Turning Back the Pages

100 years ago — November 1922

Sharon is planning to build a new schoolhouse to replace the one recently burned by a firebug. The new building will probably be financed with a bond issue with a carefully planned sinking fund.

 

James Ellis exhibited on Tuesday a perfect rosebud half opened which he picked at the Kenyon place at Sharon. Many also have seen dandelion blossoms the last week.

 

A good sized tarantula was found on a string of bananas at Roberts’ store on Tuesday. It is now confined in a glass jar for exhibition.

 

Ernest Muller has purchased two houses near the railway of W.D. Whalen. The houses at present are occupied by Tony Novicki and George Washington.

 

50 years ago — November

The Village Improvement Society has initiated court action to obtain clear title to the former “horse sheds” property, now roughly covered by the parking lot behind the Salisbury Pharmacy and the bank branch office. Salisbury residents voted in June to sell the property to the VIS by quitclaim deed for $1500. Titles to the various segments of the land date back to the early 1860s, when prominent citizens stabled their horses there, and lines of ownership have become blurred through the years. The area is the site for a proposed off- Main Street shopping area, with the construction of a new food market planned as the first step.

 

Gay’s Appliance Center on Church Street in Canaan has announced an “adults only” cooking demonstration and dinner party for 7:30 p.m. next Thursday. Featured will be demonstrations of the Sharp Microwave Oven. Factory representatives will be on hand to cook a meal using the Microwave high speed oven. Those who attend (only adults are invited) will then be treated to that dinner. 

 

Salo W. Baron of Honey Hill Road, Canaan, and New York City was made a Knight of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy Tuesday at the Italian Consulate in New York. Mr. Baron received the honor for his contribution to Italian culture and civil history. He is working on a series of volumes tracing history from pre-history through to the modern world.

Peter Hammer, a Kent native, is the editor of Goodbye, Moby Dick, a film documentary shown this past Sunday night over WABC. The half-hour film dramatizes the threat of extinction posed by modern technology as applied to whaling. It also focuses on the mystery and the grace of whales. Nineteenth century whaling songs sung by Judy Collins form part of the soundtrack.

 

25 years ago — November 1997

In a last-minute intervention, The Journal Register Co., owner of the daily Register Citizen in Torrington, has reached an agreement to buy HVM, LLC of New Milford, publisher of several weekly newspapers including The Litchfield Enquirer and the Kent Good Times Dispatch. The deal cancels HVM’s letter of intent agreed to two months ago to sell the Litchfield and Kent weeklies to The Lakeville Journal Co., LLC, publishers of The Lakeville Journal, The Millerton News and The Winsted Journal. 

 

Next year’s racing season at Lime Rock Park will have a new start with a new building. The new start/finish building for the track will be an elevated, wood-framed structure which co-designer Sam Posey said will have a more “vernacular, New England” feel to it. The building is one of the more important structures at the track because it is where the races begin and end.

The views expressed here are not necessarily those of The Lakeville Journal and The Journal does not support or oppose candidates for public office.

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Father Joseph Kurnath

LAKEVILLE — Father Joseph G. M. Kurnath, retired priest of the Archdiocese of Hartford, passed away peacefully, at the age of 71, on Sunday, June 29, 2025.

Father Joe was born on May 21, 1954, in Waterbury, Connecticut. He attended kindergarten through high school in Bristol.

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Club baseball at Fuessenich Park

Travel league baseball came to Torrington Thursday, June 26, when the Berkshire Bears Select Team played the Connecticut Moose 18U squad. The Moose won 6-4 in a back-and-forth game. Two players on the Bears play varsity ball at Housatonic Valley Regional High School: shortstop Anthony Foley and first baseman Wes Allyn. Foley went 1-for-3 at bat with an RBI in the game at Fuessenich Park.

 

  Anthony Foley, rising senior at Housatonic Valley Regional High School, went 1-for-3 at bat for the Bears June 26.Photo by Riley Klein 

 
Siglio Press: Uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature

Uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature.

Richard Kraft

Siglio Press is a small, independent publishing house based in Egremont, Massachusetts, known for producing “uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature.” Founded and run by editor and publisher Lisa Pearson, Siglio has, since 2008, designed books that challenge conventions of both form and content.

A visit to Pearson’s airy studio suggests uncommon work, to be sure. Each of four very large tables were covered with what looked to be thousands of miniature squares of inkjet-printed, kaleidoscopically colored pieces of paper. Another table was covered with dozens of book/illustration-size, abstracted images of deer, made up of colored dots. For the enchanted and the mystified, Pearson kindly explained that these pieces were to be collaged together as artworks by the artist Richard Kraft (a frequent contributor to the Siglio Press and Pearson’s husband). The works would be accompanied by writings by two poets, Elizabeth Zuba and Monica Torre, in an as-yet-to-be-named book, inspired by a found copy of a worn French children’s book from the 1930s called “Robin de Bois” (Robin Hood).

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Cycling season: A roundup of our region’s rentals and where to ride them

Cyclists head south on the rail trail from Copake Falls.

Alec Linden

After a shaky start, summer has well and truly descended upon the Litchfield, Berkshire and Taconic hills, and there is no better way to get out and enjoy long-awaited good weather than on two wheels. Below, find a brief guide for those who feel the pull of the rail trail, but have yet to purchase their own ten-speed. Temporary rides are available in the tri-corner region, and their purveyors are eager to get residents of all ages, abilities and inclinations out into the open road (or bike path).

For those lucky enough to already possess their own bike, perhaps the routes described will inspire a new way to spend a Sunday afternoon. For more, visit lakevillejournal.com/tag/bike-route to check out two ride-guides from local cyclists that will appeal to enthusiasts of many levels looking for a varied trip through the region’s stunning summer scenery.

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