Exploring Three Main Street Attics—

Searching For History And Memories In The Rafters

By Nancy K. Crevier

In the attics of Newtown, history breathes from long forgotten tomes and faded photographs. It echoes from the floorboards and rests beneath beams that have weathered Revolutionary War and the forces of nature. Lying among piles of mouse-nibbled papers are ordinary lives and extraordinary tales. Behind closed doors, three Main Street attics host fragments of Newtown’s past.

The Matthew Curtiss House, Edmond Town Hall, and the C.H. Booth Library attics contain no ghosts or magic mirrors, but harbor other treasures.

To understand the attic at the Booth Library, says curator Caroline Stokes, one must understand the circumstances that led to the building of a museumlike library in the first place.

Charles H. Peck lived in what is known as the “balcony house” on Main Street in the mid 1800s, and as the town clerk and historian, collected many artifacts from local farms and papers that he felt might one day be of relevance. His adopted son, Arthur T. Nettleton, was a contemporary and financial advisor to Mary E. Hawley, the benefactress of the library. Mr Nettleton realized that the ground floor of the home in which he had grown up and which housed his father’s museum was too small to contain the wealth of history that was there. How instrumental he was in the design of the library built in 1932, said Ms Stokes, is not actually known, but the library built with funds from Ms Hawley’s bequest to the town provided ample space to display much of Charles Peck’s collection, as well as other pieces from the past. “That is why the library is a museum, as well as for books,” said Ms Stokes.

Over the years the library has accumulated far more antiques and curiosity pieces than can be displayed at once. So where do they go? To the attic, of course.

Every room contains furniture and pictures selected from the vast collection, many from the historic Newtown Hawley and Edmond families, whose former homesteads border the library property. Walking up the sweeping front staircase to the second floor, one can admire the display of mirrors gleaned from the attic of the library when the new addition was built ten years ago, said Ms Stokes. The tallboy at the top of the stairs was once owned by the Edmond family, as were several of the handmade chairs that are strategically placed throughout the building.

One display after another distracts the tourist on the way to the attic doorway of the library. China, cookware, bottles, needlework samples, quilts, and Victorian handiwork fill the ten tabletop and six double-door cases custom made for the C.H. Booth Library. It is Ms Stokes’ job to rotate the artifacts on a regular basis, so that discoveries from the attic can be shared with the people who visit the library.

The library attic actually consists of two attics, the “lower” attic, open to public tours, is a replica of Mary Hawley’s bedroom. The four-post bed is clothed in layers of handmade sheets and delicately embroidered bedspreads. The valance above the bed, explained Ms Stokes, is not original, but was created from linen sheets made by Sarah Edmond. Other artifacts of the time decorate the room, including a dress form decked out in women’s fashions of Ms Hawley’s era. Ms Stokes pointed out other items in the lower attic that generally catch the attention of visitors.

Two peculiar “baskets” are a mystery until Ms Stokes clarified their use. They are about the length of an arm, narrow, and deeply curved, with small handles protruding from the center of the backside. “These are wheel covers, placed over the wooden carriage wheels as a lady disembarked, so as not to soil her dress,” said Ms Stokes. Many handwoven baskets and examples of needlework, on cloth and on paper, are scattered about the room. The row of chairs lining the walls represents several eras of woodworking styles from the early 1700s through the 1800s.

The attic museum is a place for those who visit to learn more about the mysterious woman, Mary Hawley, who gave so much to the community. “I admire her qualities the more I learn about her,” said Ms Stokes.

The ‘Upper’ Attic

The “upper” attic lies beyond a door at the back of the “lower” attic. It houses much more besides the obvious heating and cooling units. An unusual window allows the rare visitor to this area to peek down all the way to the front foyer.

This is the attic that stores donations and artifacts as they await their turn to be displayed, as well as holiday decorations, artwork, crafts, games, dolls, shells, photographs, files, and even the models of the library addition. It is a tidy attic, free of cobwebs, and well lit. The main room of the “upper” attic houses a collection of 12 Hitchcock chairs from the old Beach Library on Main Street, as well as an armchair that had belonged to William Edmond. The armchair is a recent attic addition, having been on display until a recent accident loosened its ancient joints. An unusual platform rocker, a gift of Richard Carmody, is nestled into the mix of chairs and benches.

What catches the eye, however, is an enormous woven basket, at least five feet tall and three feet wide. “This was donated by Scudder Smith,” said Ms Stokes, “and was used to store hops in a Newtown barn since 1833. It is so large that the basket had to be squeezed to get it through any library door. It was in the main circulation room for awhile, but we need to find a big enough space to display it again.”

A second room divulges an excess of library supplies and holiday decorations, while the third attic room displays neat piles of treasures. As curator for the library, Ms Stokes has worked with volunteers to number and label every donation. Boxes of tools from the original Peck collection sit side-by-side with boxes of dolls from the Mary Goodrich collection. Next to a small hide-covered trunk and a trunk covered in floral material sits a massive leather travel trunk. It is filled with relics of days gone by: decorative, embroidered fireplace cloths, beadwork, dress hoops, crocheted gloves, delicate handkerchiefs, and a Victorian parasol. Boxes of fashions from the 1800s and on, carefully wrapped in acid free paper, are stacked one on top of the other. Inside one box, a tiny Red Cross uniform from World War II is safely packed away.

“This is a living heritage of Newtown,” said Ms Stokes.

Two Other Main Street Attics

Unfortunately, said Edmond Town Hall head maintenance manager Clark Kathan, the old town hall has very few tales to tell. The attic is kept cleared out, for the most part. “There are a lot of blowers for exhaust fans, air conditioning units, that kind of thing. We go up there about once a month to make sure the blowers are greased or to change an air filter on the air conditioning,” said Mr Kathan. “There are some old guideline ropes up there, too, the ropes used to direct people into the theater, and we package up old movie posters and store them up in the attic.” Even the clock tower, reached through the attic, is pretty quiet and clean, said Mr Kathan. No haunting figures, no mysterious photos, no secret messages scribbled on the walls are a part of the Edmond Town Hall attic.

Across the street from Edmond Town Hall is the Matthew Curtiss House, where Newtown Historical Society President Lincoln Sanders was happy to serve as guide to the “mish-mosh of stuff” that the public never sees beneath the rafters of the early Newtown homestead. “We have publications from the historical society and other places up here,” said Mr Sanders. “We also get donations from a lot of different places. We have things up here that date from the 18th to the mid-20th Centuries.”

A genuine carpetbag is one of the items tucked away in the Matthew Curtiss House attic, as are trunks and hatboxes dating from the 19th and mid-20th Centuries. Ledgers and autograph albums, yellowed with age, lie among unidentified photos and newspapers from a bygone era. Barn board lumber surrounds an old spinning wheel, much like the ones that would have been used by the Matthew Curtiss family nearly 300 years ago. A more recent artifact leans against a wall in the shadows. “This is one of the original Yankee Drover Restaurant signs,” said Mr Sanders, salvaged from the Main Street institution that once stood on the site of the present day Dana-Holcombe House.

The historical society has no immediate plans for the many articles that clutter the Matthew Curtiss House attic, said Mr Sanders. As with so many attic relics in a town that bears the mark of time, some pieces rest from the grind of daily life while others wait for the chance to tell their story.