Discover 19th Century Inventions at New Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum Exhibit

Technology is a major part of our lives and our culture and the Lockwood Mathews Mansion has put together an exhibit that explores the roots of today’s technology by displaying the “futuristic” inventions of the Victorian Era. 

The Mansion was ahead of its time and one of America's most technologically advanced buildings during the Civil War and the Victorian era so it makes the perfect backdrop for this new exhibit called What is It? Technologies and Discoveries of the Victoria Era.

Victorian era gadgets, technologies and breakthroughs will be on display at the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum through October 6^th. What Is It? Technologies and Discoveries of the Victorian Era will tantalize student and adult audiences in the exploration of mid-to-late 19^th century inventions and discoveries in many diverse areas including communication, transportation, manufacturing, medicine, food and recreation. Visitors are sure to be surprised at how some of those historic breakthroughs are still very relevant today.

A highlight of the exhibit allows visitors to view cutting-edge Victorian Era technology that were precursors of some of today’s technologies, including telegraphs, Dictaphones, gas lighting and early examples of telephones, as well as burglar alarms, stock tickers and much more. Visitors will discover items still enjoyed today, from board games to food such as condensed milk and breakfast cocoa. 

Artifacts on display include loans from Connecticut's Mattatuck Museum and the Museum of American Finance, New York City, among others.

About the Lockwood Mathews Mansion

The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum is a National Historic Landmark located at 295 West Avenue in Norwalk. Tours for the museum and exhibit are offered Wednesdays through Sundays, at noon, 1 p.m., 2 p.m., and 3 p.m. Admittance is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and $6 for children. Children under 8 are admitted free. For more information, visit www.lockwoodmathewsmansion.com, or call 203-838-9799.

Celebrate Strawberries at Jones Family Farm in Shelton

Strawberries at Jones Family Farm

This summer Terry Jones of Jones Family Farms is celebrating a tradition he began fifty years ago as a young teenager: setting out thousands of baby strawberry plants. Jones refers to this as the "Strawberry Red Anniversary" rather than the more typical "Golden Anniversary " because it honors a half of a century of tradition as well as two years of plant production.  

In 2013, Jones Family Farms is recognizing the 50^th anniversary of planting the ‘Queen of Fruits’ and 2014 will mark the 50^th harvest!

According to the Connecticut Commissioner of Agriculture, Steven K. Reviczky, Terry Jones may be the state’s oldest commercial grower having continuously planted strawberries for 50 years.

Two aspects of strawberries have remained constant over the last half-century, according to Jones.  First, the consistent challenge of the weather.  This spring is no exception.  The last week of May started with 28 degrees and frost at Jones’ ‘Valley Farm’ and ended with three days of highs in the mid-90s.  In both cases, the plants and fruit were protected by irrigation sprinklers.  The second constant  is the excitement and passion of farm guests to harvest and to taste the sweet goodness of the first, ripe strawberries of the season!  Jones’ strawberries are ripening now, as they normally do in early June, in contrast to last year’s record early start in May so it won't be long  before it is strawberry shortcake time!

Jones’ strawberries are ripening now, as they normally do in early June, in contrast to last year’s record early start in May.

Jones Family Farms is located in Shelton, Connecticut, off Route 110.  For more information regarding hours of operation, picking locations, picking tips, and other information, visitors can call the Farmer Jones crop info line at (203) 929-8425, visit www.jonesfamilyfarms.com/farm/strawberrieswww.jonesfamilyfarms.com/farm/strawberries, their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/jonesfamilyfarmswww.facebook.com/jonesfamilyfarms, or follow them on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jonesfamilyfarmwww.twitter.com/jonesfamilyfarm.

For area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

The Gary-The Olivia Theater Announces Summer Season

Side view of the theater

The Gary-The Olivia Theater is located in Bethlehem Connecticut on the grounds of the Abbey of Regina Laudis. This lovely open-air theater built in 1982 seats 300 people. The theater is covered but opens at the back to the woods of the Abbey land, and the trees and birds are often a feature of the theatrical world that is created on stage. The link between drama and monastic life is an ancient one, but The Gary-The Olivia Theater in particular owes its existence to Reverend Mother Dolores Hart, the actress, who in 1963 gave up a successful Hollywood career to become a nun at the Abbey. Each summer several annual performances are given in this theater. 

The Pitman

The Pitmen Painters written by Lee Hall and loosely based on a book written by William Feaver will be performed June 14 – June 23.  The Pitmen Painters is an inspirational story about a close-knit group of miners in Northeast England in the 1930’s who enroll in an art appreciation class as a way of bettering themselves. The story follows members of the group as they interact with a university art instructor, experiment with actual painting and gradually build a body of work that establishes them as The Ashington Group, a briefly celebrated group of painters in the 30’s and 40’s. Receiving critical acclaim in London and on Broadway, The Pitmen Painters is a humorous, thought provoking and moving testament to friendship, human aspiration and the transforming power of art.

A second show, the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning musical Fiorello will be performed from August 1 – 11.  Fiorello follows the dynamic professional and political career of Fiorello La Guardia. Elected to Congress in 1916 and 1918, and again from 1922 through 1930 La Guardia served as Mayor of New York for three terms from 1934 to 1945 and was a major influence in the making of modern day New York. He is considered by many to be one of the greatest mayors in American history. Only five feet tall, he was called "the Little Flower" (“Fiorello” is Italian for "little flower"). The original Broadway production opened at the Broadhurst Theatre in 1959, and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1960.

General admission seats ($20 Pitmen. $22 Fiorello) for these shows are available now online at www.thegarytheolivia.com! For special group rates (10 or more) please contact Susan Hackel 860 355-5553 or e-mail pr@thegarytheolivia.com.

The opening night gala/fundraiser for The Gary-The Olivia Theater is on June 14th (opening night, The Pitmen Painters-$25 pp) and on August 1st (opening night, Fiorello-$28 pp) with wines from Walker Road Vineyards in Woodbury, CT paired with local farmstead cheeses and a meet and greet with the performers.

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