Tercentennial Timeline:

Newtown’s First 100 Years Complete

By Shannon Hicks

A handful of Middle Gate School students showed up at school this week, a week earlier than the rest of their elementary school counterparts. Joined by their parents and older siblings and armed with paint and chalk, the youngsters literally put their mark on the playgrounds on either side of the school and the walkway that runs behind the building that joins the two play spaces.

Under the leadership of Newtown residents Robbin Chaber and Denise Rodriguez, a group about two dozen people spent a few hours on Tuesday painting the lettering and icons for a Tercentennial Timeline. When completed, the timeline will cover the first 300 years of Newtown’s history. This week’s focus was on the first century of local history.

“We decided to break the timeline’s placement down into three sections,” co-organizer Robbin Chaber said Tuesday morning. “This way the students will be able to absorb the information in smaller doses, rather than trying to learn about everything all at once.”

The idea for a timeline came out of what Ms Chaber called “a faculty brainstorming session” during the 2004-05 school year, when Middle Gate faculty members were deciding how to help their students understand, observe, and celebrate the 300th anniversary of their hometown’s purchase. A committee was formed to coordinate the school’s tercentennial events, and then when a subcommittee was created for the timeline, that was when Ms Chaber and Ms Rodriguez volunteered to direct that project.

Ms Chaber and Ms Rodriguez worked with fellow Newtown artist Michael Morshuk to create the timeline, including the icons, dates, and phrases being incorporated into the outdoor project.

Town Historian Dan Cruson was called on for help in confirming important dates and events, and Middle Gate first grade teacher Helen Miller helped in deciding how much information should be included. Mr Cruson will be creating a fact sheet to correspond with the timeline that teachers can then use for their classes.

“If it were up to me we would have 100 events out here,” Ms Chaber said with a laugh. “[Helen Miller] suggested we limit it to 30, and I think we finished with 31 items. She helped us understand how much information a school-age student can absorb.”

The timeline committee met three times before painting started on Tuesday.

“We knew we needed to keep the language and presentation simple, so we went over everything very carefully,” Ms Chaber said.

The First Century

The weather on Tuesday was perfect for painting. It was sunny and warm, but not so warm or humid that the paint wouldn’t dry quickly. The weather was also comfortable for the painters, who were sitting on the pavement for a few hours in the direct sunlight.

Everyone arrived at the school by 10 am, and worked for three hours before breaking for lunch. Ms Chaber and Ms Rodriguez were joined by a smaller group for the afternoon’s work, which went on until just before 6 pm.

“My legs and knees are a little sore today,” Ms Rodriguez admitted on Wednesday. “We all did a lot of crouching, and we’re not used to working on pavement like that, but I’m very pleased with what we accomplished.”

The ladies both have children who are students at Middle Gate. They are also co-leaders of Brownie Troop 706, and they counted on some of their young Girl Scouts to help when it was time to start painting the timeline on Tuesday.

By the time the group assembled to put down the first segment of the timeline this week, there were children and adults of all ages participating.

In addition to Ms Chaber, Ms Rodriguez, and Mr Morshuk, adults working on the timeline were Tom Allen, Diana Calo, Karen Grosso, Chrissy Hadgraft, Melinda Hazzard, and Lynn Wojcik.

The younger crew members were Julia Calo, Britney Gonzalez, Brooke Hadgraft, Mike Hadgraft, Kristina Hansen, Ben Hazzard Katie Hazzard, Kelsey Morshuk, Alysa Rodriguez, Brandon Rodriguez, Lizzie Wojcik, and Teddy Wojcik.

Newtown’s Park & Rec department had been to Middle Gate last week to put down the white line that serves as the actual timeline between the two playgrounds. They also put in the notches where icons and their short descriptions would be placed.

Dates were put down in a sky blue shade, followed by yellow lettering. Icons were drawn by the artist Michael Morshuk, and then the younger painters went to work painting those images.

Everything was first put down in chalk, and then painted right over.

In addition to events in the town’s history — the purchase of Newtown (1705), the incorporation of town (1711), the first congregational church (1715), the first school district (1733) and the arrival of French troops in town among them (1781) — the timeline also includes some events that happened on the national level. In the first segment of the timeline that means there are notations of the Revolutionary War, Declaration of Independence, US Constitution, and the election of George Washington as the country’s first president.

“This should help students understand how national events affected Newtown,” Ms Chaber said.

Kelsey Morshuk was one of the students who spent time painting on Tuesday. For part of the morning she worked on the fireworks that mark the end of the timeline in 2005.

“I’m very excited about this,” said the 8-year-old. “Right now mostly the people who are working on this timeline are the only ones who know about what we’re doing. I can’t wait for school to start next week and for everyone to see what we’ve done.”

The painting of the timeline’s second century should be finished by November, before the snow starts, and then work will resume on the timeline — and the third century — in March, once the weather cooperates.

“When it’s finished, the children will be able to literally walk through history any time they wish,” said Ms Chaber. “Teachers will also be able to use it as a teaching guide.”