NewCanaanite.com (https://newcanaanite.com/tag/weed-duryea)
The first owner of the land on which 7 St. John Place would later be built was Dr. Samuel Benedict St. John. His great-grandfather was Brigadier-General Joseph Pearse Palmer, who was a participant in the Boston Tea Party and fought in the Revolutionary War.
Dr. St.
For today’s Q&A with a local business, we speak to Kevin Conboy, who runs the garden department at Weed & Duryea. The Grove Street lumberyard and home center is open 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday.
Here’s our interview. New Canaanite: How are you all doing? Kevin Conboy: We are doing good. Everybody is happy that we’re open.
Grace Farms is featured in a Connecticut Magazine news story that quotes locals extensively. ***
New Canaan Police on Dec. 24 arrested a 36-year-old Park Street woman and charged her with failure to respond to an infraction. She had been cited for motor vehicle charges and did not pay or plead in court. ***
New Canaan Land Trust officials are calling for volunteers to help check bobcat traps that the state is laying in New Canaan as part of a program to track the animals.
Children and adults hoping to see Santa Claus arrive in his personal helicopter at Mead Park on Saturday morning were instead greeted by New Canaan’s Tom Stadler, who was in the parking lot vigorously flapping his arms—not in an effort to fly himself, but rather to alert the incoming crowds that a snowstorm bearing down on the area had forced the Jolly Old Elf to cancel his flight. Instead, Santa was arriving via land-based transportation, Stadler told drivers as they flooded into the bustling parking areas—more specifically, via a fire truck that was bringing him directly to hardware shop Weed & Duryea, sponsor of the annual event, as well as Gregg’s Garden Center. After battling some slow-moving traffic during the 2,000-foot-long trek over to the hardware and general store, and then getting “trapped” in the store parking lot, everyone eventually made it safely to Weed & Duryea’s “Christmas Headquarters,” where local band, the New Canaan School of Rock, was cranking out “Spirit of Radio” by Rush to get everyone in the holiday mood. Sure enough, the Bearded Man of the Hour arrived right on time, waving to his adoring fans from a beautifully restored 1949 ladder truck owned by former Assistant New Canaan Volunteer Fire Chief (and Santa’s personal chauffeur) Scott Ready (the truck had been in service in New Canaan until 1973). A long line of starry-eyed children (and their parents) had already formed as Santa took his “throne” in the Christmas shop, surrounded by colorful, sparkling holiday merchandise.
Congratulations to New Canaan’s Babs Horner, a professional gourmet caterer who has written a new book, “Sophistication Is Overrated,” with her sister, interior decorator Susan Palma. The book was featured Monday on NBC’s “The Today Show” by Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford. It has a near-perfect rating after 46 reviews on Amazon. (Locals may remember Horner from the harrowing story of her granddaughter’s birth this summer.)
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The news that Bruegger’s Bagels in New Canaan is closing at noon Sunday has stirred strong feelings among readers, expressed in comments threads on the site and on Facebook. Locals may be comforted to know that area bagel shops already have made inquiries about the commercial space.