‘Now & Then’ is sponsored by Brown Harris Stevens Realtors Joanne Santulli, Karen Ceraso, Bettina Hegel and Schuyler Morris.
The house located at 182 Weed Street was built in 1910.
According to land records, the property was owned by William D. Baldwin in 1919 and consisted of three acres “more or less.” Mr. Baldwin had a mortgage of $1,800 from the New Canaan Savings Bank.
In 1945 the property was owned by Ms. Vina A. Nowill and the property was now listed as being 2.5 acres. Ms. Nowill (née Meade), formerly of North Salem, N.Y. married William M. Nowill on June 14, 1893. The Nowills were active members of the community and were regularly listed in the New Canaan Advertiser as having entertained guests or were entertained elsewhere, including a trip to the 1939-40 New York World’s Fair.
The Nowills were members of the Talmadge Hill Union Chapel and were listed as contributors to the Talmadge Hill Chapel Endowment Fund. The Fund was organized by the Mary A. Nichols Club. Ms. Nichols was a teacher for over 30 years and served as superintendent of the Sunday School. An album of all of the supporters was listed in an album in 1936. Ms. Nowill died Aug. 24, 1946.
The next owner of record was Elsie Dudas, who acquired the property in 1963. Her parents were Frank V. Dudas and Elsie Barbara (née Kozma) Dudas of Darien. Mr. Dudas was born in Hungary in 1898 and his wife was born in 1907. The younger Ms. Elsie Dudas was born Sept. 25, 1928.
In 1936, Ms. Dudas was rescued from being waist deep in swamp mud in the rear of the Holmes School in Darien. She’d been taking a shortcut to Springdale from her family home on Edmond Street in Darien. A nearby worker, Mr. Edward Verplank, tried to rescue Ms. Dudas but also became stuck in the swamp mud. Eventually the Darien Police Department rescued the pair using ropes and wooden planks, according to news reports.
In 1941 Ms. Dudas’ brother, Charles A. Kozma married his adopted sister Goldie Julia Kozma. Mr. Kozma’s father adopted Goldie when she was two years old and in 1925 his nephew, Charles A. Kozma came to live with them from Hungary. Ms. Goldie Kozma was 10 years old at the time and Charles was 17. In addition to Charles, Ms. Dudas had another sister, Louise E. Kozma.
In May 1990, Ms. Dudas’ home was part of “Christmas in April” which was a program not unlike an old-fashioned barn raising where neighbors came together to help Ms. Dudas with her property. It was year three of the program that was run by AmeriCares but the first time that a New Canaan home was the recipient of the outreach. A team of 32 volunteers came from St. Aloysius Church (other teams included were from the New Canaan Country School and the First Presbyterian Church).
The St. A’s team was led by Mr. James Catrambone. Mr. Catrambone thanked Mr. Bruce Pauley—longtime tree warden for the town, and founding owner of Pauley Tree Care—for the tremendous amount of tree work on the property. The project included a fresh coat of paint, badly needed carpentry repairs and a new garden for Ms. Dudas.
According to news reports, Mr. Catrambone said, “When you get a group of people together, it’s amazing what you can achieve. It was kind of like a minor miracle. It was a ball.” The property was sold to Mr. Stuart Brown on Feb. 21, 1992 for $249,000. The property was sold to its current owners in 2017.