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New Canaan Now & Then: Aviation to Administration—The Legacy of Walter and Mary Poor

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‘New Canaan There & Then’ is sponsored by Brown Harris Stevens Realtors Bettina Hegel, Joanne Santulli, Dawn Sterner and Pam Stutz. Walter Poor Sr. (1916–2003) and his wife, Mary, were notable New Canaanites who lived on Bowery Road with their five children. 

Over the many decades the couple resided in New Canaan, they made countless community contributions demonstrating the kind of sustained civic engagement that transforms a town into a true community. 

A Civil Air Patrol pilot, and active member of the Men’s Working Party, Walter was an avid sailor, a vintage car enthusiast, had a pilot’s license, an aircraft of his own, and held several aerospace patents. 

He worked at the Perkin-Elmer Corporation, a global corporation which produces precision optic equipment, and was relocated to Norwalk, CT in 1941, where it would remain until 2000. Perkin-Elmer was instrumental in producing the tools that led to American victory in World War II, including optics for airplane range finders, bombsights, and reconnaissance systems. 

Perkin-Elmer’s rapid expansion, fueled by the wartime effort, led to its distinction as the first optical instrument maker to receive a Navy “E” for Excellence. A pioneer in its field, the company produced its initial infrared spectrometer in 1944, establishing a significant lead over Germany amidst their urgent military needs. 

In a 1992 New Canaan Advertiser article, Poor recalls his passion for aviation, “I was always interested in aviation… I got my pilots license in 1948 and the first plane of my own in 1950.” 

Poor’s interest in aviation led him to be recruited for the Civil Air Patrol by Philip Kleinert of Darien, group commander of this area’s CAP. Walter would serve in the Civil Air Patrol from 1950 until 1958, where he taught local teenagers about aviation techniques, as well as participating in various rescue missions. 

Most notably, Poor was on the squadron during the great flood of October 1955 when entire buildings and towns were swept away due to the overflowing of several Connecticut rivers.

New Canaan There & Then

New Canaan There & Then: The Maxwell Perkins House

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‘New Canaan There & Then’ is sponsored by Brown Harris Stevens Realtors Bettina Hegel, Joanne Santulli, Dawn Sterner and Pam Stutz. William Maxwell Evarts “Max” Perkins was the preeminent editor, and in many cases discoverer, of the greatest authors of 20th century American literature, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, Marjorie Kennan Rawlings, James Jones and Ring Lardner. And Perkins lived, and died, in New Canaan. Perkins’ first encounter with New Canaan was in the summer of 1924, when he rented a cottage on the outskirts of town. “You would hate it,” he wrote his close friend Fitzgerald, “But I like it.”

Perkins liked it so much that later that year he purchased a gracious Greek Revival house located on 63 Park Street, steps away from the train station that he would commute from for the rest of his life.

New Canaan There & Then

New Canaan There & Then: Silver Hill Hospital

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‘New Canaan There & Then’ is sponsored by Brown Harris Stevens Realtors Bettina Hegel, Joanne Santulli, Dawn Sterner and Pam Stutz. Silver Hill Hospital does extraordinary work in treating all who suffer from addiction and psychiatric disorders. And it has a fascinating history. 

Founded by John Millet in 1931, it started as the Silver Hill Inn, a place to help patients described as “nervous, depressed, anxious, or malingering.” Beginning in 1971, focus was placed on building the hospital’s substance abuse program. By 1984, that program was staffed by a psychiatrist, an associate psychiatrist, a psychologist, substance abuse counselors, nursing staff, and a recreational and occupational therapist.

New Canaan There & Then

New Canaan There & Then: Shoemaking

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‘New Canaan There & Then’ is sponsored by Brown Harris Stevens Realtors Bettina Hegel, Joanne Santulli, Dawn Sterner and Pam Stutz. As many in New Canaan know, shoemaking dominated New Canaan’s economy for more than a century. 

It all began with the Benedict family, who began making rough, wooden pegged shoes in 1768. These durable shoes were popular with New York laborers and southern plantation owners, who purchased them for enslaved field workers. The Ayres family made higher quality sewn shoes that they shipped to out-of-state upscale retailers. At the height of this industry, New Canaan produced 50,000 pairs a year.

New Canaan There & Then

New Canaan There & Then: The Harvard Five

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‘New Canaan There & Then’ is sponsored by Brown Harris Stevens Realtors Bettina Hegel, Joanne Santulli, Dawn Sterner and Pam Stutz. Many of us enjoyed the recent screenings of Devon Chivvis’ long-awaited film The Harvard Five, about the talented group of architects from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design who, with their professor Marcel Breuer, settled in New Canaan and built the innovative midcentury modern houses for which this Town is now famous. The film is a must-see. And while all of these architects went on to have illustrious careers, Philip Johnson is arguably the most famous of all. In 1906, Johnson was born in Cleveland, Ohio to a wealthy and educated family.