
"It's Complicated" starring Meryl Streep, above, will screen at The Moviehouse in Millerton, N.Y.
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"It's Complicated" starring Meryl Streep, above, will screen at The Moviehouse in Millerton, N.Y.
The interior decor of the rich and famous can fascinate us as much as the interiority of their lives — think of Brook Astor's Sister Parish chintz-covered home, Jackie Kennedy's Georgian-style 1010 Fifth Avenue apartment designed by Rosario Candela, Gwyneth Paltrow's potentially fake Ruth Asawa sculpture, or the monastery blankness of Kim Kardashian's mansion with its Isabel Rower sculpture room.
Perhaps only one film director has truly ignited the collective imagination and awakened dream home yearning through her characters' meticulously crafted interior design preferences, and that's Nancy Meyers. On Saturday, Sept. 9, The Moviehouse in Millerton, N.Y., is paying tribute to her impeccable taste in set decoration with a screening of her 2009 film, "It's Complicated," with cocktails and discussions with designer Vicky Charles of Charles & Co. and Hammertown Barn's design director, Dana Simpson.
Architectural Digest has published multiple rundowns alone on Meyer's 2003 film she wrote and directed starring Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson, "Something's Gotta Give" — although the focus is rarely on Keaton's Academy Award nomination. The eye is on her house. Aging but successful playwright Erica Barry's (Keaton) beach-side shingle-style getaway on Meadow Lane in Southampton, N.Y., is cream-colored bliss floating on a striped dhurrie rug. Mimi London fabric on the chairs; soapstone counter tops in the kitchen; beach apropos art by R. Kenton Nelson. Production designer Beth Rubino, who won Academy Awards for "The Cider House Rules" and "American Gangster," has revealed several times over the years that what makes the Nancy Meyers homes so enviable… is that they are entirely fake. Those perfect off-whites, warm grays, inoffensive yellows, and barely there blues are paint colors designed for the camera, for rooms built on sound stages, flooded with artificial coastal light. These are swatches forever out of reach. Some interiors can exist only in the movies: "INT. Kitchen."
From left, Salisbury Affordable Housing Commission Chair Jennifer Kronholm Clark, Litchfield County Center for Housing Opporunity Director Jocelyn Ayer, State Rep. Maria Horn (D-64), Connecticut Department of Housing Commissioner Seila Mosquera-Bruno, Cornwall First Selectman Gordon Ridgway, Cornwall Housing Corporation member Beth Frost, Capital for Change Director of Commercial Lending & Impact Carla Weil.
CORNWALL — Legislators, officials and affordable housing advocates gathered despite the cold on the morning of Feb. 7 to celebrate the launch of a new program that will see the installation of ten new affordable homes across five towns in the Northwest Corner.
The project, coordinated by the Litchfield County Center for Housing Opportunity and called the Litchfield County Homeownership Program, will construct modular single-family homes at each site which will be affordable for families whose income is below the area median. The Feb. 7 groundbreaking ceremony was hosted at 349 Town St. in Cornwall, where trees have already been cleared in preparation for the new homes. According to LCCHO’s website, Cornwall’s median home price in 2024 was $1,1150,000. The other towns involved in the project — Washington, Salisbury, Norfolk and North Canaan — have similarly high housing prices.
LCCHO Director Jocelyn Ayer spoke to the precedent set by uniting disparate affordable housing developments across town lines: “I think this a great example of how to bring smaller scattered site projects in our region together as a broader project.”
Attendants warmed themselves with provided hot chocolate and cookies as Jocelyn Ayer, director of LCCHO, called the group to assemble. Shoes crunched on the frozen ground as the tree tops surrounding the cleared plot of land tossed in the strong gusts. Cornwall Selectman Rocco Botto assessed the conditions poetically: “The north wind doth blow,” he said, earning some chuckles from the crowd.
During her opening remarks, Ayer chose to look on the bright side before passing the mic on to the distinguished list of speakers: “At least we got some sunshine!”
The roster included representatives from the various organizations involved with the development and financing of the project, including Carla Weil of Capital for Change, Jennifer Kronholm Clark who chairs The Salisbury Affordable Housing Commission, and Beth Frost of the Cornwall Housing Corporation.
State Rep. Maria Horn, D-64, spoke first, appealing to the brutal weather as yet another reason to bring affordable homes to the region. “What better than a cold, windy day to remind you of the importance of having a warm home,” she said.
Cornwall First Selectman Gordon Ridgway took the stage next, emphasizing that Cornwall is “refreshed” by newcomers to town, and expressed the need to ensure those people can be welcomed by affordable living conditions. “The needs for housing here are just as much as anywhere else in the state,” he said.
Connecticut Department of Housing Commissioner Seila Mosquera-Bruno offered the final speech, echoing Ridgway’s sentiment that affordable housing development is a statewide priority: “We have a goal to keep everybody housed,” she said. She was happy to be at the event despite the weather, she said — “I always love coming to this part of the state!”
Each speaker then hefted a shovel and stuck it into the frozen ground to symbolize the real digging soon to come before attendants began to retreat to the warmth of their cars. “Thanks for freezing with us!” called out Ayer as the crowd dispersed.
NORFOLK — The detention of a man who works in Norfolk by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during the last week of January has raised community concern about federal immigration enforcement in the Northwest Corner.
A pair of upcoming forums on the state of immigration will be held at Trinity Lime Rock Church, 484 Lime Rock Road, Lakeville. Both talks are presented by Vicinos Seguros 2 (Safe Neighbors 2).
On Feb. 16 at 4 p.m., a local woman, whose husband was arrested by ICE but who avoided deportation after nine months in a detention center, will talk about her family’s experience and answer questions. She will be joined by Gabriela Vega-Matthews of Casa Comunitaria de Recursos (Community House of Resources) in Poughkeepsie.
On March 6 at 6 p.m., Connecticut Attorney General William Tong will answer questions about how to protect neighbors targeted by ICE and how Connecticut’s Trust Act works.
Erick Olsen, pastor of Church of Christ, UCC, of Norfolk expressed his concern about enforcement actions: “As a pastor serving a church in our community, I believe that every person has rights outlined in our Constitution, and these rights should be safeguarded. We clearly are a nation of laws that must be upheld. However, any violation of a person’s constitutional rights for any reason is of course unacceptable, and I will continue to seek ways to protect such rights for all. I encourage anyone who wishes to join me in these efforts to contact me.”
On Jan. 15, 2025, Janelle Medeiros, special counsel for civil rights for the State of Connecticut, office of the Attorney General, issued a memorandum explaining the Trust Act, enacted in 2013. The Trust Act— Connecticut General Statute 54-192h — “maintains Connecticut’s sovereignty by preventing deputization of local and state law enforcement for immigration enforcement.” However, the Connecticut Trust Act does not protect felons, does not prohibit communication between local law enforcement and immigration enforcement about individuals in custody, and does not restrict federal immigration authorities from enforcing federal immigration laws within Connecticut.
Medeiros wrote: “Many of Connecticut’s immigrant families are understandably concerned about how anticipated changes in federal immigration policy might affect them. It is the policy of the State of Connecticut to value, honor, and respect our immigrants, and refugees: they are our neighbors, family members, and friends. They are coworkers, bosses, parents, caretakers, and business owners. The entire State of Connecticut benefits when our immigrant community feels safe.”
The 29th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry is the subject of www.project29.com, a research project undertaken by Peter Vermilyea and his students at Housatonic Valley Regional High School.
FALLS VILLAGE — Historian and teacher Peter Vermilyea told a standing room only audience at the David M. Hunt Library about the Black soldiers from the Northwest Corner and Connecticut who fought in the Civil War Saturday, Feb. 8.
He started by noting that in the American Revolution, Black soldiers were not uncommon.
“Almost every Connecticut unit had at least one Black solider.”
But the Federal Military Act of 1797 prohibited Black men from serving in the U.S. Army — although not in the Navy.
Fast forward to Jan. 1, 1863, and President Abraham Lincoln’s Presidential Proclamation 95 — ie. executive order — better known as the Emancipation Proclamation.
Vermilyea noted that the proclamation did not end slavery per se.
It did free “certain persons.”
Lincoln took this step in his role as commander in chief during a rebellion.
Vermilyea said there were Black soliders in state militias prior to the proclamation, but now Black men could serve in the Union army.
Within a month of the proclamation, the 54th Massachusetts Regiment was formed. This is the unit depicted in the 1989 film “Glory.”
“The 54th attracted volunteers from all over the country,” Vermilyea said, including 154 men from Adams County, Pennsylvania. Over half the troops were from somewhere other than Massachusetts, “but it was Massachusetts taking the lead.”
Vermilyea touched on Milo Freeland of Sheffield and later East Canaan. Freeland is buried in Hillside Cemetery in East Canaan, and the original gravestone is at the Falls Village-Canaan Historical Society. A replica stands in the cemetery.
The gravestone states Freeland was the first Black man “enlisted from the North” in the Civil War.
Vermilyea said very little is known about Freeland, and it is impossible to make that claim definitively.
“However, he was certainly one of the first.”
Moving on to the 29th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, Vermilyea said he found out about it when a colleague gave him a “treasure chest” filled mostly with junk.
But at the bottom were half a dozen pension records of Black soldiers from Litchfield County.
Vermilyea explained that pension records are a gold mine for historians as they contain personal information that is unavailable elsewhere.
With these records in hand, Vermilyea and his students at Housatonic Valley Regional High School began the research project that eventually turned into a massive effort and is documented at www.project29.org.
Vermilyea said some 1600 men volunteered for the 29th and the 30th Volunteer Infantry. The 30th never quite got off the ground and was later incorporated into a federal unit of Black troops.
Initially the 29th was on garrison duty in Beaufort, South Carolina, but in the summer of 1864 they were deployed to fight in heavy action around Richmond, Virginia.
The 29th played significant roles in battles at Chaffin’s Farm and Kell House.
They were also the first Union infantry unit to enter Richmond, the capital city of the Confederacy, on April 2, 1865, where they met Lincoln.
It would have been nice and tidy if this highly symbolic event was the end of the story, but it isn’t.
After the war, the South needed occupation troops, and there was some tension along the border with Mexico.
Vermilyea said during occupation duty in Texas and Louisiana the 29th had dozens of members fall not to bullets from hostile Southerners but to disease.
It wasn’t until October 1865 that the 29th returned to Connecticut. Vermilyea related two stories of individuals who served with the 29th.
Joseph Parks, a Chilean, was a sailor on a commercial ship that arrived in New York City. He was recruited for the 29th, probably because the pay was substantially better than that of a sailor.
He was shot in the jaw at Kell House. Vermilyea said the wound and the subsequent treatment was so unusual it was recorded for the benefit of Army doctors.
“This is why we know something about him.”
Unfortunately, the doctors couldn’t save him, and he died on Nov. 6, 1864, of what was listed as “exhaustion.”
Almon Wheeler of Sharon has a lurid story. He was also wounded at Kell House, but recovered and rejoined the regiment for occupation duty.
He then returned to Connecticut, in Salisbury, where he married and started a family.
Around 1889 the Wheelers moved to Chicago, and Wheeler became embroiled in a messy case of divorce, bigamy and a murder/suicide attempt in 1891.
Vermilyea said the students were able to piece the story together, again from the pension records and from contemporary newspaper accounts.
He also said it seems reasonable to believe that Wheeler’s erratic behavior might have been due to what is now known as post-traumatic stress disorder.
Vermilyea also said that when students begin researching a particular name, they never know what they’re going to find.
“A student will say ‘my guy died of diarrhea after three months!’”
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PUBLISHER’S NOTICE: Equal Housing Opportunity. All real estate advertised in this newspaper is subject to the Federal Fair Housing Act of 1966 revised March 12, 1989 which makes it illegal to advertise any preference, limitation, or discrimination based on race, color religion, sex, handicap or familial status or national origin or intention to make any such preference, limitation or discrimination. All residential property advertised in the State of Connecticut General Statutes 46a-64c which prohibit the making, printing or publishing or causing to be made, printed or published any notice, statement or advertisement with respect to the sale or rental of a dwelling that indicates any preference, limitation or discrimination based on race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, marital status, age, lawful source of income, familial status, physical or mental disability or an intention to make any such preference, limitation or discrimination.
Northern Millerton, Newly Renovated 2 bedroom House: Rural, Quiet, 5 minutes to town, Heat and A/C system, plus alternative heat, laundry, dishwasher, 2 decks, views, snowplowing included, $2,800 monthly, plus utils. 518-567-8277.
Sharon Rentals: 1b/1b home on a private lake. Avail 4/1/25. Yearly. $2750/Furnished, weekly housekeeping, garbage, water, ground maint. included. utilities addtl. 860-309-4482.
SHARON: Now accepting applications for 1 and 2 bedroom apartments at SHARON RIDGE EXPANSION. Income-based housing. USDA income limits apply. NO SMOKING. For information and to obtain application, contact: 203-699-9335 ext. 310. leave message. tbroderick@cremllc.com. ****Equal Housing Opportunity****