But residents attending a meeting of the Sherwood Mill Pond Advisory Committee last week raised another issue: the condition of the seawall along Old Mill Beach.
The area — about 35 feet south of the parking lot — shows deterioration and damage, the committee was told.
After discussion, the Sherwood Mill Pond Advisory Committee recommended that the Public Works and Parks & Recretion Departments inspect the area, and develop a plan to address the damage.
Members said that a failure of the wall would cause erosion of the beach, and lead to more sand near the Mill Pond’s western tidal gate — leading in turn to an impact on the entire pond.
Yesterday’s Roundup reported on the efforts by Corri Neckritz — owner of the Groove clothing shop on Post Road West — to collect and ship clothing, shoes and more to victims of the Los Angeles fires.
Right on time yesterday morning, a 26-foot truck — donated to the cause — appeared at her home.
Dozens of bags were loaded. The truck was soon on its way west.
Today, another truck — this one twice as large — will come, and haul even more bags away.
A huge Westport thank you to Corri, and everyone else who made everything possible.
Ready to roll! Corri Neckritz is on the right; her husband Seth is at far left.
This weekend, Westporters will reflect on Martin Luther King’s life. They’ll remember his commitment to action.
On Sunday evening, teenagers have a chance to make a small difference in other people’s lives.
The Westport/Weston Interfaith Clergy Association invites all high school students to a packing party for Dignity Grows.
The goal is to pack 200 tote bags with menstrual hygiene products, for distribution to local food pantries, shelters and organizations.
Interested volunteers should meet on Sunday, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the United Methodist Church of Westport and Weston (49 Weston Road). Pizza and snacks are provided!
The Westport Country Playhouse Script in Hand season contnues next month with “BackTalk.”
The romantic comedy “dives into the hilariously complicated world of first impressions, second chances, and the voices in our heads that just won’t let us be.”
All tickets are $30. Click here for more information about the February 3 event.
Westporter Margie Gillis is a nationally recognized literacy expert.
On February 8, she’ll speak locally. She will deliver the keynote address at Smart Kids with Learning Disabilities’ parent conference. She is a co-founder and former president of the non-profit organization.
The event, at Sacred Heart University, also includes interactive breakout sessions with strategies for parents, resources from sponsors and exhibitors, an “Ask the Experts” panel, and more.
Several sessions are aimed at parents of newly diagnosed children.
Tuesday’s Westport Rotary Club speaker addressed a difficult, but very important, topic.
In 2020, Stephen Panus‘ son Jake died in a terrible accident. Panus turned his “pain into purpose.” His book “Walk On” describes his family’s choice of hopefulness. All proceeds benefit scholarships in Jake’s name, at the University of South Carolina and the for the Lakota Native American community.
Stephen Panus, at the Westport Rotary Club. (Photo/Dave Matlow)
The recent kerfuffle over the town’s $5.58 million repair of the Sherwood Mill Pond — and the related issue of whether, in return, taxpayers (and others) should have access to adjacent Compo Mill Cove, through now-locked gates — has shined a light on one of the most intriguing spots in Westport.
Which raises another related question: How did that patch of land, between Old Mill Beach and Sherwood Island State Park, come to be inhabited?
John Coleburn knew.
The son of one of 2 brothers who built the first homes on the property, he put his recollections on paper in 1982. Recently, Jim Gallagher — Coleburn’s son-in-law — sent them to “06880.”
More than 40 years ago, Coleburn prefaced his remembrances by sayng they came from family stories he heard during summers on the Cove.
“This narrative is certainly far from factual,” he wrote.
But it is fascinating.
Compo Mill Cove (right) is accessible via 2 pedestrian bridges; underneath them are Sherwood Mill Pond (top) tidal gates. Old Mill Beach and Old Mill houses are at left. (Drone photo/Brandon Malin)
Around 1900, Coleburn said, the Old Mill itself — today a private home on the water, closest to the 2 tidal gates and pedestrian bridges leading to Compo Cove — was occupied by an artist named Neil Mitchell.
A relative named Borden, who lived on Old Mill Beach, disputed the town of Westport’s claim that it owned that beach.
Lengthy litigation — along with fights among Old Mill residents, torn-down fences and burning of property, Coleburn said — eventually wound up at the Connecticut Supreme Court.
The lawsuits found that the Old Mill dated back to 1731, when a Westchester man asked the town of Fairfield (of which Westport was then part) for land, to establish a grist mill. He promised to grind corn and grain in perpetuity — and at no cost — for nearby farmers.
The original Sherwood Mill Pond grist mill.
Ida Coley — John Coleburn’s father — spent part of her childhood at her family’s homestead at the crest of Route 57 in Weston. (The Coley house is now part of the Weston History & Culture Center.)
She was a member of Norfield Congregational Church. The mill had closed by then. Each summer, the church rented it, for a youth camp.
Ida married jeweler Henry Coleburn in 1899. She told him stories about the area where she camped as a child. Henry and his brother Arthur, a doctor, looked at the land. They thought it would be ideal for vacation cottages.
Ownership of the Cove was difficult to trace. A man from as far away as St. Louis may once have had a deed to it.
The Coleburn brothers finally purchased the entire area. Old Mill residents were not pleased. They called them “damn squatters.”
One of the original Coleburn homes is being extensively renovated.
The Coleburns built a summer house around 1903. It was located on Long Island Sound, close to where #46 (the second house on the right) is now.
Another home was soon built next door. The original was moved to its present location: the only one on the left side of the Cove, just over the bridge. (It has since been enlarged.)
John Coleburn remembered it being relocated on skids, by a team of horses.
43 Compo Mill Cove was originally located across the pedestrian path.
There were no bridges. People walked to Compo Cove on the timbers on which the tidal gates were hinged.
Rowboats brought in heavy items like ice for preservation, and kerosene for cooking and lighting.
A Mr. Perry of Hillspoint Road used his horse and wagon to haul even heavier goods like furniture and trunks, crossing the sandbar at low tide.
The Coleburn brothers sold lots on the Cove to their friends “so a congenial group would result,” John Coleburn wrote. The price was $250 per lot.
Dr. Coleburn did not like trespassers. He confronted them with a .45 pistol. Once, he smashed dozens of glass bottles at a spot where “outsiders” sunbathed.
For decades, youngsters have swum near the pedestrian bridges leading to Compo Cove. “Outsiders” were not welcome further.
A psychiatrist named Dr. Diefendorf brought patients to live at his cottage. Believing in “work therapy for the disturbed,” he had them build “the most meticulously groomed tennis court in Westport.”
They also constructed beautiful flower and vegetable gardens, plus stone walks and terraces with rocks they collected on Cockenoe Island, and rowed back — with great difficulty — to the Cove.
John Coleburn’s history of Compo Cove includes information about many other original owners. One was the Raymond family, which came from Buffalo for summers in the early 1920s.
Allen Raymond’s family home has been torn down. (Photo courtesy of Westport Journal)
Their son Allen Raymond became the greatest contributor to Westport in every facet of life — educational, recreational, spiritual — than anyone since the Bedford family.
The most famous resident of Compo Mill Cove contributed unfathomable amounts of time, energy (and money) to the Green’s Farms Congregational Church, and the YMCA. He led the Westport Historical Society into the modern era, and Earthplace to sustainability.
Perhaps his greatest gift was his leadership in the town’s purchase of Longshore — a failing private country club a mile away from his boyhood summer home. He loved that house on the Cove immensely, and lived there with joy for 91 years.
Like generations of residents, he could thank John and Arthur Coleburn for their vision and persistence.
And, perhaps, “squatting” on land whose original ownership may never be known.
(“06880” is where Westport meets the world — and our town’s history meets today’s life. If you enjoy our hyper-local coverage, please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
Optimum’s outage last night — affecting thousands of customers in the tri-state area — had many Westporters fuming.
And not just at the lack of internet and TV service.
Calls to the company went unanswered.
Some users heard a recording that they were experiencing a “higher than average” volume “due to the COVID pandemic.”
One caller — okay, I — heard the spectacularly unhelpful suggestion to go online, at Optimum.net.
Service has now been restored. Let’s hope their call volume is down too.
Even with everyone stuck at home, because of the pandemic.
================================================
Westporters love our US Postal Service clerks.
From time to time, we give shout-outs to extra-special efforts. Here’s one more, from Karen Como:
“On Friday, Ruben went above and beyond for me.
“I had to return a skirt to a fly-by-night company. He found the smallest (least expensive) envelope. He folded the skirt for me, put it in the envelope, helped me attach the address with his tape, and found me the cheapest way to send it.
“Then he advised me to call my credit card company to report what I feel is a scam.
Hot on the heels of the rescue of 5 kittens from a Post Road East storm drain, comes another animal-saving story.
Once again, the Westport Fire Department and Animal Control played big roles.
Larry Hoy reports: “Yesterday morning, my son Colin Hoy and his girlfriend Zoe spotted 4 little feet hanging from the storm drain grate on Quentin Road, next to Gray’s Creek.
Trapped raccoon …
“They realized the tide would soon rise, and drown the little feller.
“Quick action by Westport’s Bravest freed the little varmint. Then Animal Control came to insure its safety.”
Well done, Colin, Zoe, the WFD and Animal Control!
… and the “grate” rescue. (Photos courtesy of Larry Hoy)
Gabriella S. Izzo died peacefully at her Westport home on Sunday. She was 87.
The native of Ielsi, Campobasso, Italy came to the US with her family in 1947. She was educated in Norwalk, and graduated from cosmetology school. She was a hairdresser in Darien for over 50 years, until her retirement in 2020.
Gabriella was a talented chef, and gave home-grown grape jelly, fresh tomato sauce, homemade sausage, Christmas cookies and Easter pies to family, friends, co-workers and cherished clients.
She honored Ielsi by cooking and baking traditional recipes for special holidays. As a longtime member of Assumption Church, she volunteered for many years. She was a member of the Catholic Daughters until it disbanded.
Gabriella was predeceased by her husband of 57 years, Joseph, and brother Nicholas Testa. She is survived by her daughter Lisa (George) Stanton of Westport, son Joseph (Jennifer) of Wilmington, North Carolina, and daughter Felicia (David) Smith, of Westport; grandchildren Melissa (Edward) Carter, Jeffrey Stanton, and Timothy and Kevin Izzo, and many nieces and nephews.
Calling hours are tomorrow (Wednesday, September 4, 5 to 8 p.m., Harding Funeral Home). A mass of Christian burial will be celebrated at Assumption Church at 10 a.m. on Thursday, September 5. Interment will follow at Willowbrook Cemetery.
Condolences may be left online at www.hardingfuneral.com. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Gabriella’s name to Assumption Church.
Gabriella Izzo
=================================================
Don’t call them “birdbrains.”
Every spring, for years, birds know to return to the same spot at the Playhouse Condominiums.
There — atop a fire alarm, underneath the protected parking garage — they build their nest.
The mother sits on the eggs. Eventually, they hatch.
They hang out for a couple of months, doing whatever birds do all day.
At night, they sleep.
And next spring, the baby will return to do it all over again.
And finally … as soon as you saw the raccoon rescue story (above), you knew this was coming:
(Some Levitt Pavilion shows are free. Well, ALL “06880” content is. But we couldn’t do this without contributions from readers like you. Please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
Click here to help support “06880” via credit card or PayPal. Any amount is welcome, appreciated — and tax-deductible! Reader contributions keep this blog going. (Alternate methods: Please send a check to “06880”: PO Box 744, Westport, CT 06881. Or use Venmo: @blog06880. Or Zelle: dwoog@optonline.net. Thanks!)
GET THE “06880” APP
The “06880” app (search for it on the Apple or Android store) is the easiest way to get “06880.” Choose notifications: whenever a new post is published, or once or twice a day. Click here for details.
