Around Town

Copper Beech Planted by Waveny House as Locals Honor Ted Winpenny on Arbor Day

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The head of New Canaan’s Public Tree Board gathered with a selectman and small group of locals on the windswept field by Waveny House on Friday morning to dedicate a newly planted copper beech tree to the memory a civic-minded New Canaan man. This year’s Arbor Day planting was dedicated to Ted Winpenny, a man whose numerous activities in New Canaan made it difficult for the board to decide just where to plan the tree, board Chairman Tom Cronin said. “Do we plant the tree at Mead Park, where Ted helped organize the annual Labor Day doubles tennis tournaments?” Cronin said, as Winpenny’s daughter and grandson, Belinda and Benjamin Paris, stood nearby. “Do we plant it on Cherry Street, in front of the New Canaan Community Foundation that he helped to establish, which is an organization that has soon will hit a milestone of more than $10 million to local charities since its inception? Do we plant near Waveny Care Center, where Ted volunteered for so many years?

Around Town

Restoration of Limestone Fireplace in Waveny House’s Great Hall Underway

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Officials overseeing the restoration of the limestone fireplace in the Great Hall at Waveny House say the hearth itself may well be a historic piece that was brought in from Europe. Johnny Hilares, director of restoration at Jersey City, N.J.-based Zakalak Restoration Arts, believes that the fireplace is antique but that the heads along the front of it likely were added later specifically for the house, said Rose Scott Long, president of the New Canaan Preservation Alliance. “It’s very interesting, because they’re the same heads that we see in the vestibule [of the mansion],” Scott Long said Thursday as Zakalak workers worked away at the restoration and clean-up for which they were hired in January. The project, funded by the nonprofit NCPA with monies raised at an event that marked the 100th birthday of Waveny House in 2012, is designed to help restore and preserve the cherished New Canaan structure and property in its original beauty, she said. “It will bring this space back to the original intent, the original beauty, the original appearance and if we continue with the help of donations, we can do more surfaces, more materials, more unique elements in the building,” Scott Long said.

Government

Limestone Fireplace at Waveny House Poised for $17,500 Cleaning, Thanks to New Canaan Preservation Alliance

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The grand fireplace that welcomes visitors to Waveny House is getting a $17,500 brush-up and restoration, thanks to the local nonprofit group that advocated successfully for New Canaan to pursue listing the beloved mansion and park grounds on the National Register of Historic Places. No government funds, state or federal, will be used to restore the limestone fireplace in the Great Hall at Waveny. The New Canaan Preservation Alliance has donated to the town $27,830 that it raised during a 100-year anniversary celebration of the historic Waveny House in 2012, and the major portion of that money will be used to restore the fireplace, officials said Thursday. “I’m excited to get this thing going and it will be a real nice addition when you walk into that building to see that fireplace in good shape,” First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said as the Board of Selectmen voted 3-0 to allocate the funds, during a special meeting held in the Training Room at the New Canaan Police Department. Restoring the fireplace has been a goal of the NCPA since it began last spring navigating town approvals for a separate effort—the National Register listing.

Government

Waveny Poised for Listing in National Register of Historic Places

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Waveny Park—crown jewel of New Canaan, gift of the Laphams and site of so many community touchstones, from youth sports, Mosley Hill and weddings to fireworks, nature hikes and sledding—is poised to take an important step toward listing in the National Register of Historic Places, following an informative public hearing Thursday night. Inclusion in the register puts no restrictions on the property and would allow New Canaan to apply for funds in the form of matching dollar-for-dollar reimbursement grants that could go toward restoring parts of the original Olmsted-designed landscape or work on Waveny House and its many outbuildings—planning, conditions assessments, architects’ fees and feasibility studies, state officials said during a meeting of the Town Council Land Use & Recreation Committee. Waveny is “in wonderful shape right now as far as its integrity is concerned, so you’re starting with a really good product,” said Mary Dunne, administrator of the State Historic Preservation Office. “And so I’m assuming you want to keep it that way,” added Dunne at the hearing, held in the Training Room of the New Canaan Police Department. Attended by more than 20 guests, the hearing followed two public meetings on the matter of listing Waveny on the National Register of Historic Places —first before the Park & Recreation Commission in May, then the full Town Council in July.

Government

Town Council to Preservationists on Waveny House: ‘The Public Needs Time’

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Saying any change to New Canaan’s most treasured asset merits inclusive and careful consideration, town officials on Wednesday called for a full public vetting of a proposal to place Waveny House on the National Register of Historic Places. In thanking the nonprofit New Canaan Preservation Alliance for its drive, research and conscientiousness in gathering information on what inclusion on the register could mean for the town (more on that below), members of the Town Council also agreed to proceed slowly in order to inform and hear from residents. Chairman Bill Walbert said that when New Canaan deals with a “treasure” such as Waveny House, “the public needs time to digest things.”

“As much as your group is absolutely to be commended for all the volunteer work you do to move this ball forward and the sincere interest you take in the historic facilities in this town, to preserve them for all of us—thank you so much–I think a political reality is when dealing with Waveny House, the public needs time to digest things,” Walbert said during a special meeting of the Town Council, held in the Douglas Room at Lapham Community Center. Ultimately the Town Council decided that it would further research what inclusion in the National Registry entails, offer the matter up for public hearing and make a formal decision no sooner than September. Addressing the council, NCPA President Rose Scott Long described inclusion on the National Register as “largely ceremonial” though “it does increase the recognition of an area’s historic relevance and encourages preservation.”

The nonprofit group in 2012 held a 100th anniversary celebration at Waveny House, attended by the actor Christopher Lloyd, a Lapham who grew up there.