Tag Archives: Lillian Wald

Roundup: Sebastian Lauterbach, Staples Sports, Prospect Gardens …

Posted on June 9, 2024 | 7 comments

Many “06880” readers were moved to tears by last Friday’s “Flashback.”

Appearing the day after D-Day, it noted that 7 members of that year’s 88-student Class of 1944 had joined the military.

A special surprise at graduation was the appearance — in full uniform — of Airman Sebastian (Sebby) Lauterbach. He arrived in time to march to the stage for the ceremony.

Several months later he became one of 2 members of that class killed in combat.

Robert Gerrity — a Staples grad now living in Oregon — wanted to learn more. He found this online:

Private Sebastian Lauterbach Jr. served with the 78th Infantry Division, 311th Infantry Regiment,

He was killed in action on January 3, 1945. He was 19 years old.

He earned a Purple Heart, among other honors. He is buried or memorialized in the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten.

The Lauterbach family is well known in this area. We are honored to remember him today.

Pvt. Sebastian Lauterbach Jr.

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All hail Staples’ newest state champs: the boys rugby team.

The Wreckers trounced rival Greenwich 29-7 yesterday, at Southern Connecticut State University.

The victory was even sweeter because the Cardinals beat Staples earlier this year, in the first match of the season.

Congratulations to coach Jack Corcoran, and his young men. They stand at the top of the state, in one of the toughest sports on the planet.

Wearing state champion shirts, the Staples rugby team poses with their trophy and banner. (Photo/Terry Brannigan)

Meanwhile, the end of the road came for the Staples baseball team in Middletown.

The Wreckers fell 9-1 to Amity-Woodbridge, in the state “LL” (extra large schools) championship game.

It was a tough loss. But the Westporters held their heads high. Ranked 19th in the tourney, they were beaten by the #4 squad.

And it was Staples’ second straight trip to the championship. They made it all the way there last year too. They lost to Fairfield Warde.

Congratulations to coach Jack McFarland and his team, on an outstanding year.

 

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Also yesterday: Prospect Gardens’ open house.

Folks who have long admired the beautiful property on Prospect Road got a chance to wander through its 9 acres, and see it close up. The event was part of the Garden Conservancy’s Open Days program.

Guests enjoyed the Mediterranean graveled entry garden, 2 orchards, stone-tiered vegetable garden, blueberry and raspberry houses, beehives, sunny perennial garden, shady perennial woodland walk, conifer collection, flowering shrub and grass borders, Japanese-inspired meditation garden and maple collection, 2 pools, containers featuring citrus and cacti, glasshouse, sculpture, amphitheater and perennial/native wildflower meadow.

John and Melissa Ceriale’s vision — brought to life by garden designer Cindy Shumate — looks magical from the street.

Walking through it is an experience of a lifetime.

Prospect Gardens (Photos/Frank Rosen)

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65 Jesup Road — the handsome “Godillot Carriage House” near Imperial Avenue — is for sale.

Built in 1882, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the one-time Westport Public Schools office (before they moved to Town Hall) was sold to a law office in 1985. It has been used for that purpose for nearly 40 years.

Zoning allows changing part of the building to 1 or more residential units, provided for no more than 25% of the building area. A single market residential unit is permitted as of right. Multiple units would have to comply with the
20% affordable housing requirement. (Hat tip: Cynthia Nigro)

65 Jesup Road

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Speaking of downtown: You may not have known that yesterday was World Wide Knit in Public Day.

I sure didn’t.

But the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Westport sponsored a meet-up at the Library Riverwalk.

Jan Braunle of Bridgeport (left, photo below) and Marjolijn de Jager of Stamford enjoyed the day, and each other’s company.

And their knitting.

(Hat tip and photo/Frank Rosen)

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f you missed the first showing of Homes with Hope’s 40th anniversary documentary: Don’t miss the next one.

It’s this afternoon: Sunday, June 9, 2 to 3:30 p.m., Christ & Holy Trinity Church’s Branson Hall.

The free event showcases the non-profit’s 4 decades of housing the homeless, feeding the hungry, and offering hope to neighbors whose lives are not as fortunate as others’.

Former Westporter Livio Sanchez’s documentary film uses interviews and archival material (including long-ago video), to trace Homes with Hope’s history, from a controversial concept (with plenty of NIMBY and it’s-not-our-problem opposition), through its move from a drafty firehouse to an old maintenance shed on Jesup Road (now the Gillespie Center), and its current array of multi-pronged programs.

Jim Gillespie’s family will be honored at the showing. He played a major role in the founding and development of the Interfaith Housing Association, the original iteration of Homes with Hope.

The Gillespie Center was named in his honor Dr. Gillespie, a clinical psychologist, was killed when struck by a car in France in 1988.

The Gillespie Center. Dr. Gillespie’s family will be on hand June 9, for the showing of a documentary on Homes with Hope’s first 40 years.

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Later this month, Cleveland NPR station WKSU will broadcast and livestream “Lady at the Helm: Lillian Wald and the Nurses’ Emergency Council.”

Why should Westporters care (and listen)?

The famed nurse/humanitarian/author/human rights activist — who campaigned for suffrage, founded the Henry Street Settlement in New York, and helped start the NAACP — lived for many years on Round Pond, off Compo Road South.

Eleanor Roosevelt was a frequent visitor here.

Set in 1918, the WKSU story describes Wald’s struggle to turn New York into a sprawling field hospital, amid the world’s deadliest influenza.

The story also focuses on Black female nurses and their determination to serve, despite being barred from service during World War I.

There is another Westport connection: Funding was provided by the Betty R. Sheffer Foundation, honoring the longtime Westport philanthropist.

The Lillian Wald story airs on June 19, at 9 p.m. Click here for the livestream.

Lillian Wald’s house today.

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There are many great outdoor wedding spots in Westport. Longshore is the obvious one.

Other people get married on a beach, or in back yards.

The Westport Woman’s Club is a wonderful venue too.

Amy Schneider snapped this shot yesterday, as wedding preparations began:

Westport Woman’s Club. (Amy Schneider)

She could not take a similar image next week.

Unless a couple wants to get hitched in the middle of the Yankee Doodle Fair.

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This visitor to St. John Place stopped long enough to pose for a “Westport … Naturally” photo.

Okay, maybe he was moving at his own pace. I don’t know.

But it is a very cool looking shot.

(Photo/Carol Anne Ances)

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And finally … a beautiful song, for beautiful Prospect Gardens (story above):

(As we do every day, “06880” keeps you informed about Westport’s history; environmental, sport and real estate news, upcoming events, and much more. Please click here to support our work.)

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Posted in Environment, History, Real estate, Sports, Staples HS

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Lillian Wald: The Sequel

Posted on April 16, 2020 | 12 comments

Tuesday’s “06880” story on the Westport Library’s suffragist exhibit included some information about Lillian Wald. 

The Round Pond Road resident was revered nationally for addressing social ills like child labor and racial injustice. She worked tirelessly for immigrants’ rights, world peace and women’s full franchise. 

But there is much more to Lillian Wald’s story. Kathie Motes Bennewitz and Bob Weingarten fill in the blanks.

Lillian Wald was born in 1867 in Cincinnati. She graduated from high school at 15, and spent the next 6 years traveling around the globe. After moving to New York City she studied nursing, then entered the Women’s Medical College become a doctor.

In medical school she volunteered her services to the immigrants and poor on the Lower East Side. She became so engrossed in that care that she left medical school. In 1893 she organized the Henry Street Settlement and Visiting Nurse Service of New York. She found her calling.

Henry Street Settlement.

Wald was a dynamic organizer. She started with 10 nurses. By 1916, 250 nurses served 1,300 patients a day.

She worked out of 265 Henry Street, a 5-story walk-up, cold water building on the Lower East Side. Wald helped to educate those she served on health care and personal hygiene, and expanded to assist in housing, employment and education. In 1903 she persuaded President Theodore Roosevelt to create a Federal Children’s Bureau.

Lillian Wald

In later years, Wald was recognized for her efforts in nursing and as an author.

In 1970 she was inducted into the Hall of Fame for Great Americans through the dedicated effort of Aaron Rabinowitz — Ann Sheffer’s grandfather — who knew Wald from childhood, and in the 1930s had moved to Westport to be near her.

She had come to Westport in 1917, as a summer resident. When she retired, she moved full-time to the 1868 house on the pond across from Longshore. She enjoyed watching neighborhood youngsters skate there in winter.

The library exhibit focuses on her suffrage work. In 1914 Wald wrote::

Democracy brings people nearer together…. When women share equally with men the responsibility for righteousness in government and when their counsels on matters of public welfare are given the dignity the ballot bestows, there will follow a new sense of comradeship, a new sense of fellowship between men and women: woman win not be the unacknowledged power behind the throne—she will share the throne!

The suffrage movement in Connecticut.

In the 1910s Wald hosted suffrage events at the Settlement, and delivered addresses. On November 4, 1915, she fed supportive “watchers and pickets” at Lower East Side assembly districts as men voted on New York state’s suffrage amendment.

These polling sites, The New York Times reported, were lively with “constant cheers and cries of ‘Votes for the Women!’ from small boys in the street. Here and there an Italian voice chimed in ‘Vota for Women.’”

When she left New York for Westport, a stream of distinguished guests visited. Eleanor Roosevelt came several times, enjoying tea and staying at the home of Ruth Steinkraus on Compo Road South.

Lillian Wald’s House on the Pond.

In 1937, the First Lady visited for Wald’s 70th birthday. She wrote:

The neighbors in Westport got together and made a book for her, one of the most interesting books it has ever been my pleasure to see. Westport is the home of many artistic people, but this included the names of all her friends, even if their talent was only that of being able to love another fine human being.

They all signed their names, those who could draw, drew pictures, those who could write, wrote verses and prose, and I think that book will be for her a joy in many hours when she perhaps would not have the energy to take up any occupation, or even to look at anything new.

I was interested in the cover of this book, nicely worked in cross-stitch, but designed so that many of her daily interests were right there for you to pick out. Two little Scotties down in the corner; the ducks which waddle down to the pond and eat chunks of bread up near the house; the birds of peace.

Lillian Wald’s birthday book cover. It is owned by Ann Sheffer.

Wald is by far the most famous — but just one of many fascinating Westporters whose stories are told in the Westport Library exhibit. Click here to access the full gallery.

Lillian Wald’s house today.

 

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Westport Suffragists: Neighbors, Crusaders

Posted on April 14, 2020 | 6 comments

The Westport Library’s new exhibit — “Westport Suffragists — Our Neighbors, Our Crusaders” — opened in early March.

A week later, the library shut down.

Along with so much else, COVID-19 has robbed residents of the chance to visit an inspired, inspiring tribute to an astonishing group of women who worked creatively and energetically for years. Finally a century ago, the passage of the 19th Amendment changed history.

Fortunately this is 2020 — not 1920. Thanks to the internet, anyone anywhere can see the Suffragists exhibit.

And everyone everywhere should.

Designed by the library’s Carole Erger-Fass, in partnership with town arts curator Kathleen Motes Bennewitz, the exhibit is broad and deep.

In text and photographs, it shows the women (in Westport and beyond) who pushed suffrage forward; the places in Westport where significant events took place, and the (long) timeline during which it all happened.

Who knew, for example, that the then-brand-new library at the corner of the Post Road and Main Street was an important meeting place for early suffragists?

The original Westport Public Library

The exhibit notes:

On January 27, 1912, the public library’s handsome oak-paneled hall was transformed into a political theater bedecked with American flags and purple, white and green suffrage banners. The occasion was the Tri-County Crusade for Votes run by the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association (CWSA). From January through March, the campaign held rallies at every town with trolley service—46 in all—across Fairfield, New Haven and Hartford counties.

Among the artists — the first wave of progressive people to live in Westport — fighting for a woman’s right to vote was Rose O’Neill. Known today as the creator of the Kewpie character, she was also an illustrator dedicated to women’s empowerment. She even used her Kewpies to send a message: “Give Mother the Vote.”

Lillian Wald

Lillian Wald is revered for her work building awareness of, and helping solve, pressing social ills like child labor and racial injustice. She founded the Henry Street Settlement and Visiting Nurse Service of New York, aiding thousands of immigrants. She also worked tirelessly in support of world peace and women’s full franchise.

In 1917 Wald came to Westport as a summer resident. When she retired, she moved full-time to a house on the pond across from Longshore. There she entertained a steady stream of guests, including Eleanor Roosevelt.

Sara Buek Crawford

O’Neill and Wald get their due in the library exhibit. But so does Sara Buek Crawford, a Westporter I’d never heard of. She was a leading suffragist — and, 20 years after the 19th Amendment was approved, she became the first woman in Connecticut ever elected to statewide office.

It’s all there — plus much more — in the Westport Library’s suffrage exhibit. Everyone — of every age, and both genders — should click on, and learn from it.

(Click here for the “Westport Suffragists: Our Neighbors, Our Crusaders” exhibit. Click here for information about more Westport Library exhibits and galleries.)

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WestportREADS: Library Celebrates 100 Years Of Women’s Suffrage

Posted on January 31, 2020 | 16 comments

The United States has never had a female president.

Then again, 101 years ago women were not allowed to vote.

As the nation celebrates the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment — women’s suffrage was ratified in 1920 — the Westport Library joins in. A year-long series of events looks back on that then-controversial decision.

They’ll also examine the current voting landscape. A century after half the country finally joined participatory democracy, our country grapples with issues like voter suppression, and the security of our ballots.

The library’s programs are part of its first-ever year-long WestportREADS initiative. Formerly a one-month event, it’s now expanded into a full campaign: “Westport Suffragists — Our Neighbors, Our Crusaders.”

More than a year ago, Westporters Lucy Johnson and Marcia Falk asked  director Bill Harmer if the library could note the upcoming 19th Amendment anniversary.

He embraced the idea, and suggested it fall under the WestportREADS umbrella. The program encourages the entire community to read the same book, and organizes events around that theme.

Last fall’s kickoff featured journalist Elaine Weiss. She discussed her book “The Woman’s Hour,” a riveting account of the far-harder-than-it-should-have-been political and social drive to pass the amendment.

The next book event focuses on fiction. On Tuesday, March 3 (7 p.m.), Kate Walbert welcomes Women’s History Month with a discussion of “A Short History of Women.”

Her novel explores the ripples of the suffrage movement through one family, starting in 1914 at the deathbed of suffragist Dorothy Townsend. It follows her daughter, watches her niece choose a more conventional path, and completes the family portrait with a great-granddaughter in post-9/11 Manhattan.

The battle for suffrage was long and hard.

But that’s only part of the WestportREADS schedule.

Here are just a few other events:

  • The League of Women Voters tells its story (February 9, 1:30 p.m., Westport Woman’s Club)
  • “Battle of the Sexes” video, about the groundbreaking tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs (February 18, 2 p.m., Westport Library Komansky Room)
  • Opening reception for an exhibit on Westport women central to the suffrage movement (March 6, 6 p.m., Westport Library Sheffer Room)
  • Talk about Lillian Wald, social activist and founder of the Henry Street Settlement who retired to Westport (March 18, 7 p.m., Westport Library Forum).

Lillian Wald: social justice warrior, and Westporter.

Authors, historians and journalists will present other panels and exhibits through August. That month — marking final ratification of the 19th Amendment (you go, Tennessee!) — WestportREADS sponsors a final, big program. Details will be announced soon.

Working on this project has been enlightening, Johnson says.

“The fight for suffrage began long before the 20th century,” she notes. “It took a long time. But without television, the internet or social media — through sheer will and determination, with marches and lobbying, state by state — people got it done. It was an amazing feat.”

The library has partnered with the League of Women Voters. Representatives will be at every event, to enroll new voters.

All women are encouraged to register.

All men, too.

(For more information on the “Westport Suffragists” WestportREADS program, click here.)

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Hail To The Chiefs

Posted on February 21, 2011 | 55 comments

Happy Presidents Day!

Whether you spell it with or without an apostrophe (President’s Day?  Presidents’ Day? — the jury is out), a few things are certain:

  • You’ll forget there’s no mail delivery and the banks are closed, and
  • You won’t honor our presidents.  Not even guys like John Tyler, who never gets any recognition at all despite having 15 kids and still finding time to annex Texas.

Westport is not exactly Presidentsville, U.S.A.  Unlike New Haven, no president was born here (though George W. Bush scrubbed that fact from his official biography).  We’re not even as attractive as Chappaqua as a presidential retirement community.

Still, we’ve had brushes with presidential glory, starting with the Father of our Country.

George Washington traveled through town several times.  At Marvin’s Tavern on the Post Road near King’s Highway South the president declined the feast prepared for him, asking only for bread and milk.  Yet in his diary he called it “not a good house.”  Perhaps his wooden teeth bothered him that day.

James Buchanan was our only gay president.  Did he ever get jiggy at the Cedar Brook Cafe — the oldest continually operating gay bar in the country?

Abraham Lincoln supposedly slept at Morris Ketchum’s Hockanum estate on Cross Highway, during a trip north to raise funds for the Civil War.  No word on whether his wife, Mary Todd, accompanied him, though as a noted shopaholic she would certainly have loved Main Street.

Andrew Johnson had no formal education.  His wife taught him reading, writing and arithmetic.  Some “06880” commenters accuse the Westport school system of a similar lack of preparation for real life.

Ulysses S. Grant was the first president to run against a woman:  Victoria Woodhull, the 1872 nominee of the Equal Rights Party.  Direct descendants of the former suffragette/spiritualist/stockbroker/free love advocate now live in Westport.

William Howard Taft weighed over 330 pounds.  If today’s kids keep being driven to school — and not even allowed to walk to the bus stop — they’ll look like “Big Bill” too.

Warren Harding — on every historian’s list of Worst Presidents Ever — has a high school in Bridgeport named for him.  (It’s in the FCIAC league with Staples.)  I’ve always wondered how that happened, and why Harding students don’t demand a change.

Franklin D. Roosevelt made a campaign stop in Westport in 1936.  He spoke on the Post Road, in front of the YMCA.  FDR and his wife Eleanor also visited Westport as guests of social reformer Lillian Wald, at her famous South Compo “House on the Pond.”  Wald’s guestbook includes the names of Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt, who according to historian Woody Klein “spent his boyhood summers in Westport” — an intriguing factoid I discovered 3 seconds ago.

Harry Truman started as a haberdasher.  So did Ed Mitchell and his family.  Truman grew up to be president.  The Mitchells were much more fortunate.

Among the many women John F. Kennedy boinked was Marilyn Monroe.  She was a summer resident of Westport.  While there is no evidence that any presidential hanky-panky happened here, there is also none that it didn’t.

Lyndon Johnson sent millions of Americans — and dozens of Westporters — to Vietnam.  On the other hand, local resident Adam Stolpen once worked for LBJ, and has some amazing stories about him.

Bill Clinton visited Westport several times as president, including a $10,000-a-plate fundraiser at the Inn at National Hall.  Also, since his presidency, no Staples senior has been allowed to do an internship at the White House.

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Posted in History, Looking back, Totally random

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Hail To The Chiefs

Posted on February 16, 2010 | 8 comments

America celebrated Presidents Day yesterday in the usual manner:  with special sales, no mail delivery, and absolutely no thought given to Zachary Taylor, Benjamin Harrison or Gerald Ford, let alone actual presidents like Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and (the big one) William Howard Taft.

Westport — a national leader in areas like hedge funds, education and nannies — would seem to be a natural for presidents too.

We’re not.

Besides passing through on the railroad or highway, our town has few connections with our commanders-in-chief.

George Washington, of course, slept here — he slept everywhere.  In 1780 he is said to have discussed war strategy with the Marquis de Lafayette and Comte de  Rochambeau at the Disbrow Tavern (where Christ & Holy Trinity Church is today).  He returned twice in 1789 as president, coming and going on an inspection tour of the Northeast.  He spent 1 night at the Marvin Tavern — located on the Post Road, opposite King’s Highway South — but did not have a bang-up time.  In his diary, he called it “not a good house.”

This may be the only time Millard Fillmore appears in my blog. Or any blog.

Millard Fillmore was a guest at Richard Winslow’s “Compo House” mansion on the North Compo/Post Road corner (it later became a sanitarium, then was torn down before tear-downs became fashionable).  But he was here 6 years after he left office.

Abraham Lincoln supposedly stayed at Hockanum, Morris Ketchum’s Cross Highway estate near Roseville Road, during his presidency.  Woody Klein‘s history of Westport says only that Salmon P. Chase — Lincoln’s Secretary of the Treasury — was a frequent guest.  Hockanum still stands; there is a “Lincoln bedroom” upstairs, and the deed states that no changes can be made to that room.

Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke on the steps of the YMCA’s Bedford Building during his re-election campaign of 1936.  He was the 1st sitting president to visit since George Washington.  In addition, FDR’s grandson David lived here for several years in the 1990s.  And FDR’s wife, Eleanor, often visited Lillian Wald’s South Compo “Pond House.”  I know, I’m stretching here…

Hey hey, LBJ...

Lyndon Johnson was friendly with Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas — so friendly that that helped scuttle Fortas’ nomination to be Chief Justice in 1968.  Fortas had a summer home on Minuteman Hill, and some beach residents say that Johnson was an occasional guest.

Bill Clinton trolled here for money, before and during his presidency.  As president he attended fundraisers at the Inn at National Hall, and a private home on Saugatuck Avenue.  Both were low-key affairs, if you don’t count the 25-car motorcades, sharpshooters on top of buildings and helicopters whirling overhead.

Westport has had better luck with presidential candidates.  Like Bill (and Hillary) Clinton, in recent years many have made their way here — more for fund-raising than actual vote-seeking.  Who knows?  Soon, Sarah Palin may come to town.

I’d prefer Millard Fillmore.

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