With so many changes taking place in the world today, including in our local business communities, The Millerton News is taking a closer look at how the village of Millerton has changed in the years leading up to the present day. The paper will be running a multi-part series on the many changes that have taken place in the Millerton business district since it was first established in the late 1800s. This is the first part in that series.
Part I
MILLERTON — Despite all of the advances science has made in the millions of years since man has been on earth, no one has yet been able to figure out how to freeze time. Which explains why the world has witnessed Millerton evolve in the last nearly century and a half from what was a bustling local community that was mostly self-sufficient and centered around three railroads that brought the entire Tri-state region goods and services from major cities and outlying areas into a hip village that earned the title “Ten Coolest Small Towns in America” from Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel magazine in 2007.
Those rave reviews have continued, frequently in The New York Times. The most recent was published in The Times on March 24; there was another large spread featuring Millerton on www.upstater.com, a guide about living, buying, renting and vacationing in upstate New York that just came out on April 20.
Who can blame them? Millerton has enviable amenities and resources, great shops, loads of antiques stores, restaurants and cafes; impressive yoga, pilates and wellness studios; a currently under-renovation Moviehouse and a beloved bookstore, both of which have entertained and enlightened generations in the region for decades and promise to do so for decades more; a business alliance that offers support to merchants that is becoming more and more useful; and two governments that have been working in concert with each other for nearly 150 years to get much-needed and important tasks done for the community — with repeated success and without any drama.
Village history and resilience
Incorporated in 1875 and named after the civil engineer who was working on the construction of the train lines being built in the town of North East, Sidney Miller, Millerton is at the crossroads of New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts, with routes 22 and 44 intersecting at the traffic light at the tip of Main Street. That’s where the commercial district begins, and where those who have witnessed the growth that has taken place in the village have seen the most dramatic changes.
Dick Hermans was born and raised in Milan, and now lives in Pine Plains, about 13 miles west of the village. Yet he is as much a part of the fabric of Millerton’s Main Street as anyone, as he started Oblong Books & Music with his then-business partner Holly Nelson 45 years ago. Oblong originally opened at 32 Main St., before ultimately settling at 26 Main St., where the beloved bookstore now stands. He spoke of the village’s strongest trait.
“Downtown Millerton is resilient, who comes in and who goes out, there’s always someone who wants to run a business here,” said Hermans. “It’s a small community that has businesses and it’s been that way since it started. It was that way when the railroad was here, which was how the goods got delivered here and supplies got delivered here; towns didn’t have those commercial centers… But we are resilient — there was always someone coming in here. No place stayed empty for any length of time, there is always quite a bit of turnover, even during the pandemic.”
A look back
Hermans reflected on how Millerton looked nearly five decades ago.
“It’s funny, because the anchors in town then were Saperstein’s and Terni’s, and Delson’s was still open across the street, and those were the real draws,” he remembered. “The bank is where the bank building is [at Gilded Moon Framing]; they don’t have that anymore. When we first moved here, The Moviehouse still had triple ‘X’ ratings, so that was kind of seedy. There were some bars here that were, seedy is probably a good word for it, but I don’t want to insult anyone; we had a reputation for being a rugged town when we got here.”
A look today
Millerton is a far cry from “rugged” today, with stores like Charlotte Taylor, a home and lifestyle store whose owner was once a buyer for Saks Fifth Avenue and Bloomingdale’s and a manager at Laura Ashley, or Westerlind, which sells gear and apparel for the outdoors in NYC as well as in Millerton, where it also has the Westerlind Pantry, where it “[aspires] to be the kind of bodega every good snob dreams about [selling] fresh bread, prepared foods, local produce, pantry staples, beer and cider,” according to its website.
Westerlind is at 41 Main St., the former Saperstein’s, which was the village’s iconic department store that had offered everything from shoe repair to Little League uniforms to tuxedo rentals for 70 years, until owner Lew Saperstein announced his retirement in 2017.
That was one of a number of monumental shifts from the business community’s past to its present that locals say will never be recaptured. Some are pleased with the changes and others not so much. More on that next week.
In the remainder of the series we will continue to examine how Millerton’s Main Street has evolved, and how the community feels about that evolution. Meanwhile, look for an article from North East Historical Society President Ed Downey about the village’s historic residential architecture on the next page. And be sure to support the businesses that advertise in this section.
Photo from The Millerton News Archives
Photo by Kaitlin Lyle
Photo from The Millerton News Archives
Join The Lakeville Journal for a community celebration, featuring local nonprofits and businesses, festive family fun, great food, and engaging activities.
Danny Tieger | 11am - 12pm
John Keilty/Johnny Rox | 1-3pm
Face Painting
Scavenger Hunt
Balloon Animals
21st Century Fund for HVRHS
Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation
Community Health & Wellness Center
Congregational Church of Salisbury, UCC
The Corner Food Pantry
Crescendo
Housatonic Child Care Center
Noble Horizons
Nuvance Health (Sharon Hospital)
Project SAGE
NW Connecticut Community Foundation (Women & Girls Fund)
Salisbury Association
Salisbury Affordable Housing Commission
Salisbury Housing Committee
Salisbury Housing Trust
The Salisbury Forum
Western Connecticut Area Agency on Aging
Cousins Maine Lobster food truck
The Taco Shack
LaBonnes’ Market
Provisions at The White Hart
Sweet William’s
See you at the Lakeville Journal Street Fair!
If you have any questions, please email streetfair@lakevillejournal.com
Karina Powers teaches traditional dances from Mexico in Millbrook.
Powers received a master’s degree in Mexican folklore dance from Escuela de la Danza in Baja California, Mexico. Since moving to the United States, she has built a career in performance and teaching. She has not only served as a dance director and performed as a professional vernacular music singer in California, but she has also worked towards her Doctorate, which she will receive in October.
As the founder of her company, Powers works tirelessly to make sure her dancers have everything they need, including costumes, proper flooring, music and a space to practice. Her husband built wooden panels, called tarimas, for students to dance on with their folklórico shoes. Millbrook Mayor Peter F. Doro allows Powers and her group to practice in Millbrook Hall, where she brings the tarimas to every practice along with costumes and proper footwear.
Powers dreams of owning her own studio where she can practice with her group, offer more classes, store costumes and create a space for her dancers to do their hair and makeup before performances. She said she hopes people learn about her classes so her company can grow and she can teach dances from a wider range of Mexican states while having greater access to traditional dress.
As a single mother and professor, Powers’ mother, Carmen Méndez, put her children in dance classes and signed them up for track and field, always keeping them goal- and career-oriented. She helped Powers with her company by creating all of the costumes her dancers wear in their performances. After her mother’s death in 2021, Powers said she has dedicated herself to carrying forward the passion, work ethic and love of dance her mother instilled in her.
“I miss her terribly, and I’m here because of her,” Powers said. “That’s why I want to do this, because of her. She gave me a lot, with the costumes, with her support. I do it for my mom.”
Karina Powers and her students practice in Millbrook Hall.Lucia Iandolo
Dancers in Powers’ group are dedicated to learning the art of dance from different states in Mexico on Tuesday and Friday nights at Millbrook Hall. They travel from many different places in New York to participate, with some dancers traveling more than an hour to make it to rehearsal each week.
“It’s a lot of work, but they learn it. I believe they love it, and it’s a way to come together, to do something good, to do something healthy, and to have people around you who appreciate this kind of art,“ Powers said.
Powers has studied with professor Eloy Jiménez Figueroa since childhood and said his mentorship inspired her to become the teacher she is today. She added that while she may not be the best teacher, she learned from the best.
While living in California, Powers taught elementary, high school and college students, as well as adults. She was recruited to teach traditional Mexican folkloric dance because of the region’s large Mexican community. Today, she encourages people of all backgrounds to explore the rich traditions of Mexican dance.
“This type of dance is not only for people from Mexico,” Powers said. “This is an art and the arts unite nations.”
Powers hopes to continue sharing that art in Millbrook and one day teach in the Millbrook Central School District. Powers and her group will perform at the Millbrook Library on Nov. 21, presenting traditional Mexican dances and inviting audience members to participate.
As a professor, dancer and singer, Powers stays grounded by believing in something greater than herself. She says that praying and putting herself in the hands of God has helped anchor her. She hopes to teach and dance for as long as her body allows.
“My mom, for me, is an angel. I put myself in her hands, and I have faith,” Powers said. “I have faith that God, or something good, is going to be there for the group and for myself.”
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