 Search this site Home Table of Contents Calendar Newsletter Archives Membership Information Properties Hands-on-History |
Box 212 Monroe, CT 06468
Trolley Through Time On May 21 the Monroe Historical Society will sponsor a trolley tour of Old Monroe. Town Historian Edward Coffey has written and will narrate the tour. Included will be many of Monroe's historic homes and sites. A video of the Tour will be produced by Greg Loehr of Video Design Group (www.videodesigngroup.com). The tour will start on the Monroe Centre Green at 12:30 with an introduction by Mr. Coffey. The trolley will leave the Green at 1:00 and return at 3:00. A wine tasting with wines from the Jones Family Farm Winery will be held before the tour at 12:00 on the Green. Tickets for the Trolley Tour are $45.00. Please call Nancy Zorena at 261-8554 to reserve your seat. Seating is limited and you won't want to miss this "once in a lifetime" opportunity. A souvenier program booklet is being printed for this event. If you would like to place an ad in this booklet please contact Judy Standerford at 268-5511. Three hundred copies (or more if needed) of the booklet will be printed. The ads will be run in the next edition of our newsletter and will be posted on our website, www.monroehistoricsociety.org, for the remainder of 2006. Ad deadline is May 10. Christmas Fair Notes Millie Chase was the winner of the David Merrill print given as a door prize and Karen Dydzuhn won the Christmas Basket. The family who won the Christmas tree donated it to the Town of Monroe Social Services. Thank you to all who attended; all who helped before and during the days of the fair with setup, sales, and take down; and all of the bakers. Your efforts are very much appreciated. A special thank you to all of those who donated items. Over the past few years, our vintage Christmas ornaments and decorative items have been a much sought after feature of this sale. If you have any vintage Christmas items that you would like to donate for the 2006 sale, please call Nancy, 261-8554 or Judy, 268-5511. All proceeds from the fair go to maintain our three properties: the Old Schoolhouse on Wheeler Road, the Meetinghouse at Barn Hill and East Village Road and the Beardsley Homestead on Great Ring Road. Barn Sale We're moving out Tag Sale from the Old Schoolhouse to the Beardsley Homestead on Great Ring Road and changing the date from June to the end of April. The dates are April 28 and 29 from 9:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. each day. We have so many things this year that it was going to be impossible to get everything to and into the Old Schoolhouse! We have lots of parking and lots of room to spread out at the Beardsley Homestead so come early and have fun looking at everything. You should be able to find just what you need. If you have any items to donate, please call Nancy, 261-8554 or Judy, 268-5511. We will begin sorting and pricing as soon as the weather gets a little warmer. You can bring your items directly to the barn, you can drop off at Nancy or Judy's home, or we will arrange pickup of large items. If you can help with sorting, please let us know. We'll put you on our call list to notify you of the days and times we will be working. Thank you to everyone who has donated already for this once-a-year sale. Hands on History Our Hands on History workshop will be held on June 26, 27 and 28 from 9:30-12:00 each morning at the Beardsley Homestead. This popular workshop for children in grades 3-6 features many colonial activities such as reverse glass painting, making corn husk dolls, churning ice cream by hand, spinning with a drop spindle, making cookies using colonial recipes, and many other activities that children in colonial times would have done as part of their daily lives. The workshop is held at the Beardsley Homestead at 31 Great Ring Road. Cost is $60 per child ($50 for the class and a $10 materials fee) and is for three days, 9:30 a.m.-12:00 each day. Call Judy Standerford at 268-5511 to register your child. The following information about the Duc de Lauzon and his army is excerpted from A Glimpse of Old Monroe, by Edward N. Coffey. Throughout the excerpt, Monroe is referred to as "New Stratford" or "New Stratford Society", its official name at that time. Duc de Lauzon "For the inhabitants of New Stratford (Monroe) an exciting event took place in the final months of the war with the encampment of the French Army's most impressive and colorful Legion at the Center. This group was en route from their winter quarters at Lebanon, Ct. to New York. It was a contingent of General Rochambeau's troops under the command of the dashing Duc de Lauszun. Rochambeau's plan was to split up into three lines of force so that he would not be attached easily on his march across Connecticut. The Duc de Lauzun forded the Housatonic River from Oxford and climbed the hills making his fifth camp at New Stratford on Saturday, June 30, 1781. His command consisted of about six hundred men, three hundred cavalry and three hundred light infantry. The Society must have been enthralled by the massive and spectacular show of force as the column marched with flashing arms and soldierly precision. There were at least five cattle teams and many wagons, each drawn by two yoke of oxen and a horse that had been hired to convey the heavy baggage. The townspeople greeted these foreign recruits with open arms and festivities began after the encampment was made. A dance on the Centre common was organized and the French military band furnished the music - such as undoubtedly had never been heard by the inhabitants before. The young maidens of the town were in demand that evening and one can be assured there were no wallflowers. A dance for the officers was held that evening in the ballroom of the Bassett homestead north of the Centre (1024 Monroe Turnpike.) William Scott rallied his neighbors and hastily mowed a nearby meadow by moonlight to provide enough fodder for the animals. The officers were made guests in the neighboring homes and Lauzun was accommodated that night with innkeeper deForest whose gambrel-roof inn faced the common. Nehemiah deForest was of French descent himself, his ancestors having been Huguenots. On Sunday, July 1st, at daybreak, the French bugles blew the reveille and the camp was aroused for departure. The army departed, eventually arriving in Virginia where the final victory was achieved. The Duc de Lauzun was given the honor of carrying the news of the fall of Yorktown to the French court. He had made many friends in New Stratford and it is a sorry note to record that he was guillotined during the French Revolution in 1793." Duc de Lauzon Celebration A committee organizing the 225th celebration of the duc de Lauzun's encampment on the Monroe Town Green has been authorized by the Town Council to proceed with plans to erect signs on the Town Green and arrange a suitable celebration for that event on June 30 - July 1, 2006. This Committee includes members of the Monroe Historical Society and members from the Greens Committee. "The French Are Coming" Committee estimates that it will cost $5000 to provide the signs proposed, which would be made by the State Commission on Culture and Tourism for our purpose. A vigorous fundraising is necessary to raise sufficient donations to allow this project to proceed. Other activities planned include an encampment on the Town Green of the 6th Connecticut Regiment (Revolutionary enactors) which has already been confirmed. It is possible that some parts of the Governor's Horse Guard may appear also. There will be speakers representing the French government and other significant individuals of the time. It is intended to have the Scouts (boys and girls) involved in many of these various activities. Activities will be held in the school system prior to that date to inform the school children about the history of the duc de Lauzun encampment, etc. and to hand out miniature French and Revolutionary era American flags. The Monroe Historical Society will have hands-on activities for children during the celebration. We will also have a tent to display and sell our books, prints and collectibles. Happy 70th Birthday, Monroe Elementary School This year, Monroe Consolidated School (Monroe Elementary School) celebrates its 70th anniversary. Here is a little background information on the history of Monroe Consolidated School. Over seventy years ago, the Monroe Class of 1936, as well as all the other children in town, made the transition from the one-room schoolhouses to the new Monroe Consolidated School. In this day and age of quickly progressing technology, it is hard to fathom what a huge change this must have been for them. The students of old Monroe had grown up having to pump water from a well, they used outhouses out back even during the frigid cold months and were accustomed to learning with students of all ages in one small room. Imagine the students stepping inside their modern new school where they saw a water fountain, an intercom and a library for the first time. Not only did they find modern conveniences like flush toilets (indoors!) and central heating, but also separate classrooms for each of the grades 1-8, a small kitchen, and large assembly/gymnasium. In the archives of the Monroe Historical Society, there is a record book filled with details of three different Building Committees as they worked to make the Monroe Consolidated School become a reality. The first entry is written in December, 1933 by Charles F. Nichols, Secretary of the first Building Committee for the new school. First the Building Committee purchased eight acres of land from Florence Hurd for $4500, on which the school would be built. They chose Frederick H. Beckwith of Bridgeport as architect and E and F Construction Company was hired to build the school. In all, total funds expended were about $94,000, and of that, the Federal Government reimbursed the town for a great deal of the costs. But in the blink of an eye, a population explosion in Monroe continued unabated for the next 40 years. This led to several school expansions and to what was in some ways a reversal of consolidation. In only a matter of a decade, 1947 found the town's brand new school very, very overcrowded. The town was faced with an option to bus the 7th and 8th grade students to Bridgeport schools along with all the high school age students. Instead, the townspeople decided to form a new building committee and expand the Monroe school. A second floor addition was completed, adding a new cafeteria and using the same local fieldstone to match the original structure. Unbelievably, the town's population doubled between 1950 and 1960 and nearly doubled again between 1960 and 1970. During that time, Monroe Consolidated School became the Monroe Elementary School. In 1954, a third building committee was formed for yet another addition to be built onto Monroe School. It is interesting to note that the same architect, Frederick H. Beckwith, was chosen for all three construction projects at Monroe Elementary School. Finally, in 1957, after years of busing Monroe's high school students to Bridgeport for school, Masuk High School was built on land donated by the Masuk family of Barn Hill Road. During the 1960's, more schools were constructed in various parts of town - Stepney Elementary School in 1962, Fawn Hollow School in 1967 and Chalk Hill School in 1969. In 1962, St. Stephen's Parochial School, the predecessor to Monroe Catholic Regional School (St. Jude), opened. Expansion continued into the 90's, with our newest school, Jockey Hollow School opening in 1998. Today, the total number of students attending Monroe schools is approximately 4500- that's more than the town's entire population in 1950! All graduates of Monroe Consolidated School (Monroe Elementary School) are invited to march in the Monroe Memorial Day Parade on Sunday, May 28. We are looking for antique or vintage cars to use in the Parade so that the "oldtimers" from Monroe Consolidated School can ride. Please call 261-8554 if you can offer a ride in the Parade. |