visible in last week’s Photo Challenge. Mostly, Chip Stephens’ shot showed trees and brush. (Click here to see.)

But Andrew Colabella, Fred Cantor, Clark Thiemann and John D. McCarthy have been to Longshore enough to pick that building out of the thicket.

Can you pick out where in Westport you’d see this week’s Photo Challenge? If you know, click “Comments” below.

(Photo/Bob Mitchell)

16 Comments

Posted in Longshore, Photo Challenge

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Photo Challenge #220

Posted on March 17, 2019 | 7 comments

I thought last week’s Photo Challenge was one of those hiding-in-plain-sight views.

But plenty of people instantly knew: J.P. Vellotti’s image showed the sculpture on the front of 210 Post Road East.

That’s the building on the corner of Imperial Avenue that houses Harding Funeral Home.

More importantly — for this story, anyway — it’s also the home of Masonic Temple Lodge #65.

Westport’s Masons have been around since 1824 — more than a decade before Westport was incorporated. The Post Road building has been their headquarters since 1911 — before anyone currently living here was born.

But the sculpture — actually, the Masons’ symbol — was not affixed to the building until last November. It hasn’t escaped the notice of Westporters, apparently.

The symbol (click here for the photo) depicts the square and compass used by stonemasons. (The Freemasons trace their origins to 14th century stonemasons.) The “G” — sometimes used in the symbol, sometimes not — refers to either “geometry” or “Great Architect of the Universe” (God).

You can read all about the sculpture, and its placement on the Westport building, here (hat tip: Elaine Marino). And click here for my 2015 story on my visit to the Lodge.

Congratulations to Fred Cantor, John L. Krause, Michael Calise, Andrew Colabella, Jonathan McClure, Michael A. Vitelli, Elaine Marino, Rich Stein, Bobbie Herman, Alan Goldberg, Diane Silfen, Dianne Ford, Molly Alger and James Leonard — alert “06880” readers all, who knew exactly where to find last week’s Photo Challenge.

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

(Photo/Chip Stephens)

 

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Posted in Downtown, Organizations, Photo Challenge

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Photo Challenge #219

Posted on March 10, 2019 | 21 comments

Last week’s gorgeous , snowy and sparkling winter scene could have been taken many places in Westport. That’s the beauty of our town.

But — as Barbara Greenspan, Fred Cantor, Rebecca Ellsley and Andrew Colabella noted — Michael Tomashefsky shot his lovely image of the Saugatuck River on Ford Road. It’s one of the prettiest spots anywhere. (Ever since the embalming fluid factory left, it’s a lot more pristine too.)

Click here for the photo. And don’t forget to drive along Ford Road — slowly — whenever you get a chance.

This week’s Photo Challenge may be one of those I-know-I’ve-seen-it-somewhere images. If you think you know where in Westport it is, click “Comments” below.

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Posted in Photo Challenge, Weather

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Photo Challenge #218

Posted on March 3, 2019 | 16 comments

If Westport has too much of anything — besides people who don’t think the rules of the road apply to them — it’s rules of the road.

Like stop signs.

Every few feet, we (are supposed to) stop. It’s the law.

But, as alert “06880” reader and longtime Greens Farms resident Mary Ann Meyer noticed, there’s at least one place in Westport where only one set of drivers stops. Cross traffic breezes by.

Her photo (click here to see) was last week’s Photo Challenge. It shows the Hillandale/West Parish Road intersection, just west of Greens Farms Congregational Church.

Beth Handa, Mary Maynard, Tom Lowrie, Eve Potts and Lawrence Zlatkin all nailed it.

But there were plenty of other guesses. The spectacularly confusing Weston Road/North Main Street/Weston Road/Easton Road intersection; Clinton Avenue (near Ford Road); Roseville Road (at both Whitney Road and Cross Highway), and Newtown Turnpike/Woodcock Lane were all possible candidates.

Be careful out there.

This week’s Photo Challenge was taken a couple of weeks ago. It may be hard to remember, but it did snow once or twice this winter. Westport was — briefly — a wonderland.

If you know where you would have seen this scene, click “Comments” below.

(Photo/Michael Tomashefsky)

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Posted in Photo Challenge, Transportation

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Photo Challenge #217

Posted on February 24, 2019 | 33 comments

Two weeks ago, our Photo Challenge showed a jetty. It could have been anywhere in Westport — but it was on Saugatuck Shores.

Last week, we posted another waterfront scene. This one — of a mechanical contraption — was a lot less familiar than the jetties. In fact, it stumped everyone.

Except Fred Cantor.

He correctly placed it at Sherwood Island State Park.

As Dave Wilson — who took the photo (click here to see) — explains:

The structure is located inside the Sherwood Island property. It’s behind the maintenance building which is to the right, a few hundred yards near the park entrance. It faces to the west.

Its purpose (so I was told by the head of SI maintenance) is to measure the quality of air coming our way from NYC. He told me there are other units stationed around the area, but I don’t know if he meant Westport or other nearby towns. It’s Managed by the state of Connecticut ( I think).

The only way you would know the unit is there is if you worked at SI or you took a walk off the beaten track and happened upon it. It’s actually 50-100 yards off the back maintenance road and visible, but not a standout unless you walk closer. It just looked very very strange and at first it seemed to be a generator. But then why there, away from everything?

So I wandered into the nearby building, with an open door, ran into head dude (a Staples grad class of ’85 with last name of Frawley who said he has been there since high school days) and asked away.

At first glance, this week’s Photo Challenge seems crazy.

(Photo/Mary Ann Meyer)

Westport is swimming in stop signs. Who could identify this one?

But Mary Ann Meyer — who took the shot — notes, “This is only a 2-way stop. Traffic does not stop going past it.”

She thinks this is the only one of its kind in town.

Is it true? If you think you know where in Westport you’d see this, click “Comments” below. We’ll find out soon if you’re right — and whether Mary Ann is too.

33 Comments

Posted in Photo Challenge

Photo Challenge #216

Posted on February 17, 2019 | 4 comments

You don’t get more “Westport” than last week’s Photo Challenge.

Michael Tomashefsky’s image showed rocks, a jetty and water. It’s a scene we see all over town — from Frost Point on Beachside Avenue and nearby Burying Hill Beach, to Sherwood Island, Schlaet’s Point and Compo.

Those were some of the guesses. Others ranged further afield: Cockenoe, and Canfield/Sprite Island. John McCarthy was somewhat correct, but not quite precise enough, when he suggested “somewhere near the water.”

The first winner was Diane Silfen. She knew that this photo was taken at the end of Canal Road, off Saugatuck Shores. That’s a part of Westport that many residents may not be familiar with.

But — like so many other spots in town — it offers stunning, and ever-changing, water views. (Click here for the photo, and all the guesses.)

Caitlin Engle checked in later, calling it one of Westport’s “hidden gems.”

There’s a bit of water in this week’s Photo Challenge too. If you know where in Westport you’d find this, click “Comments” below.

(Photo/Dave Wilson)

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Posted in Beach, Photo Challenge

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Photo Challenge #215

Posted on February 10, 2019 | 20 comments

Years ago, Westport was one of the first towns in the Northeast to build a municipal skate park.

Since then, it’s offered thousands of kids a place to learn tricks, have fun, hang out and make new friends.

Of course, in these litigious times we can’t just open it up to anyone, anytime. Hence, the fencing and locks — which were the focus of last week’s Photo Challenge.

Andrew Colabella, Joyce Barnhart, Molly Alger, Wendy Cusick and Amy Scheider all quickly recognized the site of John Pollak’s photo (click here to see). Congrats! Perhaps Parks & Rec will give you a free pass as a prize.

This week’s Photo Challenge looks easy.

It’s not. To be recognized, you must describe exactly where in Westport these rocks are located. A general or vague description does not count! If you know, click “Comments” below.

(Photo/Michael Tomashefsky)

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Posted in Beach, Photo Challenge

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