Very often, the cityscapes in the sketches which Whitman Bailey did for the Stamford Advocate from 1924 to his death in 1954 are difficult to identify nowadays. However, this sketch of November 1936 titled Looking up Church Street, Glenbrook does not pose such a problem. In the forefront is the intersection of Glenbrook Road, Church Street, and Kirkham Place (at right). Union Memorial Church is still there, as is the house with the front porch on the near left, now adjacent to the parking lot of Nicks Pizza on the corner of Glenbrook and Church. The other houses, including the "salt box" homestead mentioned in the article, have been replaced by an office building that looms over the street. And most of the trees are gone…
Complete Newspaper Clipping of November 14, 1936 (PDF)
The Marcus Research Library at Society Headquarters has two folders on the church in its Vertical Files.
We add the usual warning: "At times, the accompanying vignettes are mostly folklore passed on to Mr. Bailey by residents of the areas where he was sketching. In those instances he had no way of determining the truth of the story. Nor have we. It is presented as a sidelight to the sketch. Therefore, researchers are cautioned to regard these tales as local color, interesting, thought provoking, but sometimes not entirely factual."
(Reference file Bailey 241.jpg)
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