Coffee Table Book Reception

On Sunday Afternoon

The public is invited to stop by the lower meeting room on Sunday, December 11, to meet many of the photographers, editors and graphic designers responsible for Newtown 2005: The Way We Are After 300 Years. A reception will run that afternoon from 4 to 6 pm.

While Newtown has been celebrating the 300th anniversary of its founding, amateur and professional photographers have been taking photos of everything and creating a collection to commemorate this major year in the town’s history. Two dozen local photographers have contributed photos that capture the everyday life and special events that have been taking place in Newtown during the past year.

The result is Newtown 2005: The Way We Are After 300 Years, a full-color 132-page collection that its editor, Justin Scott, hopes will become a treasure for those who purchase it. It will also become, he thinks, a reference source for future generations of residents and genealogists who are interested in the life of Newtown during an early year of the 21st Century.

The book is a full-color, coffee table-style presentation. Divided into 12 chapters, the book’s 267 images celebrate residents of all ages at work and play, growing, worshiping, building, serving (as police, fire, and ambulance personnel and also as town employees), learning, and celebrating a year’s worth of holidays and tercentennial events. It sells for $25.

In addition to Sunday’s reception, Newtown 2005 is available for purchase at branches of Newtown Savings Bank, Lexington Gardens, C.H. Booth Library (25 Main Street), Village Barber Shop (6 Queen Street), and the Newtown branches of Savings Bank of Danbury (at 20 Church Hill Road) and Union Savings Bank (1 Commerce Road).