The new operators of the Longshore Inn have big plans.
This afternoon (Wednesday, March 31, 5:30 p.m.), Charles Mallory — CEO of Greenwich Hospitality Group, which runs the very successful Delamar Hotels — joins Dave Briggs on Instagram Live to reveal what’s ahead.
Listen — and respond in real time — via @WestportMagazine. You can send questions on Instagram ahead of time too: @DaveBriggsTV.
The Westport Transit District recently replaced its previous fixed route system with Wheels2U Westport service, an on-demand, door-to-train station group shuttle service.
As part of the changeover, posters advertising the 50-year-old fixed route service at the Saugatuck train station were replaced with new ones highlighting the advantages of Wheels2U.
The Westport Transit District donated one of those now-historic fixed route posters to the Westport Museum for History & Culture yesterday. for its collection.
With Metro-North ridership beginning to pick up again, Wheels2U provides a convenient, reliable, and inexpensive way to get to and from the Westport and Greens Farms train stations. It serves a larger portion of Westport and meets more trains than the prior fixed route service.
Riders can order a ride using the Wheels2U phone app, be picked up at their door and then dropped off at the station platform at any time between 5:45 and 9:45 a.m., and 4 and 8 p.m. Reverse commuters can take the shuttle from the train station to their jobs almost anywhere in Westport for less than other alternatives.
Future plans for the WTD include getting more employees to their jobs, shoppers to stores, and seniors to the Senior Center.
For Wheels2U Westport’s service area, fares and other information, click here. For information about Westport Transit’s door-to-door services for the elderly and people with a disability, click here.
Westport Transit District director Peter Gold presents Westport Museum of History & Culture collections director Nicole Carpenter with a now-historic Westport Transit District poster.
Yesterday, the State Senate unanimously approved legislation to extend outdoor dining in Connecticut through March 31, 2022.
Local zoning or planning officials still have the final power to permit or expand outdoor dining. The law minimizes paperwork like site surveys or traffic studies, in order to expedite the process.
Earlier this month, Westport’s Board of Selectmen voted unanimously to extend outdoor dining here until further notice.
The ospreys are back — and not just at Fresh Market.
Chris Swan spotted one pair of the magnificent raptors at the nesting platform on Sherwood Mill Pond. He saw another on the saltmarsh at the end of Beachside Common, behind the Nature Center at Sherwood Island State Park. Welcome home to those two happy couples!
A Fresh Market — not Sherwood Island — osprey. (Photo.Carolyn Doan)
Patagonia is holding a food drive for Homes with Hope. Bring non-perishable goods like canned chicken, tuna, salmon and soup, mayonnaise, peanut butter and jelly, cereal and pasta source to the downtown store.
They also sell “Patagonia Provisions” — items that can be bought, then given away. (Hat tip: Sal Liccione)
Taylor Whiteside (Whitey) Bailey, a Wesport native and member of a prominent Westport family, died March 18 in Escondido, California of natural causes. He was 88 years old.
He was the 5th child of Franklin and Mary Alice Bailey. His mother was well known here as the assistant to Miss Irene Comer at her dancing school, held in the second floor ballroom of the Westport YMCA. His father was the stepson of Arthur Dare Whiteside, a founder and president of Dun & Bradstreet, and one of the early developers of the Sylvan Road and Nash’s Pond areas of Westport.
Bailey’s brother and sisters included Mary Bailey Beck, Ann Bailey Hall, Franklin Bailey, Jr. and Dare Bailey Wells, all deceased. Joan Whiteside was his step-sister.
Bailey attended Bedford Elementary School and Bedford Junior High School, and was a 1950 graduate of Staples High School. He was a competitive swimmer at Longshore Country Club and a lifeguard at Compo Beach.
He joined the U.S. Marines after high school, and served overseas from 1950-53 during the Korean War. While stationed with the Marines at Camp Pendleton, he was chosen to be the jeep driver in the movie “Retreat, Hell.”
Bailey and his first wife, Allison Norris Bailey, moved to California from Westport in the late 1950s. The former sales manager of Pace Arrow motor home company, he spent the last 25 years of his life in Fallbrook, California.
Allison Norris Bailey and Mr. Bailey’s second wife, Jan Bailey, are deceased.
He is survived by twin sons Kim W. Bailey and Timothy Norris Bailey, both of Westport; Will Mason Bailey of Maui, and 3 grandchildren.
Jimmy Izzo never knew his grandfather’s brother. Army Staff Sgt. Louis Doddo was 30 years old when he was killed at Saipan on July 7, 1945 — just 2 months before the Japanese surrendered, to end World War II.
His remains were not identified. “Unknown X-26” was buried in the Philippines in 1950.
But now Izzo — a 1983 Staples High School graduate, longtime RTM member and former owner of Crossroads Ace Hardware store — and his family have closure.
Izzo’s cousin, Kathy Bell Santarella, began searching for his remains 10 years ago. Thanks to her persistence, the work of the American Graves Registration Service, and DNA samples from various aunts and uncles, “Unknown X-26” has been positively identified as Doddo.
The 105th Infantry Regiment, 27th Infantry Division soldier will buried in May in his hometown of Norwalk.
His name, meanwhile, is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, along with others still missing. A rosette will be placed next to his name, indicating he has been accounted for.
Click here to read the full story, from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
Staff Sgt. Louis S. Doddo
Some cool murals — dating back to its days as Westport Bank & Trust — hang inside Patagonia.
Now there’s a pretty cool one outside too.
Many years ago, the clothing store and Green Village Initiative had a strong relationship. GVI has evolved from a Westport-based, volunteer organization to a Bridgeport urban farming and gardening non-profit. Its mission is to grow food, knowledge, leadership and community, to create a more just food system.
But the connection with Patagonia continues, based on a shared commitment to food justice.
The mural is one example. Painted by Charlyne Alexis and Stephanie Gamrra Cretara, it promotes and supports local farming, and GVI.
Plus, it looks awesome. (Hat tip: Pippa Bell Ader)
Tammy Barry has often wondered about the oyster boat moored often in Long Island Sound.
The other day, through binoculars, she read the name: Catherine M. Wedmore.
(Photo/Tammy Barry)
Intrigued, she googled it. This came up on the Westport Museum of History & Culture page:
“Catherine M. Wedmore is a 56 foot wooden oyster boat built in in West Mystic, Connecticut in 1924. This 96 year old lady still works daily harvesting oysters from Norwalk to Westport for Norm Bloom & Son/Copps Island Oysters.”
Now you know!
Have you started planning for the Parks & Rec Department’s first-ever holiday house decorating contest?
Andrew Colabella spotted this interesting scene, on Dogwood Lane. Click here for contest details.
(Photo/Andrew Colabella)
It’s a dog-eat-dog world. Or, perhaps, a bird-eat-fish world.
Molly Alger spotted this scene recently at Sherwood Island State Park:
(Photo/Molly Alger)
And finally … on this day in 1969, the Rolling Stones were the featured band at the Altamont Free Concert. During “Sympathy for the Devil,” 18-year-old Meredith Hunter was stabbed to death by Hell’s Angels security guards. It was not rock ‘n’ roll’s finest hour.
Olivia de Havilland — who died Saturday at 104 — is best known for her many film roles (including “Gone With the Wind”).
But in 1946 — 5 years before her Broadway debut in “Romeo and Juliet” — the already legendary actress appeared in the Westport Country Playhouse production of “What Every Woman Knows.”
As noted on “06880” last year, on the same day she was set to open the show, she married novelist and journalist Marcus Goodrich. The 12:30 p.m. wedding ceremony took place at the Weston home of Armina and Lawrence Langner, Playhouse founders.
For some reason, the poster that week clarified that the star of the show would appear “in person.” (Hat tip: Joey Kaempfer)
Every year, the state chapter of the American Institute of Architects runs a “Connecticut Treasures” contest. Each county is represented by one building; the public votes on its favorite.
This year’s theme is banks — either still functioning or repurposed.
The Fairfield County representative is the former Westport Bank & Trust, smack (and handsome) in the middle of downtown. Today we know it as Patagonia.
The flatiron-type Charles Cutler building dates to 1924. In 2005 it was restored as mixed-use retail space. David Adam Realty saved and refurbished the original exterior, terrazzo flooring, murals, and 4 of the 5 bank vaults.
To see this and the other 7 county entrants (and vote for your favorite), click here. (Hat tip: Jack Franzen)
Patagonia — formerly Westport Bank & Trust.
And finally … we missed Mick Jagger’s 77th birthday yesterday. So here’s belated best wishes. Fun fact: Olivia de Havilland was old enough to be his mother.
The grand old bank sat at the junction of Church Lane and the Post Road — right between the equally magnificent Tudor-style Westport YMCA , and the very popular Fine Arts Theater.
Today, the Y’s Bedford building is Anthropologie. The Fine Arts is Restoration Hardware.
And Westport Bank & Trust — after crawling through a few incarnations with names like Lafayette and Hudson Banks — has emerged as Patagonia.
(Pink Sumo occupies the lower level, where the safe deposit boxes once stood.)
I even remember many stories about Westport Bank & Trust — including the lengths to which president Einar Andersen would go, making sure that service veterans and other worthy citizens got personal and business loans.
I remember the bank’s tagline: “A hometown bank in a town of homes.”
You can see it (in a slightly briefer version) in Ann Runyon’s photo:
But what I don’t remember is what the image above shows. Apparently, this was a piggy bank.
If you’ve got any Westport Bank & Trust memories, click “Comments” below.
Sometimes the photo challenge is hidden in plain sight.
Last week’s photo showed a Corinthian pilaster with acanthus leaves, and a brick building — but it wasn’t the original library building. It wasn’t the old Y. It wasn’t one of our first schools, like Bedford Elementary (now Town Hall), Saugatuck Elementary (now elderly housing) or Bedford Junior High (now Saugatuck El).
No. It was the longtime Westport Bank & Trust — now repurposed as Patagonia.
Many of us pass by it, probably every day. But only Nina Skaya, Shirlee Gordon, Sarah Neilly, Ann Friedenberg and Linda Parker (who provided the architectural description I stole above) guessed correctly.
For Lynn U. Miller’s great photo — and all the guesses, right and wrong — click here.
This week’s challenge comes courtesy of Seth Schachter:
(Photo/Seth Schachter)
Here’s a hint: It’s not downtown.
That’s all we’re saying. If you think you know where this waterfall is, click “Comments” below.
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!)
