Who Knew: New Canaan’s DNA

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‘Who Knew?’ is sponsored by Walter Stewart’s Market. Is it too on-the-nose to start a column about historical exploration in New Canaan with a Back to the Future reference? Because I’m about to. 

I’ve stood at the corner of Main and Elm streets and wished for a backpack full of Doc’s plutonium rods and a DeLorean whose dials I could fiddle with endlessly. It would provide the perfect front-row seat to the past nature of this place. What kinds of dinosaurs roamed these fair fields during the Mesozoic era?

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New Canaan Now & Then: Long View Farm

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‘New Canaan Now & Then’ is sponsored by Brown Harris Stevens Realtors Joanne Santulli, Karen Ceraso, Bettina Hegel and Schuyler Morris. The home located at 70 Barnegat Road was built in 1800. 

Anthony Fenick, originally from Austria-Hungary, came to the United States in 1912 and worked as a farmer in Greenwich. In 1922, he purchased the property which consisted of 15 acres, a small apple orchard, and plum trees, and called the property “Long View Farm.”

Mr. Fenick sold vegetables and, during the winter months, plowed the snow and helped construct some well known buildings, including the Country Club of New Canaan. Mr. Fenick and his wife, Stephania, had 12 children. Toward the end of his life, his sight was poor and he was unable to plant his fields.

Around Town

Work Starts at NCM&HS for ‘Bartlett Center for New Canaan History’; May 31 Grand Opening Planned

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After moving to an historic Oenoke Ridge property many years ago, Dede Bartlett discovered that she and her husband were just its thirteenth owners since 1749. Soon after, Bartlett said, she began to find “incredible artifacts all over the property—pottery shards, horseshoes, old tools.”

“It’s marvelous,” she said Monday morning from the large room that used to house the research library on the main floor of the New Canaan Museum & Historical Society. 

“We’ve got two antique barns that are well over 200 years old. And I thought, we really should be doing something more with that. So [NCM&HS Executive Director] Nancy [Geary] and I have worked on a number of projects over the years. Probably three or four projects.

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Podcast: The Dress That Rocked the ‘50s—The Scandal with the Sack

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This week on 0684-Radi0, our free podcast (subscribe here in the iTunes Store), we talk to Ned Lazaro, associate curator of costume and textiles at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford. Lazaro is delivering a keynote address titled “What’s the Uproar? The Dress that Rocked the ‘50s—The Scandal with the Sack” during a seated lunch with wine catered by Diane Browne, to be held 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 19 at the New Canaan Museum & Historical Society (tickets here). It’s part of the NCM&HS’s October4Design celebration—here’s a calendar of events and here’s an overview of related programming from Executive Director Nancy Geary.

Around Town

‘What Makes New Canaan So Special’: NCM&HS Launches October4Design 2023 [Q&A]

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The New Canaan Museum & Historical Society this month launches its fourth annual October4Design, a 10-day celebration of art, architecture and design in New Canaan that includes exhibitions, house tours, talks and other events at NCM&HS and participating local nonprofit organizations (here’s a calendar of events). On Tuesday, we met with Nancy Geary, executive director of NCM&HS, to talk about October4Design and what attendees can expect from this year’s Modern House Day Tour (tickets here). Here’s a transcription of our interview. ***

New Canaanite: Before we get into the specific events you have lined up for October4Design, tell me how it started and what it is generally. Nancy Geary: The Historical Society has been running the Modern House Day Tour to celebrate Midcentury-Modern architecture in New Canaan since 2001.