House Tour Expected To Be A Large Draw For Holiday Festival
House Tour Expected To Be A Large Draw For Holiday Festival
The 22nd annual Holiday Festival will take place on Sunday, December 2, from 11 am to 5 pm. With the recent merger of Family Counseling Center and Newtown Youth Services, this yearâs festival will be a benefit for the new agency, Newtown Youth & Family Services.
In addition to five historic homes on the tour, the Matthew Curtiss House and Trinity Episcopal Church will be open for viewing. Trinity will also host its traditional service of Lenten Lessons and Carols on Sunday afternoon at 2.
Other festival events include a childrenâs workshop, a Victorian tea room, the Festival of Trees at Cyrenius H. Booth Library, musical performances in the Alexandria Room at Edmond Town Hall, Newtown Choral Societyâs annual concert at St Johnâs Episcopal Church, and live music at various locations. Details about these and other Holiday Festival events can be found in this weekâs Enjoy section.
Admission to festival events is by ticket. Adult tickets are $23 in advance, $25 on December 2. Tickets for seniors (age 60 and up) and children (ages 6â14) are $18 in advance, $20 the day of the festival.
Tickets can be purchased until Saturday at C.H. Booth Library, Drug Center Pharmacy, Newtown Savings Bank (including locations in Newtown, Bethel, Danbury, Monroe, and Southbury), our green house, and the Newtown Youth & Family Services office at 121 Mt Pleasant Road. On Sunday, tickets will be sold at Edmond Town Hall and C.H. Booth Library.
For additional Holiday Festival information call NYFS at 426-4874.
The House Tour
The locations of the homes on the walking tour and some aspects of their histories follow. (Details on the festival itself can be found in this weekâs Enjoy section.) Expect lines outside each of the homes. The walking tour has consistently been one of the most popular events of every Holiday Festival. Please try to abide by the following guidelines.
Please do not try to visit these private homes before or after the festival hours. The homeowners, who have been gracious enough to open their residences for six hours to the public, should have their privacy respected once the tour is over.
Children must be accompanied by a parent or adult guardian at all times while visiting the homes. To ease on overcrowding, strollers should be left outdoors.
Use doormats before entering each home, and do not smoke in any of the homes.
While visiting these homes guests are asked not to touch any of the items inside the dwellings. Treat the homes like museums: look, but do not touch.
House captains at each of the homes on the tour will be able to answer some questions. They will also have additional information on the homes beyond what is offered here.
Local decorators and florists have been planning decorating schemes for each of the homes.
7 Washington Avenue
Home of Anna & Roger Saterstrom
Decorator: Holmes Fine Gardens
This Sandy Hook home began its life well before the United States earned its independence from Great Britain. Built in 1749, its name was originally Mapleton. It was also a parsonage for the Methodist Church for many years. Henry Hawley of Danbury also enjoyed it as a residence for a number of years.
It was sold in July 1930 to Wilton Lackaye, Jr (1902â1977) and Florence Johns, well-known Broadway stars of the time. The couple used the house as a summer and weekend home before moving in permanently.
The house has ten rooms, three fireplaces, and a Dutch oven. Mr Lackaye not only fell in love with his home but also with Sandy Hook. His inception of the Sandy Hook Athletic and Social Club (SAC) proved a boon to his hometown, and as its benefactor, he maintained a keen interest in the organization. The Lackayesâ philanthropy extended to the donation of land where Sandy Hook School now stands.
The house has ten rooms, four fireplaces and bee hive oven. The Saterstroms have completely renovated the home to bring it up to todayâs standards while maintaining the charm of yesterday.
The homeâs holiday decorations will be a blend of Holmes Fine Gardens natural products combined with the Saterstromsâs private collection of hand painted Santas and handmade ornaments designed primarily using natural ingredients such as wood, straw, tin, and ceramics.
15 Washington Avenue
Home of Anne & Richard Spillane
Designer-Decorators:
Little Mary Fellows
and our green house
Built in 1847, this house has been in the same family since the 1950s. The house was purchased by Charles and Lillian Milot who, at the time, owned and operated the Troy Hotel in Sandy Hook Center. The house was purchased with 13 acres of land, which included most of the land along the south side of Crestwood Drive.
In the late 1960s Charles and Lillian retired from running the hotel and decided to fix up the house. Since then, many family members have lived in the house, spanning four generations.
Richard and Anne Spillane purchased Anneâs grandparentâs home from the family estate in 1997. They have spent the last ten years restoring the house to much of its period condition, including exposure of the original chestnut beams, as the house was built using original post and beam construction.
Mary Fellows, the owner of The Little Green Barn Gallery, and our green house owner Pam Davis will combine their love of everything green to complement to interior of the Spillane home on Sunday. Look for the same high quality, eco-friendly materials in their design and décor on which both women have built their business reputations.
46 West Street
(owned by Sterling Associates, LLC
& Risko Foundations, LLC)
Decorator: Painted Bungalow by Diana Baxter & Chelsea Treasures
There were three generations of Zachariah Clarks in early Newtown. This house was built by the second Zachariah in 1771. His son, Zachariah Clark the third was born in 1771, and his other son Philo was the president of Newtown Savings Bank from 1883 until 1897.
During the residual Revolutionary War battles in 1781, Marechal Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, Comte de Rochambeau reportedly spent the night in this house while marching with troops on his way to Danbury. Newtown was considered a Tory town, but at this home he found the latch string out, a symbol of support for the Revolution.
Sterling/Risko purchased the home in the spring of 2007 and began to reconstruct immediately. Beginning with the exterior, dormers were constructed to provide more functionality on the second floor. Windows were repaired and replaced as needed, walkways and terraces reconfigured and rebuilt.
The current master suite, previously an in-house business, has been reattached to the main home. The former in-law suite has also been reincorporated into the main house making the completed living area a spacious 4,016 square feet. Five fireplaces add to the charm of this antique along with parsonsâ cupboards and old-fashioned bake ovens.
Diana Baxter/The Painted Bungalow will take care of decorating the dining room and kitchen area of the house. Visitors can expect to find hand painted furniture, needlepoint pillows, and French country items among the decorative pieces Mrs Baxter selects for her presentation.
Additional decorative accessories will be provided by Chelsea Treasures in Monroe, which will work with the dining roomâs color palette of soft sage greens, matte soft golds, and chocolate with a touch of pink.
Mathison Floors in Newtown will also provide area rugs.
The Barn at 50 Main Street
Property of Shane & George Miller
Decorator: Billy Ceglia Designs
The house at 50 Main Street has been part of the Holiday Festival walking tour a number of times, but this year it is the outbuilding that will be featured. The picturesque barn and carriage house on the northeast corner of the property at 50 Main Street will be one of the stops on Sundayâs walking tour. The building was restored in 1970 by Mark Oppenheimer, and underwent additional restoration in the 1990s.
True to Newtownâs love of all things equestrian, documents from 1929 indicate that the homestead was known as âThe Roadside Farm,â wherein competitive jumping horses were stabled. Its simplicity is highlighted by white bead board walls and the original stable layout.
The stately house that is the Millersâ home was built in 1869 and has come to be known as either The Budd House or The Glover House, honoring two previous owners. While walking past the exquisite house toward the barn, note the distinctive exterior features: The house is marked by the classic Corinthian columns supporting the spacious front porch and the mansard roof decorated with patterns created by the varicolored and multishaped slate roofing tiles.
An additional treat this weekend will be the work done by professional decorator Billy Ceglia, who has transformed the building into a Ralph Lauren-themed holiday spectacle. Billy Ceglia Designs is known for its clean-cut sophisticated style, and will be the perfect addition to combine old and new, traditional and contemporary within the antique barn.
72 Main Street
Home of Birgitta & Richard Cole
Decorator: Truly Yours LLC
The house at 72 Main Street was originally built in 1783 and, like many old homes, its façade shows not only its colonial heritage, but also subsequent Federal and Victorian renovations.
The land on which the house sits was originally acquired by John Blackman in 1715. During the late 1700s and early 1800s the house held the workshop of Ziba Blakeslee, Newtown clockmaker, bell founder, and jeweler. The property also included an early three-bay barn, an outhouse, and a tool shed, all still standing. The sun porch, a 1930s rear addition, features walls meticulously hand painted with a scene of the rear garden in springtime.
Current owners Birgitta and Richard Cole have been in this home for seven years and have found it a wonderful setting for Birgittaâs extensive collection of antique Swedish furniture.
Truly Yours, LLC, Distinctive Gifts and Fine Stationary, a boutique located just over the Newtown-Bethel border on Route 6, will take care of decorating the Colesâ home for the Holiday Festival.