USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > New Canaan > Landmarks of New Canaan > Part 16
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lakes have something the youngest hasn't got. The new-comer may dwarf them all in size, in symmetry and in capacity, but they have personality-they are Grupe and Scott and Brown. They are related to life, there is a flavor about them of locality, a hint of people and what they did and how they lived, a sug- gestion that they could tell a story. Yet Nor- walk Lake Dam is suitably named. Its walls stand stark and smooth, severe and cold. Its bleakness and austerity invited a bald, aca- demic, dictionary title. The name fits now. But perhaps when time has softened its contours and grass and shrubbery have healed the scars of its building, the name too will lose some of its aridity.
The waters of the lake, edged with a deep border of green in spring and summer, and mirroring the gorgeous colors of dying foliage in autumn, are bound to give pleasure to thou- sands who never cast a glance on the valley before. Yet to those who were familiar with the terrain in past years it remains doubtful whether pleasant waters are a fair exchange for the acres of laurel, the fruitful blueberry bushes and the stately trees of oak, maple and beech which they have obliterated.
THE BETTS-BAGLEY HOUSE
ELEANOR CASKEY, Author
WALTER RICHARDS, Artist
[November 25, 1947]
The white shingle cottage on the Bagley estate on Oenoke Ridge is probably the oldest house on the ridge. Built about 1730, when Oenoke was Canaan Ridge, it is the salt box type. Its exterior is much the same as originally, except that at one time a narrow porch was built
across the front and two dormers and a small dairy room were added in the back. It is a well-constructed house, snug and tight, and its present fine condition is a tribute to the workmanship of its builder, John Betts, Senior, the carpenter, who built it for his son more than
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walter Richals
The Betts-Bagley House
200 years ago. The interior has been remodeled probably several times, but some of the old woodwork remains. The hand hewn beams and handmade nails remain, and nearly all of the old, wide floor boards. Upstairs, the original oak floor boards form the present floor, and the attic is floored with fine oak (some of it quartered); downstairs, the original boards were pine and in all except one room have been covered with new flooring. They may be seen, however, from the cellar, under the new floor. There is some interesting paneling in the living room and dining room; one wall of a small room, now the laundry, is paneled with feather-edged Connecticut paneling, and in the downstairs bedroom, which was once the kitchen, are handmade doors with original hinges and a charming corner cupboard with a few early glass panes.
In 1887, when Professor Charles Riley Ab- bott completed the brick house which is now the home of Mr. and Mrs. Bagley, the cottage was moved from its original setting and the base of the stone chimney and the old cellar were filled in. Perhaps some interesting things might be brought to light if anyone should ex- cavate where a slight depression can be seen in the lawn near the little Camperdown elm tree. At the time the cottage was moved, the interior was remodeled. A hall was made be- tween the two front rooms and a new stair going from front to back was built to replace the narrow one which formerly went across the entrance way in front of the big chimney. The fireplace openings in the living room and dining room were closed and paneled to match the remainder of the wall and the mantels, if any, were removed. New window frames on
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the first floor and new sashes and glass were added at that time. Later on, when the house was purchased by Dr. and Mrs. Cannon, a fire- place and mantel were added to the dining room.
The house was moved back from the road in 1887. A few years later it found itself still further back when Oenoke was straightened and moved to the west. The site of the old highway is marked for some distance by two rows of old trees. Doubtless this house, like all the others along the old highway, was once fenced in by stone walls. All of these stone walls were contributed by the property owners to the drainage of the new highway (which ran through swampy ground) and to this day are buried beneath the surface of the road.
Until the day when the old house became a cottage on the estate, it had belonged to only two families: the Betts and the Benedicts.
John Betts purchased the land on which he was to build this house in 1729 from Daniel Keeler for &80. Sometime between 1729 and 1733, he married Sara Gregory and built his home, his father, John Betts, Sr., the carpenter, being the builder. The house is referred to in deeds, dated 1740 and 1743, and Sara, his wife, joined the Congregational Church in 1741.
When John Betts died in 1760, the house passed one-half to his widow, Sara, and one- half to one of his sons, Jesse, subject to the widow's dower rights. The bill of distribution in 1761 recites "the half of ye house ye East End of it to be hers forever" and goes on to say "the widow's dowry during her widow- hood one-half of the west end of ye house and
half of ye barn together with a privilege to go to and from the same and a convenient garden spot ... also one-half the well and one-half the fruit trees . . . "
In 1771, Sara Betts and her son, Nehemiah (who had meanwhile acquired Jesse's interests) conveyed the house to Nathaniel Benedict. Nathaniel in 1782 gave it to his son, Isaac. The Benedicts were a long-lived family. Nathaniel lived to be 90 and Isaac was in his 90th year when he died in 1841 and was buried in Parade Burying Ground. He had occupied his home- stead for 60 years. At his death, the house passed to his daughter, Lorana Benedict Whit- lock (whose lifelong home it had also been) and she continued to occupy it with her hus- band until her death in 1881. On the map of 1867 it was known as the Whitlock house.
In 1882, the estate of Lorana Benedict Whit- lock sold the property to Charles R. Abbott who built the brick house. Since that time it has not been independently owned but has passed with the ownership of the brick house. After the death of Professor Abbott in 1901, his widow sold the property to William C. Clarke. Clarke died in 1907 and the property was sold to A. H. Mulliken who in turn sold it to Thomas F. Cale in 1925. Cale sold it to Dr. A. Benson Cannon in 1933, and it remained the property of Dr. Cannon until March, 1946, when it was acquired by Mr. and Mrs. Carroll Bagley. Dur- ing most of this time, this old house was used as a superintendent's cottage. At the present time, however, it is occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Frederick P. Bowes.
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THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE CHURCH
FANNIE DE G. HASTINGS, Author
EDWIN A. Fox, Artist
[December 4, 1947]
The earliest Christian Science services in New Canaan werc informal meetings in private homes, where a few students gathered to read the Lesson-Sermon on Sunday mornings. The present organization, first known as Christian Science Society of New Canaan, represents the work of the earlier Christian Scientists in New Canaan and of a new group of students. In 1923 this combined group held services in a room in the Playhouse Building which it had rented for the purpose. A year later formal action was taken toward organizing as a branch of The Mother Church. The First
Church of Christ, Scientists, in Boston, Mass.
The room in the Playhouse Building served very well for over two years when a room on the ground floor of the Advertiser Biulding was rented. This room was larger and more satisfactory than the previous one, but it soon became apparent that increased attendance at church services and the Sunday School, which also had been organized, would make it ne- cessary to seek larger quarters.
An opportunity to buy a desirable lot on South Avenue at a reasonable price presented itself; and the lot was purchased. However,
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conditions did not seem propitious for building in the near future, though the need for new quarters was becoming urgent. It was at this juncture that an opportunity camc to buy the building, pictured above, at 79 Elm Street. The purchase was made and alterations carried out with success. On Sunday morning, December 30, 1934, this building was ready for the first service our Society was to hold in its new home.
In 1937, the organization then possessing the necessary qualifications, Christian Science So- ciety applied and received permission to change its name to First Church of Christ, Scientist, New Canaan.
Final payment on the mortgage having been made, the present church building was dedi- cated at services held on Sunday, February 25, 1945.
The activities of this church are many and varied. The Sunday School, already mentioned has functioned uninterruptedly, and during the past year several structural changes were made in the building to afford more space for increasing numbers, both in the Sunday School and at the services. This included the removal of certain partitions, the extending of one wall and much redecorating.
Next to the main auditorium are now located the Librarian's room and a very attractive Reading Room, decorated in soft tones of blue green and cherry. This Reading Room is open to the public Mondays through Fridays from 12 to 2 o'clock. Here the Bible and all author-
ized Christian Science literature may be read, borrowed or purchased.
During the war the entire second floor of the building was used as a War Relicf Work Room and large numbers of cases of food and clothing were packed there and shipped over- seas. This work continued to function through last year.
Recently it has become apparent that the present structure, however attractive, has cer- tain definite space limitations unsuitable for an expanding membership and attendance. Therefore, with an eye to the not too distant future, a most desirable lot situated on Park Street and St. John's Place has been purchased by First Church of Christ, Scientist, New Ca- naan. When building conditions become more normal a new church home will rise on this site, architecturally in keeping with the two colonial churches that face God's Acre.
In a message to a branch church (quoted in The First Church of Christ, Scientist and Mis- cellany, page 195) Mary Baker Eddy wrote: "The praiseworthy success of this church, and its united efforts to build an edifice in which to worship the infinite, sprang from the tem- ples erected first in the hearts of its members -- the unselfed love that builds without hands, eternal in the heaven of Spirit. God grant that this unity remain, and that you continue to build, rebuild, adorn and fill these spiritual temples with grace, Truth and Love."
THE BIRD SANCTUARY
RUTH M. STARRETT, Author
WILLIAM A. MCNABB, Artist
[December 11, 1947]
Three hundred years ago a grey squirrel, with no more systematic plan for its retrieval than the grey squirrels of today manifest, planted
the white oak acorn which grew into the great tree guarding our New Canaan Bird Sanctuary gate. There was, of course, no Old Stamford
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Now CANAAN BIRD SANCTUARY AMO WILDWOOD PRESTIVE
The Bird Sanctuary
Road in that day and by the time it came along generations later the oak had reached a stature and a spread which commanded the respect of the road builders. It was not hewn down to make way for the march of progress as its lesser
brethren were, but was left standing by the roadside.
Back of the oak was an area of swamp and wooded hillside, a little cleared land and a run- ning brook. There were no houses near by. The
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first owners of the tract were probably Seeleys, a name which recurs frequently in early New Canaan records. The forest growth, originally oak and chestnut, was lumbered and followed by swamp maple with lesser varieties of several kinds. It was just one of those many tracts of little economic value.
A good many years later, 1868 to be exact, the first little old wood burning engine with one or two cars behind came chugging its noisy way up from Stamford, its shrill whistle startl- ing the denizens of the section with more than a hint of lost serenity. Because of its heavy un- derbrush the area was a veritable jungle. The only humans ever to penetrate its swampy cat- brier tangles were an occasional trapper or the fishermen whom nothing could ever daunt so long as there were trout in the little east branch of the Noroton River.
Our great oak had meantime attained its full stature and started to grow old. Some of its limbs had broken off and decay was threaten- ing its sturdy trunk but it still stood, a land- mark among the notable trees in town.
In 1916 a group of men and women inter- ested in New Canaan's well-being organized themselves as the New Canaan Bird Protec- tive Society. The late Harry B. Thayer was one of its early presidents and its purpose was co- operation with the state and national govern- ment in a program for the making and enforc- ing of laws for the protection of bird life. It is doubtful if any of the group had ever indulged in robin pot pie or partaken of flicker stew, though some of them may have robbed birds' nests in an early unregenerate youth. A dawn- ing love of nature frequently manifested itself in those days in a collection of birds' eggs. But now they shared the awakening social con- sciousness of birds' rights and the important part a teeming bird life has esthetically and economically in our civilization. There were dangers which threatened its extermination and it was time to do something about it.
The society had just got well organized when the first World War came along and naturally became the major concern of all good citizens for the time being. The activities of the Bird Protective Society lapsed, but in 1921 when
life was resuming its peacetime routine it re- newed its campaign for bird protection.
This took the form of distribution of litera- ture on the subject, occasional lectures and the encouragement of bird feeding stations around people's houses. It advocated belling the fam- ily cat and diverting the small boy with his sling shot to more constructive pursuits. A defi- nite and well worded statement of the society's aims was formulated inviting membership in the society and a general participation in its program.
It was thus at first a modest and unassuming program, but presently the society had growing pains and began to feel the need for a fenced sanctuary where nesting birds could be pro- tected from marauders, their habits studied and year 'round residence invited by winter feeding. It was a not too ambitious concept, for it only contemplated fencing a borrowed or rented section of woodland conveniently lo- cated near the village. But like many another infant project it grew and expanded into an ambitious plan to raise funds and buy itself a sanctuary.
The officers began to look around for suitable territory and called in Wilbur Smith, a natural- ist of Norwalk who had explored Fairfield County from end to end. The area back of our great oak was brought to his attention and after a thorough study of its varying types of terrain, he pronounced it unusually well suited for a bird sanctuary. It had upland and swamp, wooded and open areas, much of the seed and' berry growth upon which birds depend for sustenance and a pleasant little stream mean- dering throughout its length. Moreover it lay adjacent to a large tract, as yet undeveloped, which had been presented to the town for a park by the Mead family.
How within the next three years those 17 acres were actually acquired and fenced through the generosity of a New Canaan sum- mer resident, Mrs. Barend Van Gerbig, is an important phase of this tale, but too long and involved to be told as a part of this story which is, after all, supposed to be mostly about our great oak that now came into its own.
The sympathetic assistance of the Bartlett
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Tree Specialists of Stamford was enlisted to trim, fertilize and arrest its further decay and so great and generous was their interest that they "adopted" it as one of several notable trecs under their care in the county and have ever since, at their own expense, supervised its welfare. Its response and gratitude for their care is for all to see. No longer jagged limbs and decaying crevices proclaim its old age. In renewed youth and pomp the great oak stands, the officially proclaimed guardian of our sanc- tuary gate.
No sooner had the society its sanctuary, how- ever, than other pressing needs and aspirations presented themselves. The services of a warden were seen to be imperative; a house to func- tion as meeting room, museum, library and gen- eral headquarters; a landscaping program to lay out trails, develop pools for water fowl; a planting program to conserve and increase the wild flower and fern population, which was already considerable and finally, an education- al program to interest the children of the town in the sanctuary facilities and teach them the lessons of conservation. All these adjuncts have been forthcoming and others as well.
The sanctuary managers for a time tried to get on with part time wardens. Wilbur Smith himself was the first one, and then, after a series of others over two or three years, it was de- cided to raise funds by general appeal to em- ploy a full time man. Someone on the commit- tee chanced to know about a young man living close by the sanctuary whose hobby was birds and wild flowers. He was employed by the Wecd and Duryea firm at the time, but they secured his release and Clinton Bartow came to be the presiding genius over the sanctuary. It would be hard to say how many nature lovers from all over our country he has led along our trails or how many youngsters he has inspired with some of his own love for birds and flowers through all these years. He counts his sanctu- ary visitors now by the thousands.
While it was the aim of the sanctuary man- agers to keep the area as far as possible in its original wild statc, a system of trails was obvi- ously necessary and some pools for water birds. These were presently achieved under the su-
pervision of the president of the society, Ste- phen B. Hoyt. How he, through his own efforts and certain pressures which he secms to know how to apply to any committecs working under him, brought a bright vision to actuality is, like the tale of acquiring the sanctuary, too long a story to tell here, but it all came to pass.
Then up rose the manager charged with the immediate operation of sanctuary affairs, Fred- erick Fisher. He and his committee secured the gift of a portable house from Mr. and Mrs. Sam- uel Watts, raised the funds to move and adapt it to our purposes and as a finishing touch wan- gled some beautiful furniture for it from a New York club that chanced to be making altera- tions at the time.
The committee appointed to take charge of the sanctuary planting projects enlisted the co- operation of the New Canaan Garden Club and, with a sense of inadequate knowledge, in- duced, it must be confessed, by several fail- ures, secured the help of Professor Edith Rob- erts of Vassar's botany department, to make an ecological study and map of the area. This has made possible a much more intelligent and successful planting program. Visitors in early spring, when the urge to get out of doors is acute, flock to the sanctuary to admire and lit- erally to bow down if they want to get the subtle fragrance of the arbutus planted by Robert Lemmon. They seek out the spreading patches of trillium, the anemone on the hill- side, the banks white with bloodroot, the spring beauties and the fuzzy uncurling fronds of the ferns.
The educational aims of the society are furthered by sending teachers of the public schools to the Audubon summer camps whence they bring back inspiration to pass on to their classes.
For three or four years two tame deer were popular members of the sanctuary family, but they got over-familiar with visitors and had to be banished. With their sharp little hooves they would jump up on people in their eagerness for cigarettes. No, they didn't smoke, they chewed -and were a real menace to safety.
While all this development was going on in- side the sanctuary gate, quite as miraculous
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a transformation was taking place under the leadership of Henry Kelley and the town Park Commission next door. Our park was taking shape and it soon became obvious that the sanctuary was more than just a neighbor of the park. It should be an adjunct of it. And so it became. With controlling reservations which still preserve its original functions as a sanctu- ary it is now owned by the town and supported jointly by the Park Commission and the Bird Protective Society.
Today the gate under the great oak is open every day and children by the dozen scamper along the sanctuary paths supervised by the ever watchful eye of Mr. Bartow. Grown-ups in lesser numbers follow the quiet trails listen- ing and identifying bird notes even when the shy denizens of the tree tops refuse to show themselves. To them Mr. Bartow will some- times reveal nesting birds in their artfully con- cealed hiding places or will lead them to some
spot along the less traversed trails where the rarer wild flowers are abloom. At the foot of the hill a little way down the main trail they will stop to pay obeisance to Saint Francis whose statue, done by Carroll Holliday, watches over the sanctuary birds. Or they may by arrange- ment with Mr. Bartow, for the sanctuary house cannot be kept open at all times, spend a profit- able hour in the house where is a small but well chosen library on bird and wild flower subjects.
Finally just inside the gate one will note a sturdy young oak which Henry Kelley has planted in honor of Mrs. Van Gerbig and Ste- phen B. Hoyt. The society threatens some day to plant two more in honor of Mr. Kelley him- self and Miss Myra Valentine for it is now un- der their ministrations and immediate super- vision, as president and manager, that the birds sing, the flowers bloom and our great oak spreads its benign and fatherly shade over the sanctuary, its denizens and its visitors.
THE GARDEN CENTER SITE
CARINA EAGLESFIELD MILLIGAN, Author
EVERETT HENRY, Artist
[December 18, 1947]
"May I come in?" a fine upstanding man called from a huge truck on the road in front of the little brick building at West Road and Weed Street. As he walked through the gracious double doors, he looked hard and long at the small desk and chair salvaged from the build- ing's former use as a school. "I might have sat in that very seat. I went to school here-the only schooling I ever had. It meant a lot to me and I have often wondered about the old place."
Connecticut's early history and high stand- ards are woven into Canaan Parish and these pleasant rolling breeze-swept acres called the
Old Church District. In 1732 the cemetery was started on West Road where now Sunset Hill Road cuts through the old Child estate. By 1760 the neighbors were tired of trekking each Sunday to St. Paul's Church in Norwalk and St. John's in Stamford and they started the first Episcopal Church within the cemetery walls.
An educated citizen makes a better citizen and in 1644 in Hartford it was enacted into our laws: "If there were 50 householders, they shall forthwith appoint one within their town to teach all such children as shall resort to him, to write and read, whose wages shall be paid either by the parents or masters of such chil-
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The Garden Center
dren or by the inhabitants in general." To aug- ment the school support, a School Fund was soon started. In 1733 seven townships in Litch- field County were sold and the monies set aside for the fund; and part of the proceeds were added from the Western Reserve land in Ohio. That great tract of three and a half million acres had come to Connecticut by original grant from King Charles the First and after the Revolution was dispersed. From the very start of our great state, schools have been an integral part of our way of life, and the children have been educated at home, in little schools or in our time by great central systems.
The first school building in the Old Church District may have been built in 1794 and cer- tainly was standing in 1800. It was the custom to place the schools in a convenient location on land less valuable than the tillable fields and for this District, now called the Fourth, the tri-
angle made by the intersection of West Road and Weed Street was first used.
A tattered old record book came to the light of day in the rafters of a nearby attic. What a gulf there is between that century and ours! Instead of the gleaming buses to carry the chil- dren to great buildings more complete and broad than the colleges of their time, rutty roads, one room with one teacher for scholars from six into adolescence, started the young people into life. Because every hand was needed to help on the farms the term was short. The entry of 1826 shows that it was voted "To have the school taught this present winter to commence on the 20th of Nov. and continue until the 1st day of April at 12 dollars per month," and to allow the teacher "one dollar per week for board," and "allow 1 dollar 75 cents per load of Oakwood." In 1827 they "voted to employ Charles Hanford to teach at
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