Georgetown

You know how Mystic is a village comprised of portions of two different towns? Well, I'll see your Mystic and raise you Georgetown, a village comprised of portions of four different towns. It's located where the corners of Redding, Ridgefield, Weston, and Wilton meet. I grew up 20 minutes from here - "here" being Main Street, Georgetown - and actually drove through Georgetown every time I took Route 7 (about 5 minutes west of here) to the Danbury Mall. Which was pretty often. But I never knew this.

I also never knew that this little central shopping/dining (mostly dining) area existed. It's quite small, just a few blocks. It combines the hilly, little-river-runs-behind it look of Chester or New Preston with ramshackle old mills that seem to belong further east.

When I discovered all this, my mind was slightly blown. But not for long, because it's just like Connecticut to hide a cute village minutes from a major local route, and have that village contain four separate municipalities. To lazily quote Wikipedia:

Georgetown residents officially live in and pay local taxes to one of these four towns, but typically identify themselves as living in Georgetown. Georgetown has its own fire district, which also serves the surrounding rural areas not traditionally included in Georgetown, and its own ZIP code (06829).

I don't actually know if this is as uniquely Connecticut as it seems. I may be living in a physical, cultural, and political Connecti-bubble at the moment. In any case, Georgetown! Who knew?

No. 146

As I said before, Grange Halls are not all aesthetically pleasing. But those that are make up for the rest. Here is the Norfield Grange in Weston.

Norfield sounds like a town in Massachusetts, but it's not. (At least I don't think it is.) Before Weston and Easton became towns, in 1787 and 1845 respectively, they were collectively known as Norfield Parish, a part of Fairfield. Today the Norfield Historic District includes the center of Weston, with the Onion Barn and that little shopping center and - oh, too late, you passed it.

When I was little I thought Weston was so bizarre because they did their 4th of July fireworks in a small field. That just scared the heck out of me. Everyone knows that fireworks should be set off a) far away from the crowd and b) on large bodies of water, so they can't point themselves in the wrong direction and shoot themselves straight at you by mistake. I also thought it was strange that there was nothing in Weston - or so it seemed because the entire town came to Westport if they had to shop or do anything remotely practical.

I would probably not have been impressed back then by the Norfield Grange.

What, These Old Things?

This is the John Wheeler House in Black Rock, the oldest surviving house in Bridgeport. It was built in 1720, or possibly before, though 1720 seems to be the safe, agreed-upon date. The Wheelers were big around here; Thomas Wheeler, the area's first white settler, arrived in 1644.

What was then a trading settlement is now a pretty neighborhood near the water. I recall years ago people used to scoff if someone said they lived in Black Rock. Like "yeah, okay, you live in Bridgeport, poser." But seeing as the name was in use back in the 17th century, perhaps the scoffing was unfair. The area has changed quite a bit since the late '90s and early '00s, when my friend and I would occasionally find ourselves in Fairfield County, wonder what to do about it, and end up drinking margaritas at Taco Loco. (Happily, Taco Loco is still there. Its shaky-looking plastic walls have not yet been gentrified away.) Back to the Wheeler house. It was originally smaller, and has been modified over the years. And it's hard to see because the wind has furled it up, but I think that's a British flag on the pole above the door. Which adds a touch of Colonial era cred.

I wasn't even going to blog about this house but I felt I had to because I followed up on my post from last week and found the oldest house in Norwalk. And, well...

This is it. Really disappointing, right? The Thomas Hyatt House was constructed in 1677 but obviously changes and additions over time mean that if you miss the plaque - which you can't see from this angle- you'd never know it. It looked so anti-climactic I thought I had to show another historic house along with it. And then, while I was at it, I decided to add something even better than a house:

A c. 1790 Post Office in Weston. One of a few early Post Offices in the town, it became the official P.O. in 1883. It was also a general store. And there's a sign out front that indicates it is, or was at some point, a museum. The only evidence of this that I can find was that a museum was proposed for the site in the 1980s. But who knows? If you told me to guess which town had a secret museum that was reserved for the select few, Weston would be a good candidate. And anyway, what it is now is so much less interesting than what it was then.