Stamford History Real Time

Frank Zurzola receives 2008 Virginia T. Davis Award

At the Society's Annual Meeting on June 9, 2008, Frank Zurzola received the this year's Virginia   T. Davis, Stamford Historical Society, Distinguished Service Award for outstanding volunteer.

Frank has volunteered at the Stamford Historical Society’s exhibit, Immigrant’s Stamford: Along Old Pacific Street.  Part of the programming for this show included conducting school groups through it, which he thoroughly enjoyed.  Even now he is still regarded as “the foremost chronicler of that cosmopolitan neighborhood, precursor of today’s multicultural Stamford.”  Sadly, Frank says, Urban Renewal tooks its toll, and today his old neighborhood lies buried underneath the Stamford Town Center.

Our Trip to the Florence Griswold Museum, June 12

Great weather, great exhibit!  Much recommended to those who didn't/couldn't go.  It closes July 27.

We all enjoyed what may have been best day of the year, weather-wise.  Most of us had not yet experienced the new museum, the Krieble Gallery, which is in back of the Griswold House and which comprises a series of spacious galleries, gift shop, etc.  Yours truly skipped the tour through the house, having seen it several times, and wandered through the grounds (click on the images to enlarge):

Florence Griswold House, Old Lyme

Krieble Gallery

Civil War Roundtable Annual Dinner Coming Up

Date: Friday, June 20
Time: 6:00 PM
Place: The Italian Center, 1620 Newfield Avenue, Stamford
Call: 203-227-2581
Speaker: Robert E.L. Krick, Chief Historian, Richmond National Battlefield Park

All are Welcome!

Download CWR-dinner-invitation.pdf

Artist's Sketch of Scene Outside Big Exposition Tent(Whitman Bailey)

Another Cove scene sketched by Whitman Bailey, of the "Stamford Exposition of Progress," held in June 1926 at Halloween – now Cummings – Park.

Artist's Sketch of Scene Outside Big Exposition Tent

Complete Newspaper clipping of June 5, 1926 (PDF)

June Photo Selection of the Month: Gardening in North Stamford c. 1916

The Guide to Nature magazine issue Volume 9, No. 7, December 1916, brings us a nice article under the heading HOMES NEAR TO NATURE. (Mr. Bigelow at his moralizing best.)  Fred McDermant, the bachelor owner of the Stamford Lunch on Main Street, was an avid gardener and had a property in North Stamford, in the Turn-of-River section, where he gardened and built a house.

From Plates, Puddings and Pies to Plants