On May 31st, join fellow New Canaanites at Waveny House for a “Night at the Beach.” The 4th New Canaan Benefit for Nazareth Housing supports Nazareth Housing’s homelessness prevention work and will celebrate the teen volunteers that dedicate their time serving the families at Nazareth’s Thorpe Shelter. With live music by the Short Bus Band, dining by Rosie’s, and plenty of silent auction items up from grabs, this event is guaranteed to be the can’t-miss event of the spring! This will be the 4th benefit held in New Canaan to raise funds to support the work of Nazareth Housing and their services in the Bronx. WHERE
Waveny House
677 South Ave
New Canaan, CT 06840
WHEN
May 31, 2019
6:30PM-11:00PM
HONORING
Teen Volunteers for their service and dedication to Thorpe Shelter
BENEFIT COMMITTEE
Cally Adl
Nicole Ahrens
Bethamy Aronow
Colleen Bailey
Stefania Bopp
Kristin Desautelle
Neely Leslie
Mary Lydon
Alexa McCloughan
Mariella Montoni
Leigh Murray
Kerry O’Dea
Rebecca Paniwozik
Judi Panzano
Marybeth Pickering
Luba Radoslavova
Maria Schmitz
Holly Slattery
Helen Sparks
Kate Van Dussen
Suzanne Wilson
Ann Wronski
ABOUT NAZARETH HOUSING
Nazareth Housing is a community-based nonprofit dedicated to the promotion of housing stability and economic mobility of low-income families and individuals of New York City through the provision of: homelessness prevention services, emergency family shelter, supportive housing, and urgent needs assistance.
New Canaan’s highest elected official said Tuesday that he would like to appoint a new committee of architects to set a strategy for capital improvements at Waveny House. A project to introduce air-conditioning at Waveny, for example, and overhaul its HVAC system, would cost $2.5 million, according to First Selectman Kevin Moynihan. “Do we want to do that?” Moynihan said during a regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen, held at Town Hall. “We would look to this committee to recommend what would be the strategy. So we would not be planning to do an $8 million or $10 million or $12 million renovation of Waveny House.
Town officials last week approved a $26,000 contract with a Bridgeport-based environmental company to clean out an oil tank at Waveny House and replace its service lines. The lines right now are taking in water and that’s causing the burner to blow out so that town workers have to restart it, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. “We need new service lines installed,” Mann told the Board of Selectmen at its regular meeting, held Aug. 21 at Town Hall. “They are putting in a new fill tank on top.”
First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kit Devereaux and Nick Williams voted in favor of a $26,311 contract with CTR Industries.
After months of planning and “yard work,” a newly designed formal garden at Waveny House is in place and residents say they’re enjoying it. Those visiting the town park can now use additional benches as they walk through new plantings, boxwoods and shrubbery along the northern wall of the “parterre garden,” just east of the balcony behind the mansion. “Sitting on the back patio of Waveny and looking down at the parterre, you are transported to England or France,” said New Canaan Garden Club First Vice President Manda Riggs. New Canaan resident Cassidy Little visited the garden on a recent afternoon and is looking to use it as a backdrop for a photography project. “I’m very familiar with Waveny, I run through its trails almost every day in the fall,” she said.
[Editor’s Note: The following “Statement of significance” has been prepared in advance of the April 26 Forum on Public Buildings, to be held 6:30 to 9 p.m. at Town Hall—more information is available here and questions for panelists can be submitted here. Most of the information in the bullet points below is drawn from the Town Building Evaluation & Use Committee report.]
Built: ca. 1912
Square footage: 36,000
Current uses: Private and community events; town Recreation, Information Technology Departments
Committee recommendations: More profitable “hospitality” function of first floor; extensive renovation of second floor to provide more space for municipal use; use third floor/attic for required document and other storage. Relevant news articles: Birdcage Elevator Could be Best Option to Bring Waveny House Up to ADA Compliance (April 2018), Seeking More Info, Town Council Hits Pause on $1 Million Request for Waveny House (March 2018), ‘You Literally Just Salivate’: Officials Evaluating Town Buildings See Potential in Waveny House (April 2017)
Submitted by Lea Cromwell:
Waveny Park encompasses the planned landscape of the first resident, Thomas Hall, and later of the second resident, Lewis Lapham and his children, as an “American Country Place.”
The Hall Era: Thomas B. Hall, President of the American Hide and Leather Co1, in 1895 purchased the 90-acre farm of the 18th century Elisha Leeds, creating the winding driveways and stone gateposts that remain today. He built a three-story Dutch Colonial residence with views over Long Island Sound.
