Turning Back the Pages

100 years ago — September 1923

Mr. Goddard has left town regretfully, because his housekeepers, of whom he has had six this season, have run out. He will be in the state another month making his headquarters in Cheshire, but will be in town Sept. 17th to address the Knights of Pythias.

Motorists are complaining that Smith Hill is not properly posted as to dangerous grades, etc. This hill is a particularly vicious piece of highway and catches many a motorist unawares. Many a brake lining has been burned out in going down this hill, after drivers have failed to realize that they should have gone into second speed. Some sign that will emphatically warn travelers should be installed at once.

Will some one page Senator La Follette and give him the news that gasoline is now selling from 20 cents up instead of the dollar a gallon that he predicted.

50 years ago — September 1973

“I’m going to miss the high school a lot,” explained John Dubois, chief custodian of the Housatonic Valley Regional High School. He will retire Sept. 30 after 35 years at the school. “How do you say it? When you work at a place for 35 years, you’re bound to miss it,” he said.

Two original poems by the late Mark Van Doren of Cornwall Hollow are published in the Sept. 10 issue of The Nation. Entitled “Water Was” and “Rain Beautifies the City,” they will appear in a new volume, “Good Morning: Last Poems” (Hill and Wang) to be published posthumously. Mr. Van Doren, who died last December, was literary editor of The Nation from 1924 to 1928. He sent the new poems to The Nation a few weeks before his death.

Gertrude K. Lathrop, famed Falls Village sculptor, has been honored again for her work, receiving the gold medal of the American Numismatic Association. Miss Lathrop and her sister Dorothy, well-known writer and illustrator of children’s books, make their home on Undermountain Road.

A bullet-resistant barrier has been installed at the Falls Village branch office of the Torrington Savings Bank. Vice president Malcolm Canfield said the new barrier was installed about two weeks ago. The shield extends from counter top to ceiling and completely encloses the business area of the bank.

Joseph A. Hamzy of Falls Village, the new manager of Lakeville’s Interlaken Inn, reported this week that the new $750,000 inn was operating “at capacity” during its first holiday weekend, Labor Day. Mr. Hamzy said key staff positions at the inn had been filled, with Mrs. Will Rogers Jr. as head housekeeper, Will Rogers III as assistant manager, John Dennett has head chef and William Tatsapaugh, bartender.

25 years ago — September 1998

Habitat for Humanity has found a home in Falls Village. Or at least it now can build one. Residents overwhelmingly approved a motion to award the Alston property on Sand Road to the non-profit organization at an Aug. 27 town meeting.

These items were taken from The Lakeville Journal archives at Salisbury’s Scoville Memorial Library, keeping the original wording intact as possible.