The 1836-built Greek Revival at 63 Park St.—formerly the home of famed Scribners editor Maxwell Perkins (Hemingway, Wolfe, Fitzgerald)—sold for $2,475,000, according to a property transfer recorded Tuesday in the Town Clerk’s office. It had gone on the market at about $2.9 million, later reduced to $2.6 million.
Its owner since 1973 last summer had applied for a variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals in order to gain more flexibility in the landmark house’s home-office use, but after two continuances that application did not come before the ZBA again. Instead, the Planning & Zoning Commission in August voted in favor of a Special Permit for the same. The new owner is a limited liability company whose managing partners include a Manhattan man whose combined business and home address is located about two blocks from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, according to records on file with the Connecticut Secretary of the State.
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Meet and lunch with three New Canaan elementary school principals. Joanne Rocco, Jan Murphy, and Kris Woleck are planning to share a 20-minute overview of some of the ongoing initiatives (STEM, health/wellness, emotional intelligence) that our students are engaged in at the elementary schools in New Canaan. Open to the public with reservations. Get to know New Canaan Kiwanis Club in a casual get together at Roger Sherman Inn, at 12 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 15. Cost to cover lunch $25. Spaces are limited, so please email moldham@halstead.com with questions or to reserve a place.
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This year’s Veterans Day Observance will be held at God’s Acre at 10:55 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 11. The ceremony marks the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I. A reception will follow in Town Hall.
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The Tourism & Economic Development Commission that First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said the town is planning to form will end up as an approximately 15-person committee, so that it can include nonresidents. Among its members would be Philip Johnson Glass House Executive Director Greg Sages (of Greenwich), Moynihan said Thursday during a press briefing. The first selectman added that it’s “time to revisit” the Glass House’s amended operating permit, which expires in the spring. For example, Moynihan said, the town should consider allowing the Glass House, which consistently sells out its tours, to up the number of guests allowed at its single annual fundraiser on the Ponus Ridge property. Asked about the prospect of a new application, Sages said that the Glass House has “demonstrated our ability to comply with the terms of the permit” in the past three years “and, in fact, have not received a single complaint from our neighbors.” He continued: “We are examining the permit for ways in which we can marginally increase visitation to the Glass House, thus driving further economic development to the downtown merchants and tourism to New Canaan, without any disruption to our neighbors.” Pressed for details on just what the proposed changes might be, Glass House officials said the request regarding the new zoning permit is still being worked on.
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Pryority Wellness at 45 Grove St. will run its Holiday Pop-Up shop from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesday Nov. 27, offering shopping with local vendors for the holidays.
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New Canaan Police at 2 p.m. on Nov. 1 arrested a 21-year-old Stratford resident and charged him with driving while under suspension. At about 1:32 p.m., an officer on Cherry Street, an officer stopped the man’s car after seeing the driver smoking a marijuana cigarette. The officer learned that the motorist was driving while under suspension and had a failure to appear charge on his record from two years ago. He was released on $100 bond and scheduled to appear Nov. 12 in state Superior Court in Norwalk. No pot-related citation could be issued, as no probable cause for such existed at the time of the motor vehicle stop, police said.
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Congratulations to New Canaan resident Ava Gizzie, an eighth-grader at New Canaan Country School and standout varsity soccer player who is the subject of a new profile being featured by the Frogtown Road organization. A member of the U15 Elite Clubs National League team for Connecticut Football Club, a premier travel soccer club that has her regularly playing games throughout the northeast, Ava also kick-boxes, sews, plays paddle tennis on the school’s co-ed team and runs cross-country on the varsity squad in the spring. “I consider myself to be a fairly laid back person, I roll with the punches,” she said in the profile. “But the most important thing to me is making it all work, and for that, I need to be really, really good at keeping commitments, being prepared for whatever is next, and then focusing completely on whatever I am doing in that moment. It’s hard, but it’s totally worthwhile.”
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The tenants of a Raymond Street home who are facing eviction filings from their landlord are denying the terms of a lease as described by the plaintiff. The property owner in a complaint lodged with state Superior Court this summer asserted that the tenants at 28 Raymond St. had agreed in September 2017 to an oral month-to-month lease for $7,500 per month. The matter is scheduled to go to trial Nov. 20.
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Bankwell is sponsoring the New England Dance Theater 9th Annual Benefit Show that will take place on Sunday, Dec. 9. New England Dance Theater and New England Academy of Dance will present the 33rd Anniversary Production of the Nutcracker Ballet featuring the Norwalk Symphony Orchestra on Dec. 7, 8 and 9 at New Canaan High School. The Benefit Show provides 1,600 free tickets to more than 30 area youth and family social service organizations. Cast members greet each guest before the show and the show is narrated in English and Spanish. After final bows, guests are invited onstage to learn a short dance and perform with the cast.
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Selectman Kit Devereaux on Tuesday during a meeting of the Board of Selectmen wished fellow Selectman Nick Williams a happy birthday.
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Silver Hill Hospital announced the appointment of Dr. Andrew J. Gerber as its new president and medical director. Currently medical director and CEO at Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, Mass., Gerber completed his medical and psychiatric training at Harvard Medical School, Cambridge Hospital, and Weill Cornell and Columbia medical schools and his psychoanalytic training at Columbia.
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The selectmen on Tuesday voted 3-0 to reappointment Larry Kessler to the Emergency Medical Services Commission for a three-year term through Nov. 15, 2021.
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Congratulations to Chef Luke Venner and elm restaurant, recently nominated for awards in two categories by the CT Restaurant Association for 2018: Best Chef and Best Restaurant. This is the second nomination for Venner, and the first one for elm.
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Finally, a reminder that New Canaan-based criminal defense attorney Matthew Maddox of The Matthew Maddox Law Firm LLC will host a “Seminar on Navigating the Law and Social Policy in the Cannabis Culture” from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 15, at his Elm Street office. Details and RSVP info here.