Susan Wynkoop died last night, of pancreatic cancer. She was 60 years old.
Susan Wynkoop
Susan was a special Westporter: one of those passionate, always-ready-to-help, very effective yet down-to-earth people who quietly (and in so many ways) make this town special.
Susan had a fascinating life story. She was past president of the Westport Historical Society, a deacon at Southport Congregational Church, and among the 1st 200 women hired by the FBI. After 12 years with the agency, she became director of the FBI Foundation’s Oral History Project.
From 1990 until yesterday, she lived in the oldest house in Westport. Built around 1683, it’s the only pre-1700 structure in the entire town.
Passionate about preservation, she gained WHS “local landmark” certification for the home. As a result, it can never be torn down.
Susan Wynkoop did many things in her too-short life. That may be her greatest legacy of all.
The Wynkoops’ home: 187 Long Lots Road. (Photo by Larry Untermeyer)
(To read about Susan’s FBI career, click here. For a story on her historic Westport house, click here.)
The unique, beautiful spit of land drew his parents to Westport nearly a century ago, and kept Allen here ever since. (He added a house on King’s Highway, which is perfectly fitting. It’s the most historic part of town, and no one knows Westport’s history better than Allen Raymond.)
Allen is 91 years old now, and his heart is failing. This afternoon — the 1st sparkling day of spring — he visited his beloved Old Mill home. It’s rented out, but he sat on the porch, gazed at the rippling high tide and spectacular views of Compo Hill, and reminisced.
Allen Raymond this afternoon, in the Compo Cove home he has loved for 91 years. (Photo/Scott Smith)
Allen spoke about his childhood days on the water, his summers growing up, and the life he’s lived here — and loved — ever since.
What a remarkable 9 decades Allen has spent in town.
He’s served on more boards, brokered more good and smart deals, and contributed more to every facet of life — educational, recreational, spiritual — than anyone since the Bedfords. (And there were a lot more of them than him.)
The Westport Y has named the entrance road to their new facility at Camp Mahackeno after their longtime friend.
Allen has contributed unfathomable amounts of time, energy (and money) to the Green’s Farms Congregational Church, and the Y. He led the Westport Historical Society into (paradoxically) the modern era, and Earthplace to sustainability.
He has advised nearly every elected official in town, at one time or other. He’s saved many of them from political disasters, and us from the financial fallout.
It is safe to say Westport would not be the town it is — nor would we be the people we are — without the love (sometimes gentle, sometimes tough) that Allen Raymond has lavished on us for longer than nearly any of us have been alive.
Perhaps his greatest gift to the town, though, is the 169 acres on South Compo Road known as Longshore.
Allen Raymond, circa 1963.
Few Westporters realize that our town jewel camethisclose to being something else entirely. In early 1960, the privately owned Longshore Beach and Country Club — with a golf course, tennis courts, pools, marina, inn/restaurant and play areas — came up for sale.
The typical Westport response — build houses! — was strongly considered. But First Selectman Herb Baldwin and his kitchen cabinet decided to make a bid, on behalf of the town. Baldwin put his best adviser in charge of the project: Allen Raymond.
The group had to act quickly. In just 18 days they put together a $1.9 million package — then earned approval from the Board of Finance and RTM. The latter vote was 38-0. (The RTM doesn’t even name bridges or approve jUNe Day unanimously.)
A month and a half later — on May 28, 1960 — Longshore Club Park opened to the public. It’s been one of the town jewels ever since.
As has Allen Raymond.
He is a remarkable, inspiring, truly wonderful man.
When I was in 2nd grade — just days after dinosaurs roamed the Post Road — my Burr Farms Elementary School class took the Jennings Trail tour of Westport.
We hit all the historical sites: Green’s Farms, where the 5 Bankside farmers first settled. Church cemeteries, where all the cool bodies are buried. Tiny Machamux Park, named by a young Sachem called “Chickens.”
The tour was led by Bessie Jennings, the 9th-generation Westporter who created it. To my 2nd-grade eye, she seemed at least 110 years old. She was probably 40.
The Jennings Trail guide, available at the Westport Historical Society.
Generations of elementary school children have since taken the Jennings Trail tour. Most recently, it was 3rd graders. (2nd grade is now devoted to learning calculus, and compiling genome sequencing data.)
I say “most recently” because a while ago the tour morphed into a field trip to Wheeler House, the Westport Historical Society‘s very historic home. Each May, over a span of 2 weeks, 500 3rd graders toured the parlor, dining room, bedroom, kitchen and barn. Specially trained parent docent volunteers (wearing white-collared shirts, long black skirts and black shawls), and Staples High School senior interns (dressed normally), helped out.
At the end of the tour each child got an authentic piece of pound cake, freshly made by a volunteer parent. (That gift ended a couple of years ago; a couple of kids with allergies could not eat pound cake.)
This year though, the WHS field trip has been dropped too.
Long Lots Elementary School prinicpal Rex Jones explains that the social studies curriculum is being revised. Educators are still deciding which grade — K through 5 — is the best place to teach the history of Westport.
I hope a place is found for the WHS field trip. The parent volunteers were trained to not simply give answers, but to get children thinking about a different time, in a place still standing.
Third graders and parent docent volunteers stand happily outside the Wheeler barn.
Ideally, the Jennings Trail tour will return too. There is so much to see and learn in Westport — tiny Adams Academy schoolhouse on North Morningside; stately Green’s Farms Church, a major meetinghouse in colonial days; the bridges that connected two sides of an important river.
Teaching kids modern-day skills is very important. But so is teaching them skills so they can examine the past.
Longtime Westporter — and always-ready-to-work civic volunteer — Roy Dickinson died yesterday, from a heart condition.
Roy served as a Parks & Recreation commissioner, president of both the Westport Historical Society and the Y’s Men, and deputy moderator of the RTM.
Roy Dickinson
He was also a director of the Aspetuck Land Trust, a member of the Republican Town Committee, and an active member of the Green’s Farms Congregational Church. He was deeply involved with the Westport Library too.
As Historical Society president, Roy was instrumental in developing Woody Klein’s book on the history of Westport. At the WHS, he was a major force behind the completion of the Octagonal Barn.
Roy had a long career with Pfizer. As an executive in their water purification area, he brought water to areas of the world with limited access to it.
A memorial service will be held at Green’s Farms Congregational Church, at a date to be announced.
(Thanks to Pete Wolgast for this background information. Roy Dickinson co-chaired Pete’s campaign for 1st selectman in 1993.)
As Westport battens down for our 792nd snowstorm of the winter — and we check our batteries, rock salt and (of course) milk, bread and eggs –let’s remember that this is New England, and sometimes we get bad weather.
Town art curator Kathie Bennewitz plowed through the Westport Historical Society archives, and dug up 3 shots from over a century ago.
This one, from 1890, shows the “State Street [Post Road] bridge looking west during a snow storm.” Taken from near the current site of Starbucks, facing Norwalk, it shows National Hall on the right. Note the overturned carriage (or structure) in the middle of the bridge.
This shot, from the early 1900s, shows an ice jam “south of State Street” (same bridge). That sure is a ton of ice. And check out the trolley car on the bridge.
Finally, here’s a circa-1900 photo of the “swing bridge” — the Bridge Street bridge? Looks like a lot of people came out to see the frozen Saugatuck River.
No word on whether school was canceled or delayed during those very tough winters.
The Westport Historical Society’s current exhibit showcases the 761 New Yorker covers drawn by 16 local artists.
The magazine has noticed.
A story in the “Culture Desk” section answers the intriguing question: Why, from its inception through the 1990s, did New Yorker covers feature New England scenes as often as city ones?
Unfortunately, the answer could not come from a Westport artist. Our pipeline to the magazine seems to have ended in 1990.
Whitney Darrow Jr.’s 1959 cover was probably inspired by the small colonial cemetery at Longshore.
Fortunately, the insights come from Roz Chast. The staff cartoonist grew up in Brooklyn and moved to Ridgefield (in, coincidentally, 1990). But she’s a frequent visitor here, seen often at Westport Arts Center events.
She called Ridgefield “not super-country, and it’s not super-urban. We’re not on the train line—that’s why it’s affordable. Westport, which is about a half hour away, is fancier—a lot of New Yorker artists moved there at one time. We lived in the city until the second kid. We needed more space, and the public schools are good up here, and that was pretty much why we moved.”
Chast adds:
If somebody asks where I’m from, the first answer that pops into my head is New York, because I don’t feel like I’m from Connecticut. We bought a whole house for what a crummy two-bedroom apartment in the city would have cost and, yes, it’s different.
First, I had to learn how to drive—there is no public transportation up here. And also, the taxi thing—you can’t stand out in the middle of Elm Street and wait for a yellow cab to pick you up. It’s just not going to happen—standing there with your arm in the air, you’ll just look like a crazy person.
Sounds like a New Yorker cartoon waiting to happen.
Back in the day, it would have been drawn by a Westporter.
It’s one of the New Yorker‘s most famous covers: the view of the rest of the country, from Manhattan. Everything from the Hudson River west is wasteland or the Pacific Ocean.
The view from Westport can look a bit myopic too. For instance, because so many illustrators lived here (and started Famous Artists School), we still think of ourselves as an artists’ colony.
Those 2 things — the New Yorker and art — come together this month in clever, self-patting fashion. The Westport Historical Society‘s next exhibits focus on Westport’s influence on the famed magazine.
“Cover Story: The New Yorker in Westport” highlights the 761 covers designed between 1925 and 1989 by 16 artists living in the area. An amazing 44 of those covers actually show Westport scenes.
This Charles Saxon cover from December 19, 1959 seems inspired by the Westport train station.
Artists include Garrett Price, James Daugherty, Perry Barlow, Charles Addams and Whitney Darrow Jr.
From 1939 to 1973 the New Yorker’s art editor was James Geraghty. He too lived here, so his suburban commuter mentality greatly influenced the covers.
Curator Eve Potts has collected artifacts, anecdotes and correspondence from Geraghty and the families of the 15 artists for this show.
The first page of “Hiroshima” in the New Yorker.
A companion exhibit — “Can’t Tell a Book by its Cover…” — is based on a New Yorker quirk: the cover offers no clue to the stories inside.
That was especially true on August 31, 1946. The entire magazine was devoted to one story: “Hiroshima,” by John Hersey. He soon moved to Westport, bowled and golfed with Geraghty’s local New Yorker teams — and served on the Board of Education.
A later resident of his South Turkey Hill home was Martha Stewart. In the hands of a talented illustrator, that idea would make a perfect New Yorker cover.
PS: Here’s one New Yorker cover that resonates especially strongly today. Artist Jenni Oliver is not a Westporter. But her subject matter — on November 12, 1984 — is poignant, considering the upcoming demise of 15 trees on the Longshore entrance road.
Here you go:
(An opening reception for the 2 exhibits is set for Sunday, January 26 (3 p.m.). For more information, click here or call 203-222-1424.)
Andrew Wyeth called Hardie Gramatky one of America’s 20 greatest watercolorists. Parents called him a gifted author and illustrator; his “Little Toot” books kept kids entertained for hours.
Westporters called him “neighbor.”
Though world-renowned, Gramatky loved painting local scenes. Compo Beach was a special place for him and his family. In 1971 he produced a watercolor called “Compo Beach Figures.”
After winning an award in 1974, the work was purchased by Joan Neff and Fred Shearer. In 1979 they presented it to the town of Westport, as a gift.
Three months later, Gramatky died of cancer.
Now, a limited edition giclée — a high-quality lithograph printed on heavy watercolor paper, with a look and feel identical to the original painting — is available for purchase. Gramatky’s family will donate net proceeds to the Westport Schools Permanent Art Collection, which owns several of his works.
That’s a great reason to order one ($200 unframed; $350 with a walnut or gold wood frame). “They make great holiday gifts” is another reason.
Hardie Gramatky at work.
That’s the background on “Compo Beach Figures.” But Linda Smith — Gramatky’s daughter — wants to know more.
She’d love to find out about Neff and Shearer, the couple who gave the painting to the town. She’d also like to find out who posed for the paintings.
Meanwhile, for a close-up look at “Compo Beach Figures,” visit the Westport Historical Society. It’s one of 45 Westport works on display there through January 4.
(To order a giclée, click here — then scroll down. For more information, email: wspac06880@gmail.com. To answer Linda Gramatky Smith’s questions, email: linken2467@aol.com,)
In 2002, Frederic Chiu returned to the US after 12 years in France. A Juilliard-trained concert pianist, he settled in Westport. He loved the town’s support of arts and culture; besides, his wife Jeanine Esposito lived here since 1991. She is both an innovation consultant to Fortune 500 firms and a visual artist.
The couple bought a small house in Green’s Farms. As their children grew, they searched for something larger. It took a while, but finally they found an 1806 house on Weston Road. They loved it, for its bones and because there was space to invite artists and musicians for “salons” — just like in old-time Paris.
Jeanine Esposito and Frederic Chiu, in their Weston Road home.
Five minutes after seeing it, they “crazily” put in a bid. They added a letter, about their dream of sharing arts there with the community. Soon, the house — once owned by Morris Ketchum — was theirs.
They had not even furnished it, when Frederic invited a touring Argentinian pianist to perform at an “art immersion event.” Argentine friends helped prepare native food. Guests called it an “amazing” night.
Frederic and Jeanine staged a few similar events. Each celebrated art, music, film and food, for no more than 65 guests. No one is an expert in everything, so everyone is open to sharing their experiences.
But each one cost money. So last fall Frederic’s friend — internationally renowned violinist Joshua Bell — played a fundraiser there, in the warm, graceful Weston Road home the couple calls “Beechwood.”
Beechwood House is a perfect place for salons.
A neighbor — a part-time Westport resident — who had come to every event took the invitations, and pages from the website, and reported Frederic and Jeanine to town officials. The couple spent their fundraising dollars on lawyers.
Planning & Zoning ruled that no permits are needed for private salons. “We’re certainly not running a business,” Frederic notes. But the time-consuming, frustrating and expensive process got them wondering: How could they take something people loved — something that opens up all the senses, includes a mix of young and established artists and performers, and gets people talking to each other, laughing, having a good time — and reach a broader audience?
A piano performance is just part of one salon.
Around the same time, Frederic played a concert with 100 other pianos — all over the world. It was streamed over the internet. An idea was born: add technology to old-style salons, in a worldwide web of shared intimacy.
Guests chat with others far away, at satellite salons. The iPads are placed on mannequins, for a more “personal” feel.
A donor offered to provide equipment. The challenges were daunting, but on November 17 Frederic and Jeanine hosted an event in Westport. Linked “satellite salons” took place simultaneously in Boston, New Jersey, Virginia and Beijing. All were small gatherings, with Skyped music, artwork, poetry and a Chinese dancer, plus fresh, local food. (In Westport, attendees ate from Wafu, and drank teas from Arogya.)
Frederic and Jeanine have made Beechwood a site for more than their salons. He’s held intensive weekend workshops there, and the couple has collaborated with the Westport Historical Society and Westport Country Playhouse to host events. Last summer, a “Beechwood Open” brought together young and old for an open stage, open mic, open screen (for films), open walls (for art) and open table. Frederic and Jeanine envision Beechwood as “a meeting ground for all the arts in town.”
Up next: a springtime collaboration of artists, musicians, filmmakers and tech folks. They’ll start at Beechwood, then move out into the community to do more.
It’s all part of Frederic and Jeanine’s wish to make their town a “cultural salon hub.” And not just for Westport, but the world.
Sculpture — indoors and outside — is an important part of Beechwood salons…
…and so too is great food and good conversation.
(If your browser does not take you directly to YouTube, click here.)
On Sunday, “06880” reported on the return of an ice cream parlor to Westport. The post was illustrated with a snippet of a menu from the old, much-loved Ice Cream Parlor downtown.
Two days later, I added Tracy Sugarman’s 1950s drawing of teenagers inside the popular hangout.
Now — thanks to Kathie Bennewitz — I’ve got an entire front cover of the menu.
But not just any menu. Kathie — the town’s art curator — says this one was signed by dozens of actors.They performed at the Westport Country Playhouse. After shows, they crossed the Post Road for a treat.
Among the names: Elizabeth Taylor. Mike Todd. Claude Raines. Sid Caesar. Eli Wallach. Kirk Douglas. David Wayne. Dorothy Gish. Gene Tierney. Bert Lahr. Doris Day.
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