|
|
|
|||||||
|
Northeast
Connecticut Heritage Corridor. Much of the Quiet Corner was designated a National Heritage Corridor in 1994. The area's 25 hill and mill towns are cooperating with the National Park Service to promote regional greenways and preserve the rural quality of life from encroaching development. On the annual Walking Weekend each Columbus Day Weekend, experts in their fields guide upwards of 3,000 people on a total of 45 walks, visiting towns, farms, forests, parks and more. A booklet called "Hill Towns and Mill Villages," prepared by the Association of Northeastern Connecticut Historical Societies, is a helpful adjunct for touring rural Woodstock, Pomfret, Brooklyn and Canterbury as well as the nearby mill towns of Thompson, Putnam, Killingly and Plainfield. We particularly enjoy "The Street" lined with academic buildings, churches and gracious homes in Pomfret, the Woodstock Hill green with a three-state view available behind Woodstock Academy, and the stunning Thompson Hill common. Other little treasures are the spireless Old Trinity Church in Brooklyn, the oldest Episcopal church now standing in the oldest diocese in the country (open some summer afternoons but used only once a year on All Saints Day); the one-room law office of Daniel Putnam Tyler in Brooklyn, and the brick one-room Quassett School in Woodstock. The Brooklyn and Woodstock fairs are among the nation's oldest. A favorite driving tour follows Scenic Route 169 which slices north-south through the heart of this region. Buildings and land along both sides have been placed on the National Register. The 32-mile stretch is the longest officially designated scenic road in Connecticut and one of the nation's ten most scenic as designated by Scenic America. Roseland Cottage, 556 Route 169, Woodstock. Roses and the Fourth of July were the twin passions of Woodstock native Henry C. Bowen, a New York merchant and publisher who planted a rose garden outside his summer house, upholstered much of its furniture in pink and named it Roseland Cottage. To his wild pink Gothic Revival mansion trimmed in gingerbread for his famous Independence Day celebrations came the day's luminaries, among them Ulysses S. Grant, Benjamin Harrison, Rutherford B. Hayes and William McKinley. The house, its furnishings and pink parterre garden remain much as they were in the 19th century. In the rear barn is the oldest extant bowling alley in a private residence; balls of varying sizes line the chute. (860) 28-4074.Open Wednesday-Sunday 11 to 5, June through
mid-October. Adults, $4. Prudence Crandall Museum, Routes 14 and 169, Canterbury, (860) 546-9916. The site of New England's first black female academy has a fascinating history to reveal. Asked to educate their children, Prudence Crandall ran afoul of townspeople when she admitted a black girl in 1833. They withdrew their children, so she ran a boarding school for "young ladies and misses of color" until she was hounded out of town. Now a museum, the house is interesting for its architecture and exhibits on 19th-century Canterbury, blacks and Miss Crandall. It was closed for part of 2003 because of state fiscal problems, but reopened on a reduced schedule. (860) 546-9916. Open Wednesday-Sunday 10 to 4:30,
February to mid-December. Adults, $2. Sharpe Hill Vineyard, 108 Wade Road, Pomfret. The first grapes were planted in 1992, and already the wines produced by winemaker Howard Bursen have won their share of world-class medals. Steven Vollweiler, a New York business owner of German and French parentage, scoured the Northeast to find a microclimate perfect for the growing of wine grapes. He found it in the back of beyond on a 100-acre hill in an unlikely corner of Connecticut and planted what his wife Catherine calls “noble grapes to achieve grand cru status.” They built a big rust-colored barn to hold winemaking equipment and an 18th-century-style taproom furnished with antiques for tastings. Next came an outdoor wine garden for lunch and an attached tavern to serve gourmet meals to fulfill their passion for antiques, wine and food. The Vollweilers’ 25 acres of chardonnay, pinot
blanc, vignoles, St. Croix and cabernet franc grapes gave their
winemaker plenty to work with. Bursen, a Cornell-trained viticulturalist
who earlier was involved in Pomfret’s pioneering but short-lived
Hamlet Hill Winery, masterminds production of wines that have upstaged
California’s in blind tastings. Sharpe Hill’s honeyed vignoles and
its crisp reserve chardonnay were rated two of the Northeast’s best
wines by Wine Spectator in 2002. Seven wines sell at the winery from
$9.99 for the crisp semi-dry Ballet of Angels to $19.99 for the
late-harvest vignoles. After finally reaching the place, we couldn’t
leave without acquiring at least one bottle of the chardonnay. (860) 974-3549. www.sharpehill.com. Wine tastings,
Friday-Sunday 11 to 5. Weekend lunch hours vary. Extra Special The Putnam Antiques
District. A major antiques district, with more than 500
dealers and twenty shops, has emerged in downtown Putnam. It started in
1991 when Jere Cohen restored an old department store at Main and Front
streets into the Antiques Marketplace, renting space to 250
dealers on three floors and producing the largest group showroom in
Connecticut. More than a dozen antiques stores quickly followed. Word
spread that here was the antiques capital of New England, if not the
entire Northeast, stocking an incredible array of goods from tag-sale
trinkets to fine furniture. The entire scene draws noted collectors and
designers as well as dealers and common folk. On one floor of the
22,000-square-foot marketplace, Jere Cohen shows the largest selection
of antique Stickley furniture in New England at his Mission
Oak Shop. Down the street, the 30,000-square-foot G.A.
Renshaw Architecturals features architectural antiques, furniture,
salvage items and other major pieces in a variety of period rooms. The
Great Atlantic Auction Company offers bars, fountains and statues
for restaurant interiors. A former drug store has been turned into Jeremiah’s,
a large multi-dealer shop, now full of odds and ends. A former bank
building has been transformed into the suave Antiques Unlimited, purveyor
of quality furniture, accessories and silver, some at rather substantial
prices. A camera shop became The Little Museum Company. A former
A&P supermarket is now Pink House Antiques, crammed to the
rafters with tag-sale schlock. British antiques and books, along with
such hard-to-find foods as haggis, bridies and salad cream, turn up at
Mrs. Bridges' Pantry, which operates a tearoom daily except
Monday. Poke around town and you'll find your own discoveries. Material excerpted
from Inn Spots & Special Places
in New England, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth. Copyright
2004. Wood Pond Press E-mail feedback to: Home
page |
Full destination index | |
|
|||||||||||||||||||
