Stamford History Real Time

A Very Special Sale on March 21! 1883 Bird’s Eye Map of Stamford, Connecticut, offered while supplies last

At the first of our Cozy Sundays events on March 21, 2010, “Maps for Map Lovers” with Librarian Ron Marcus, a very limited supply of fine-quality reproductions of the 1883 Bird’s Eye Map of Stamford, Connecticut, will be offered for sale. The 34” x 42” reproductions of the original Panoramic Map made by L.R. (Lucien Rinaldo) Burleigh of Troy, New York, are suitable for framing and would make a cherished gift to anyone with an interest in Stamford, history or antique maps.

The Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division’s description of Bird’s Eye maps provides an excellent summary:

“In the years following the Civil War, the panoramic map became a popular cartographic form for portraying American cities. Though generally not drawn to scale, these maps were based on detailed on-site studies and provide an accurate perspective view of landscape features, streets and buildings of the period. They frequently show individual structures and their use, some of which are identified by gender, including schools and academies, hospitals and seminaries for women.”

While the limited supplies last, the Bird’s Eye Map reproductions will be available to Society members at the special price of $25.00 and to non-members at $35.00.

For further information about the March 21 Cozy Sundays event and the special sale of the maps, which will begin that afternoon, contact Mary Ann Lawlor at 203-461-9422.

Whitman Bailey Selection for February An artist's glimpse of Broad St. looking east

An artist's glimpse of Broad St. looking east

Download article of February 6, 1926

Visualize a view from the intersection of Summer and Broad streets looking east.  The First Presbyterian church in its second incarnation – the first one was a wooden church later destroyed by fire – stood at 74 Broad Street, where the Burlington Coat Factory building is situated now, formerly the Caldor Department Store owned by husband and wife team Carl and Dorothy Bennett, and its absence still bemourned by many.

The church existed at that location until the new sanctuary at 1101 Bedford Street was dedicated in March 1958.  The so-called Fish Church is an architecturally famous building and made it even into this writer's copy of a German architectural lexicon as an example of Plastischer Stil, the equivalent of Brutalist style.  More on the building.  She also remembers the very windy day when the "steeple" was lowered by helicopter onto the top of the carrillon tower, a heart-stopping event observed from her office window …

Beyond the church there can vaguely be seen, or rather imagined, the Ferguson Library building before its expansion as described in the above article.

(Reference file: Bailey142.jpg)

Whitman Bailey Collection