Vanishing America at the Sharon Historical Society

The Sharon Historical Society is hosting an art exhibit by Jeffrey L. Neumann titled Vanishing America: The Disappearing Commercial Landscape of the 20th Century through October 25.  

This exhibit is a celebration of the exuberance and independent spirit of life in post WWII America tempered by the inexorable march of time. With a focus on the mom and pop eating establishments, motels and movie theaters of roadside America, Neumann's paintings take the viewer on journey down the two-lane highways of the twentieth century. They allow us to experience a part of our past that is being rapidly replaced by the widespread influence of corporate conformity.

The cultural and anthropological aspect of Neumann's work is balanced by his uniquely personal vision. The artist, born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1953 and currently residing in Copake, NY, cannot be considered a regional painter. The subjects of his oil and watercolor paintings come from all across the nation. They are influenced by Neumann's childhood years living in New Mexico and California and his numerous trips on Route 66 in the back of the family station wagon.  His work is noted as finding profound meaning in places often overlooked.

On October 13 at 3 p.m. there will be a gallery walk and talk with the artist. 

Running concurrently with Neumann's Vanishing America exhibit in The Gallery @the SHS, the Sharon Historical Society & Museum will present Now you see it...in the exhibit galleries. This exhibit will take its audience backwards in time, challenging the viewer to use objects and images that are familiar today as a roadmap to the past. Focusing primarily on the changes that have occurred in town from 1850 to the present day, visitors will be confronted with familiar scenes, such as the Sharon War Memorial, the Sharon Fire Department, Mudge Pond Beach, the Sharon Valley Tavern, Sharon Hospital and the Sharon Center School, and with the help of objects from the museum collection, will be transported back in time to pivotal junctures in the town's development.

About the Sharon Historical Society

The Sharon Historical Society and Museum is located at 18 Main Street, Sharon, Connecticut 06069. For more information, call 860-364-5688 or visit www.sharonhist.org. Museum Hours are Wednesday & Saturday from 10AM - 2PM, Thursday & Friday from 10AM - 4PM and by appointment.

For area information www.litchfieldhills.com

Garden Club of America House and Garden Tour Celebrates 100 Years in Litchfield CT

“Garden of Margaret Hicks Gage, Litchfield Garden Club Archives, Litchfield Historical Society, Helga J. Ingraham Memorial Library.”

To fete their 100- year anniversary, the Litchfield Garden Club is hosting a flower show and house and garden tour including two Smithsonian Gardens on June 15 from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. The Flower Show will take place at the Litchfield Community Center located on 421 Bantam Rd. (Rte. 202) in Litchfield and will feature outstanding horticulture and three exhibits one on garden history and design including details on four Smithsonian gardens, a second on the history of the Litchfield Garden Club and a third conservation exhibit on organic food.  A boutique offering special garden items will also be a highlight. The Flower Show at the Community Center is free and open to the public.

In conjunction with the Flower Show, the Litchfield Garden Club has organized a very special house and garden tour of five members’ homes and gardens that includes judged design classes in each home.  Tour tickets and maps are available for purchase at the Community Center and are $50 per person.  Tour goers may also purchase a box lunch at Breeze Hill Farm Gardens for an additional $18 and enjoy lunch on the grounds of this spectacular garden. For tickets in advance visit www.litchfieldgardenclub.org for a printable registration form.

Houses featured for this very special tour include some of Litchfield’s most interesting homes and gardens.

The Ozias Lewis house, built in 1806 is a perfect example of a late traditional center chimney, 5 bay Federal style dwelling. The garden has newly installed stonewalls, terraces and imaginative gardens, including extensive beds of peonies.  The gardens provide extensive views of Chestnut Hill to the east.

The Lismolin House named after a castle in Tipperary in Ireland is a gracious Colonial Revival style house complete with a Palladian window.  The gardens with elegant stonewalls and garden beds afford wonderful eastern views and contain a former owner’s pet cemetery.

Perhaps one of the most interesting houses featured on this tour is the Oliver Wolcott House, built by Oliver Wolcott, Senior, the Colonial High Sheriff of Litchfield, a member of the Continental Congress, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and Governor of Connecticut, in 1753-1754, is the oldest house in the Borough of Litchfield.  Many of the leading figures of their day, including General George Washington, Lafayette and Alexander Hamilton were entertained here.  During the Revolution, the statue of King George III, torn down by a mob from its pedestal in Bowling Green in New York City, was brought by oxcart to the orchard behind the house, where the women and children of Litchfield melted it and molded bullets for the Continental Army. 

The current owners bought the house in 1978 and carried out extensive renovations under the direction of expert restorers.  The house has the original, hand-routed, beaded clapboards on its exterior and oak floors with handmade nails throughout the first floor. The “keeping room” contains a cooking fireplace and beehive ovens.  The delft tiles in the dining room were installed about 1790 and the paneling over the dining room fireplace is original 18^th century work.  The rear terrace overlooks extensive gardens that are breathtaking.

Another beautiful home on the tour is the Ethan Allen House, the birthplace of Revolutionary war hero Ethan Allen in 1738.  Today the house boasts a renovated kitchen, breakfast area and garden room.  A landscape design is in process including renovating the parterres off of the terrace, originally designed in the early 1950’s. The gardens offer an extensive eastern view of Chestnut Hill.

Breeze Hill was built in 1800 as a summer home and the Oldmsted brothers were hired to landscape the grounds. In 2012, the owners of Breeze Hill Farm joined a select group of Garden Club of America homeowners whose garden documentation was accepted into the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Gardens. On June 15^th, you are invited to pick up your reserved boxed lunch here and enjoy a pastoral picnic lunch in these bucolic meadows and gardens.

Another Smithsonian Garden featured on the tour is Chestnut Hill Gardens that consists of a 240-foot perennial border composed of deer-resistant and native plants.  The border surrounds a large vegetable garden, herb gardens, a water garden, pinetum, fruit trees and native shrubs.

For area information visit www.litchifeldhills.com

Lilac Walk & Tea at Bellamy Ferriday House and Garden

On Sunday, May 19 from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Bethlehem’s Bellamy Ferriday House and Garden is hosting a Lilac Walk and Tea party.  Participants attending this event will learn the history, care and culture of lilacs with Bellamy- Ferriday Site Horticulturist, George McCleary.  A tea in the historic garden will follow the program on lilacs.  Admission for the event is $12 for adults and $10 for members of the Connecticut Landmarks Association, $5 children, and $25 for families.

Guests will learn about the 14 varieties of lilacs in the Ferriday collection and their various colors, fragrances, flower and leaf size.  One discussion will focus on ways to get your lilacs to bloom this will be especially helpful if you are having trouble getting them to blossom.  Participants will also learn how to increase flower growth and to protect lilacs from powdery mildew organically. You can even take some lilacs home because lilacs from the Bellamy-Ferriday collection will be for sale.

Running concurrently with the adult lilac program is another program about lilacs for children ages 5 and up.  Children will learn about these beautiful purple flowers through games and crafts. 

About Bellamy Ferriday House and Garden

The house embodies the dramatically different passions of two extraordinary individuals, Rev. Joseph Bellamy (1719-1790) and Miss Caroline Ferriday (1902-1990).  Today this 1754 home of Bethlehem's First Minister transformed into a 20th century country estate with antiques, a formal garden of historic roses, lilacs, and peonies and an orchard.  http://www.ctlandmarks.org/?page=bellamy-ferriday-house-garden.

For area information www.litchfieldhills.com.

The Story of the Game Bird Horse

The Game Bird Horse

The New England Carousel Museum located on 95 Riverside Ave. in the heart of Bristol is on a mission.  This beautiful museum has one of the largest collections of carousel art in the country and wants to welcome a new horse to their magnificent collection. 

Located in a 33,000 square foot restored silk mill factory building, the museum preserves and displays carousel art, which is fast becoming a vanishing art form of Americana.  Their mission is dedicated to the acquisition, restoration and preservation of operating carousels, and carousel memorabilia as well as the creation of new carousel material for the education and the pleasure of visitors.

The latest quest of the New England Carousel Museum is the acquisition and continued preservation of the Game Bird Horse.  Recently, the museum was informed by the estate of Marianne Stevens that she had bequeathed a spectacular jumper horse, named the Game Bird Horse to the Carousel Museum Collection.  Marianne, the co-author of Painted Ponies decided to leave this horse to the New England Carousel Museum’s collection because it once rode on a Connecticut Carousel.

The Game Bird Horse will add immeasurably to the Museum’s collection.  John Zalar, a carver of great note for the carousel manufacturer Charles Looff, created the horse.  The Game Bird horse has a masterfully carved “peek-a-boo” mane and two realistic quail at the back of its saddle and many other beautiful details.

In the spring of 1946, the Game Bird Horse began whirling on the carrousel at Ocean Beach Park in New London Connecticut before Marianne Stevens eventually acquired it.

To find out more about how to get the Game Bird Horse back to Connecticut from Roswell, New Mexico visit http://www.thecarouselmuseum.org because every donation brings this wonderful gift to Connecticut closer to its’ new home at the New England Carousel Museum.