Thank you!
Your support is sustaining the future of local news in our communities.
affordable housing

Affordable home in Cornwall ready for residents

Affordable home in Cornwall ready for residents

An open house was held Nov. 1 at this Town Street house in Cornwall, which is part of the Litchfield County Center for Housing Opportunity’s Affordable Homeownership Program.

Ruth Epstein

CORNWALL — Visitors gave rave reviews as they toured one of two new affordable houses on Town Street in Cornwall during an open house hosted Saturday, Nov. 1, by the Cornwall Housing Corporation.

The homes are part of a development overseen by the Litchfield County Center for Housing Opportunity through its Litchfield County Affordable Homeownership Program for scattered sites in four towns. In addition to Cornwall, homes have been completed or are underway in Salisbury, Norfolk and Washington.

Funding comes from the Connecticut Department of Housing, along with town and nonprofit contributions. Program facilitation and construction loans are provided through Capital for Change..

As Becky Hurlburt, the town’s social service director, was about to leave after taking the tour Saturday, she called out, “A big thumbs up!”

Ginni Block, president of the housing corporation, explained that a lottery was held for each of the two houses that were built near each other on Town Street and both have been approved for purchase. One will sell for $255,000 and the other for $280,000. The house prices are kept affordable to households below the area’s median income.

In both cases, the corporation will lease the land on which the houses sit, which is a little over one acre each.

Block, along with corporation members Beth Frost and Hugh Cheney, showed visitors through the house, which has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large area for the kitchen, dining room and living room, as well as another room that can serve multiple purposes. There is also a full basement.

An open house was held Nov. 1 at this Town Street house in Cornwall, which is part of the Litchfield County Center for Housing Opportunity’s Affordable Homeownership Program.Ruth Epstein

They were all quick to heap great praise on Ginny Potter who donated the two pieces of property for these houses.

Streams of visitors came throughout the afternoon. Heather Pelletier and her father, Douglas Pelletier, are neighbors of the property. “I think this is great,” said Heather Pelletier. “The house is really nice.” Her father said, “It’s a lot bigger when you get inside.”

“It shows what one person can do,” said First Selectman Gordon M. Ridgway, speaking of Potter. “It shows what a legacy she left for the future of two more Cornwall families. House by house, it makes a difference.”

Ruth Epstein
Reporter
affordable housing

Latest News

Doug Tallamy’s work in progress: saving the planet one backyard at a time

Doug Tallamy’s work in progress: saving the planet one backyard at a time

Windacre, a 25-acre property in Millerton will be the site of “Work in Progress,” an afternoon with acclaimed entomologist, New York Times bestselling author and Homegrown National Park co-founder Doug Tallamy.

Provided

For nearly three decades, Doug Tallamy, a professor at the University of Delaware and co-founder of Homegrown National Park, has studied the intricate relationships between native plants, insects, birds and the ecosystems that sustain them. His books, including “Bringing Nature Home” and “Nature’s Best Hope,” have helped shift the conversation about conservation from something that happens primarily in parks and preserves to something ordinary people can practice on the land around them.

On Sunday, Oct. 4, Tallamy will bring that conversation to Windacre in Millerton for “Work in Progress: Toward Native Fields,” an outdoor gathering exploring both the possibilities and the complications of restoring private land for biodiversity.

Keep ReadingShow less
community

Celebrating Dick Hermans’ life built around community

Celebrating Dick Hermans’ life built around community

Dick Hermans in the Oblong Bookstore on Millerton\u2019s Main Street in 1985.

Provided
No matter what I’ve done, I’m trying to be useful to the communities I’m associated with.
— Dick Hermans

When Dick Hermans receives the Estabrook Community Leadership Award on Oct. 11, he will accept it for a lifetime of work that has taken many forms: bookseller, radio host, school board member, advocate for the Harlem Valley Rail Trail, business owner, volunteer and, perhaps most importantly, a person who has consistently looked for ways to be useful to the communities around him.

The Lakeville Journal and The Millerton News will present Hermans with the 2026 award at the annual Jubilee celebration at the Sharon Playhouse. The award honors outstanding leadership in community service and was inspired by Mary Lou and Robert Estabrook, former owners of the newspapers who believed that strengthening a community extended well beyond the work of publishing a newspaper.

Keep ReadingShow less
our community

Tending the Fire: Homelands PowWow brings Mohican culture home to the Berkshires

Tending the Fire: Homelands PowWow brings Mohican culture home to the Berkshires

Members of the Stockbridge-Munsee tribe at Homelands PowWow in 2025.

Joeseph Plante New Media Storytellers
Our goal is to continue building an annual gathering that honors the history, culture and traditions of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans in their original Homelands.


For the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican people, the Berkshires are not simply a place to visit. They are ancestral homelands.

Keep ReadingShow less
community
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

Ancram Center’s “A Number” doubles questions of identity

Ancram Center’s “A Number” doubles questions of identity
Ledbetter (left) and Wojda (right) on the set of “A Number” at Ancram Center for the Arts.
Jeff Mousseau

How would you feel if you found out you weren’t the only you — if there was an exact replica of you? What if you found out that you’d been cloned? Would you believe that you’re the real you? Would you suspect you might be a copy of the original? How could you be sure anything about your life was real? These are some of the questions posed in Caryl Churchill’s play “A Number,” opening at the Ancram Center for the Artson Oct. 1.

Churchill was born in London in 1938 and has been hailed by the theaterl world as one of the strongest voices of her time to take on sexual politics and feminist themes. Her works garner pointedly considered analysis from the highest levels of theatrical intellectualism. Basically, it’s about as far from “The Lion King” as you can get. While she’s experimented with dance theater in the past, “A Number” is much more stripped down, highlighting Churchill’s chosen themes and the skills of both actors on stage.

Keep ReadingShow less
performances

Dispatches from the Farm

Dispatches from the Farm

Adamah Farm crew members planning out the day’s tasks on a late September day.

Janna Siller

“Dispatches from the farm” is a new, periodic column offering a firsthand look at the rhythms, challenges and rewards of farming through the eyes of a local farmer.

The thing about plants is that they can’t get up and move. When a storm like last weekend’s nor’easter threatens to roll through, you can’t just round everybody up and settle them safely on the sofa for movie night.

Keep ReadingShow less
dispatches from the farm

Pinchas Zukerman brings an all-Beethoven program to Hotchkiss

Pinchas Zukerman brings an all-Beethoven program to Hotchkiss

Pinchas Zukerman to perform at Hotchkiss Oct. 4

Cheryl Mazak

The passion, drama and energy of Beethoven will fill Katherine M. Elfers Hall at The Hotchkiss School on Oct. 4, when world-renowned violinist Pinchas Zukerman is joined by pianist Shai Wosner for a special recital.

The 4:30 p.m. program at the Esther Eastman Music Center will feature three of Beethoven’s celebrated violin sonatas: Violin Sonata No. 4 in A minor, Op. 23; Violin Sonata No. 5 in F major, Op. 24, “Spring”; and Violin Sonata No. 7 in C minor, Op. 30.

Keep ReadingShow less
concerts
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.