The gatehouse that visitors to the Hitchcock Estate, located at Route 44 and Franklin Avenue, Millbrook and leased by Timothy Leary, passed as they entered the realm of psychedelic possibilities.
When author Tonia Shoumatoff attended a Millbrook Historical Society (MHS) presentation May 16, 2019, about psychedelic guru Timothy Leary, it made a big impression on her.
In fact, as she related at another MHS presentation Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024, she told the audience that the presentation — made by New York State Historian Devon Lander about the life and times of Millbrook in the Timothy Leary era — inspired the second part of her latest book, “Historic Tales of the Hudson Valley: Life at the End of the Line,” which came out in July 2023.
Shoumatoff told the by now well-known story: Leary had started on the Psilocybin Project while at Harvard University, researching the use of psychedelic drugs and their potential for use in the treatment of mental health issues. Through meetings with different people, and some haphazard events, the Project devolved from there, into something not that scientific and not widely regarded as serious research.
But was Millbrook an odd choice for Leary? No, said Shoumatoff. This area has been a home, a birthplace, for many innovative projects, she said, naming some of the many religious orders that found homes here, such as the Millerites, the Shakers and the Quakers.
Perhaps the beautiful landscape lends itself to solitude, or that the closeness to nature fosters a closeness to prayer. Whatever the reason, Dutchess County, in particular its northeastern corner, has attracted, many peculiar utopian and religious groups.
She read an excerpt from her book:
“A Victorian utopian community claiming to see fairies settled in Wassaic, attracting Japanese samurai and remaking the townscape of Amenia. An early version of the “Borscht Belt” began on the shores of Lake Amenia, where a once-thriving resort community vanished along with the lake itself.
Amidst a crisis of dwindling membership, the NAACP was brought together at major conferences held at Amenia’s Troutbeck estate, then owned by Joel Spingarn, the organization’s first Jewish president. Young graduates from the Rhode Island School of design and other art schools launched the Wassaic Project, a festival and art residency using a converted agricultural grain elevator as their venue.”
Leary and fellow Harvard professor Richard Alpert started the Psilocybin Project in 1960, but by 1962, the project had gotten bad reviews from others at Harvard; Alpert was accused of having given psilocybin to an undergraduate, and both were fired from the university.
In 1963, the Hitchcock brothers invited Leary to rent the estate, consisting of 2,300 acres, for $1 per year, and he lived and entertained there for the next five years. The estate is at Route 44 and Franklin Avenue, and the impressive gate house is still there.
They entertained an assortment of hirsute celebrities such as Allen Ginsberg, R.D. Laing, and Charles Mingus.
Depending on who you’re talking to, the estate is remembered for its endless parties and all kinds of happenings; others say it was all research and science.
At any rate, after five years and a lot of FBI raids, Leary and his entourage left, and we can imagine that Millbrook gave a collective sigh of relief.
John Flanagan, a member of the MHS, was a young reporter at the time for The Poughkeepsie Journal. He related a story involving Leary and Rosemary Woodruff, whom Leary married at the estate in 1967:
Sent by the paper to cover the event, Flanagan was with fellow a fellow journalist when Woodruff began talking to them. Realizing that Flanagan was from The Poughkeepsie Journal, which continuously made negative comments about Leary through its editorials, she flew into a rage and insisted he be thrown out.
When Leary resisted, she said she wouldn’t get married as long as Flanagan was present. He went off to another part of the estate, the marriage was conducted, and Flanagan got his pictures and story through his friend. Because the Journal was a feed for the Associated Press, it ran in newspapers across the world. Begged Flanagan, “Just don’t use my name! I have to live in Millbrook.”
Many people still remember that time in the ’60s when Millbrook became known for its infamous inhabitant. But like all things in the past, memories soften a bit with age, and become substance for historical society presentations.
Shoumatoff was entertaining, at times funny, but still got the message across that however serene the scenery may be, there is always something interesting festering beneath the surface, and even Millbrook has some wild tales to tell.
Sharon Hospital
SHARON — Northern Dutchess Paramedics will cease operating in Northwest Connecticut at the start of the new year, a move that emergency responders and first selectmen say would replace decades of advanced ambulance coverage with a more limited service arrangement.
Emergency officials say the change would shift the region from a staffed, on-call advanced life support service to a plan centered on a single paramedic covering multiple rural towns, raising concerns about delayed response times and gaps in care during simultaneous emergencies.
The decision became known on Dec. 11, when communities were informed that NDP’s service would end as of Jan. 1, according to Andrea Downs, president of the Falls Village Volunteer Fire Department and an employee of the organization.
Founded in 1994 and based in Rhinebeck, New York, NDP has provided advanced and basic life support ambulance services to communities in Dutchess and Columbia counties in New York, as well as parts of Litchfield County, for nearly three decades.
How the change came about was outlined by Al Tortorella of Sharon, also an employee of NDP.
Tortorella said every Connecticut municipality is required to have an advanced life support provider. For the past 28 years, Sharon Hospital has fulfilled that requirement by signing an annual hospital-sponsored agreement with NDP. In recent years, the agreement was signed by Dr. Ronald Santos, head of the hospital’s emergency department, under whose medical license NDP operates.
When NDP recently approached Santos to renew the agreement, he said he could not sign it, a decision that took the organization by surprise, Tortorella said.
Area towns operate volunteer ambulance squads that provide basic life support. NDP supplements those crews by delivering advanced medical care, administering medications and conducting inter-facility transports.
Sharon Hospital, which is part of Nuvance Health, merged earlier this year with Northwell Health. Downs and Tortorella said they understand that the hospital system plans to replace NDP with its own paramedic service.
Under the proposed arrangement, a single paramedic would cover the Sharon Hospital catchment area, starting each 12-hour shift in New Milford before traveling to Sharon. If needed, the paramedic would be assisted by a paid EMT provided by Nuvance.
Tortorella sharply criticized the model.
“It’s a system designed to fail,” Tortorella said. “This is a huge issue.”
Downs echoed those concerns, noting that the paramedic’s 12-hour shift would include significant travel time between locations.
“I’m very concerned about the health and well-being of residents in the Northwest Corner,” she said. “We don’t want any reduction in services for patients in the region. I can’t understand the rationale of taking services away. Northwell wants to maintain a model of corporate health care, but they can’t put a face to the people and culture we’ve established here. We’re talking life and death.”
Downs emphasized that the decision does not involve layoffs at NDP, which was recently acquired by Empress. She said there is ample demand for paramedic services in New York state and that employees’ jobs are secure. The concern, she said, is for the safety of families, friends and neighbors in Northwest Connecticut.
In an interview, Sharon Hospital President and CEO Christina McCulloch and Andrea Rynn, assistant vice president for community, government and public relations at Northwell Health, addressed the decision to discontinue the hospital-sponsored agreement with NDP.
“Recently, concerns were brought to our attention about compliance and [a lack of] communications,” they said. “This information left us unsettled and unable to be a sponsoring hospital at this time.”
They acknowledged that the timing of the transition was far from ideal. “Despite the tight timing, we are actively developing a coverage plan in concert with local first responders and area leaders. This is a process that is just beginning and we are confident it will strengthen over time.”
McCulloch and Rynn said the hospital and health system remain committed to maintaining service continuity and working with community partners to enhance emergency medical services across the region.
The pair have met with representatives of area ambulance squads and on Friday held a session with the region’s first selectmen.
Gordon Ridgway, first selectman of Cornwall, said people are feeling rushed by the move. They are concerned that services will be lessened, not enhanced.
“This is the most important thing in town; picking up people in the middle of the night and providing immediate care. It has to be done well.”
Falls Village First Selectman David Barger said the meeting was productive and answered some questions, but left others unresolved.
He said he plans to host a meeting in January at the town’s emergency services center, inviting ambulance providers, first selectmen and hospital representatives to continue the discussion.
Berlin High School’s football team rejoices after a last-minute win in the Class M championship game Saturday, Dec. 13.
In December’s deep freeze, football players showed their grit in state playoff tournaments.
Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference named six state champions in football. The divisions are based on school size: Class LL included schools with enrollment greater than 786; Class L was 613 to 785; Class MM was 508 to 612; Class M was 405 to 507; Class SS was 337 to 404; and Class S was fewer than 336.
Eight teams qualified for each tournament and all championship games were played on Saturday, Dec. 13.
Class LL was won by Greenwich High School for the second straight year. Greenwich beat Southington High School 45-6 to win the tournament. Jack Kelly rushed in three touchdowns for the Cardinals and caught a fourth.
Class L was won by New Canaan High School, which completed an undefeated season. New Canaan beat Cheshire High School 34-13 for the school’s fourth-straight state title. In the regular season, New Canaan defeated Greenwich 14-7.
Class MM was won by Windsor High School, which defeated Bunnell High School 23-13. Windsor quarterback A.J. Robinson threw for 140 yards with a passing touchdown and two rushing touchdowns.
Class M was won in the final minute by Berlin High School 20-15 over Brookfield High School. The thriller came down to the wire. Brookfield went ahead with a late touchdown. Then on the kickoff that followed, Berlin’s Eli Rice ran it 80-yards to the house to take the lead with 33 seconds remaining and secure the state trophy.
Class SS was won by Daniel Hand High School, marking its 15th state title in school history. Hand defeated reigning champion Killingly High School 37-13. Killingly was previously on a 25-game win streak that stretched over two seasons.
Class S was won by Sheehan High School, defeating Northwest Catholic High School 21-7. Running back Joshua Durant ran for 215 yards and three touchdowns in the win for Sheehan, which was the first state title since 2019 for the school.
Details and photos from each championship game can be found at ciac.fpsports.org
Volunteers scan snowy treetops during the Trixie Strauss Christmas Bird Count in Sharon. Teams identified more than 11,400 birds across 66 species.
SHARON — Birdwatching and holiday cheer went hand in hand for the Trixie Strauss Christmas Bird Count on Sunday, Dec. 14, with hobbyists and professionals alike braving the chill to turn their sights skyward and join the world’s longest running citizen science effort.
The Christmas Bird Count is a national initiative from the Audubon Society, a globally renowned bird protection nonprofit, that sees tens of thousands of volunteers across the country joining up with their local Audubon chapters in December and January to count birds.
This wintry avian census, which is now in its 126th year, is very effective at amassing bird quantity and species diversity data, especially in colder climates where seasonal populations of birds are highly variable. These datasets, Audubon has upheld, provide vital snapshots of population health and trends, which then informs conservation strategy.
Sharon Audubon helped to host the Trixie Strauss count, the formal name of the regional count that covers an area centering on The Hotchkiss School, with staff members aiding 24 volunteers spread out over eight teams that each surveyed a unique 15-mile loop.
According to the total tally, the volunteers had identified over 11,400 birds spanning 66 species, just one less than last year’s total of 67 species.
While the number is similar, Bethany Sheffer, volunteer coordinator and naturalist at Sharon Audubon, said the species that are present are subject to change based on a number of factors. The early freeze of lakes and ponds in the Northwest Corner meant that there were fewer species that prefer open water tallied this December, Sheffer explained.
Belted kingfishers, for example, were entirely absent from the count.
The data also found no northern mockingbirds or gray catbirds. Several groups noticed an abundance of the dark-eyed junco, though Sheffer noted that the reasons for these changes from previous years are as of yet unclear.
However murky the causes, Sheffer noted that the amassing of this data lays the foundation for vital observations surrounding species trends. Citizen science observations enabled scientists to discover that the range of the northern cardinal was expanding, for example, and that the Cooper’s Hawk is becoming more common in the wintertime New England forest as it’s been staying behind to prey on smaller songbirds that congregate at bird feeders when the ground is snow-covered.
Sheffer noted, though, that it’s not all about the data.
“The history of the Christmas Bird Count is really moving,” she said, explaining that its origins lie in a Victorian tradition of a Christmas “hunt,” where groups would scour the hillsides and treetops to kill, not count.
Since ornithologist Frank M. Chapman declared the first count in 1900 as a direct opposition to the hunt, the tradition has stuck. Sheffer said it’s a valuable example of how humans’ relationship to the natural world can be reframed.
"It’s important for us now more than ever to be serving birds” as stewards, she said, noting that many species face threats due to climate change and habitat degradation and loss. And another plus, Sheffer said, is the spirit of community, bringing people of all experience levels with birds together for what she described as a truly joyous day: “It’s become an event that brings people together in a really moving way.”
The Trixie Strauss count is just one of 20 in Connecticut. Several, including one just over the border in Pawling, New York, have yet to occur. For a list of each upcoming count, and who to contact with inquiries, visit ctbirding.org/cbc-2025-2026/.
John and Diane Degnan plan to convert the warehouse at the back of the property into their primary residence, while leaving the four-unit building in the front available for long-term rentals.
KENT — A proposal to convert an old warehouse into a residence on Lane Street in downtown Kent has become more complicated than anticipated, as the Planning and Zoning Commission considers potential unintended consequences of the plan, including a proposed amendment to Village Residential zoning regulations.
During a special meeting Wednesday, Dec. 10, attorney Jay Klein of Carmody, Torrance, Sandak and Hennessey presented the proposal on behalf of John and Diane Degnan, who have lived at 13 Lane St. since 2022.
The Degnans are seeking to convert an industrial structure at the rear of their property, currently used for storage, into their primary residence, while keeping a four-unit building at the front of the lot available as affordable rental housing.
What appears to be a straightforward proposal has been complicated by a murky zoning history and regulatory constraints tied to the property’s designation.
Neighbors, however, say the review process has dragged on unnecessarily and are urging the commission to move forward with a project they believe would benefit the street.
“Is it normal for zoning to go this far?” asked Lane Street neighbor Lili Mason during the public comment period at the Dec. 10 meeting. “This is all ridiculous as far as I’m concerned.”
Mason’s frustrations were echoed by other testifiers, who voiced unified support for the Degnans’ project and praised the couple’s character:
“[They’ve] changed the neighborhood for the better,” said Ed Raftery. “Don’t penalize people who are trying to make improvements,” said Tamara Potter, another Lane Street resident, who recalled overpowering shellac fumes drifting through the neighborhood when the warehouse was used to store pleasure boats.
According to Land Use Office records, the structure has previously housed an auto body repair shop, an aquarium store, a mail-order book business, sign production and a skin care mail-order operation, among other uses.
“A commercial building on this street just doesn’t fit,” Potter emphasized, alluding to the fact that the conversion of the warehouse to a residence would essentially prohibit the possibility of a future industrial use on the property.
Commission members largely agreed with residents that the proposal — combining a new residence with affordable rentals — would be a positive change. Several commissioners, however, raised concerns about the applicant’s approach, particularly a proposed amendment to the section of regulations governing special permits in the Village Residential zone.
With guidance from zoning expert Glenn Chalder and town attorney Michael Ziska, the commission pushed back on aspects of the amendment, which would add a new section specifically addressing conversions of industrial or commercial buildings to residences. The proposed language included specialized rules related to density, parking and discretionary waivers of certain zoning requirements.
New commission member Donna Hayes, who was once the town’s land use director, explained that regulations designed for a particular project can have unintended effects elsewhere in town:
“One of the things that [residents] need to understand is that a regulation is written not for a specific piece of property but for a complete zone. And it’s written not for any particular person, but it’s written for the future as well.”
Ziska offered a similar warning: “Once regulations are changed, things happen. Things happen that nobody can expect.”
He expressed doubts about several aspects of the applicant’s proposal, though indicated general support for the concept and suggested there might be a simpler and safer way forward.
Klein said the Degnans’ goal is to improve the property “utilizing existing site resources” while bringing the entire parcel into zoning compliance. Ziska noted that the four-unit building at the front of the lot was never formally approved by a zoning officer — an issue that will need to be resolved if the units are to be used as affordable rentals. Chalder and several commissioners recommended that the applicant work with Kent Affordable Housing in coming up with a plan for the units, which Klein said would be priced between $950 and $1,800.
Klein, Chalder and Ziska ultimately agreed to meet later in the month to come up with a path forward agreeable to both the Degnans and the town. The hearing was left open, and will continue at P&Z’s next regular meeting on Jan. 8.
