Home Care In Gaylordsville, CT

50th Anniversary celebration of the restoration of the Merwinsville Hotel begins with a Glass Sphere Hunt! Go on a treasure hunt! Participating historic sites will include New Milford, Danbury, Brookfield, Kent, Litchfield and Gaylordsville

Reaching a milestone as important as the 50^th anniversary deserves to be celebrated and that is exactly what the Merwinsville Hotel Restoration is planning on doing throughout the second half of 2021.

In 1971 the Gaylordsville community came together and formed a non-profit association to restore the building. These efforts were spearheaded by George Haase and continues today with his two daughters, Jeremy Ruman and Jennifer Haase, President and Vice President of the board of directors.

Kicking off their 50^th anniversary celebration, the Hotel hired glassblowers Leslie French and Andy Pyle from Nunwell Glass in Lakeville, CT to create 50 glass spheres that will be hidden at historic sites in the area for people to find and keep. Each glass sphere will be stamped with “MHR 50” and will be numbered. The glass spheres will be hidden in early August and a complete list of historic sites participating in the hunt will be on the Hotel’s website soon.

“We are so excited to be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the restoration, and thanks to a much-appreciated donation from the New Milford Commission on the Arts to celebrate this milestone, the Hotel’s expenditure in our ‘glass sphere scavenger hunt’ became much more affordable,” said Jeremy Ruman. “We also wanted to give other local non-profits the opportunity to take an active part in the event. Due to the pandemic, we have all suffered the loss of revenue and visitors. By inviting other historic non-profits to take part in the hunt by hiding the glass spheres (at no cost to them other than coming up with a great hiding places), we can all benefit. It is so important for all our local non-profits to continue to thrive and grow. We hope this event will be a way to help achieve that.”

Participating non-profits include: Brookfield Craft Center, Danbury Museum & Historical Society, Danbury Railway Museum, Gaylordsville Historical Society (Brown’s Forge and Little Red Schoolhouse), Merwinsville Hotel, Kent Historical Society, Litchfield Historical Society, New Milford Historical Society, Gallery 25, Harrybrook Park and The Silo (in New Milford).

Other events planned this year will include Sunday tours from 2-4PM starting July 11^th, annual Potluck Dinner September 10th, Art and Fine Craft Show & Gala starting Friday, October 8^th and the Holiday Christmas Show that begins the Friday after Thanksgiving.

The Merwinsville Hotel opened for business in 1843 as a meal and station stop for the Housatonic Railroad that ran between Bridgeport and Pittsfield. The second-floor features rooms with period furniture and decor reminiscent of the hotel’s earliest years. There is also a museum of artifacts featuring the rich history of the Gaylordsville area.

The Merwinsville Hotel Restoration is a national historic landmark located at 1 Brown’s Forge Road in Gaylordsville, CT, only 15 minutes from Kent, Sherman, New Milford and the Harlem Valley/Wingdale Railroad Station. For further information, call 860-350-4443 or visit www.merwinsvillehotel.org

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A hot and sunny day is expected Tuesday in Connecticut while parts of the state are still coping with the aftermath of storms that brought torrential downpours, massive flooding and ripped away roads.

Some flood warnings remain in effect along the Connecticut River and at points along the Housatonic River as of Tuesday morning. In some areas, the waters from the Housatonic reached levels not seen in 30 years, according to the National Weather Service.

Low pressure is slowly exiting our area as high pressure builds late tonight into Tuesday. Dry conditions are expected tomorrow and will continue into Wednesday, with mostly sunny skies and highs in the upper 80s to lower 90s. #NYwx #NJwx #CTwx pic.twitter.com/ThYtmmokRD

— NWS New York NY (@NWSNewYorkNY) July 11, 2023

Mostly sunny weather is expected across Connecticut today, with highs in the 80s to low 90s, the weather service said.

More hot weather is expected Wednesday, with highs reaching the low 90s with the potential for a few thunderstorms.

There's a chance of more inclement weather Thursday and Friday, raising concerns about additional flooding.

"I would say for anytime over the next couple of weeks, if we do get a rainfall, that people should be very careful if when they're out and about driving" said Jon Barbagallo, a public information officer for the town of Norfolk, which was hit particularly hard over the weekend. "Anything that hasn't had a permanent fix yet might just get weakened by additional rain, so we might have some future problems."

As the storm moved north, it brought flooding to Vermont not seen since Tropical Storm Irene, the state's governor said. Rescue teams raced to Vermont, including rescue crews from North Carolina, Michigan and Connecticut, the Associated Press reported. President Joe Biden, on a visit to Lithuania, declared an emergency in Vermont due to the flooding.

In New York, the storm slammed the Hudson Valley, flooding rail lines and leaving one woman dead as she tried to evacuate her home, which was hit by boulders dislodged by the floodwaters, officials said.

Metro-North said Tuesday night train service has been partially restored on its Hudson Line. Buses are still being used between Croton-Harmon and Poughkeepsie and on the Upper Harlem Line between Southeast and Wassaic.

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The storm dumped between 1 to 3 inches of rain across much of Connecticut, but some areas in Litchfield County saw up to 9 inches of rain. The water flooded streams and rivers, and in some parts of the mostly rural county, sections of road were ripped away by the torrential currents.

Flood warnings remain in effect along the length of the Connecticut River along with some spots along the Housatonic. In the Gaylordsville section of New Milford, the Housatonic reached its highest crest since March 1993.

Floodwaters are expected to recede over the next few days.

NEW MILFORD — Looking at the exterior of the Merwinsville Hotel, it’s easy to picture what the popular meal stop was like in the 1800s as scores of travelers made their way between Bridgeport and Pittsfield, Mass.

Railroad tracks still line the three-story building and candles fill the windows.

“You can just sort of imagine it,” Jeremy Ruman, president of the Merwinsville Hotel Organization, said as she described women in their dresses ascending the grand staircase.

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The hotel just celebrated its 175th year, though its focus has shifted from feeding travelers to living history, offering a glimpse into what a hotel along a railroad was like back in the day.

It took a lot of work to get to this point. Ruman’s father, George Haase, used to drive different routes from their home in Sandy Hook to his job at the Bulls Bridge power plant. On one of those trips he saw the hotel and became fascinated with it though he wasn’t able to find it again until the family moved to New Milford, not far from the hotel.

Haase rallied support from the community and began restoring it, starting with the roof, securing the foundation with a steel beam through the basement and painting the outside. The owner, Ed Dolan, sold the building to the group for $1 so it could be restored.

Antique furniture now fills the rooms on the first two floors, including decorated pianos and sofas. A replicated station master room is off of the entrance where a replica check-in desk sits. Railroad and Gaylordsville artifacts are also scattered throughout the hotel, including the old postal box.

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“The hotel had one foot on a banana peel and we’ve been very lucky,” Ruman said. “If something was teetering on the end of obliteration, it was. We’ve had wonderful items donated to us over the years and great volunteers.”

Hotel history

The hotel was built in 1842 and opened the following year. Sylvanus Merwin had heard Housatonic Railroad was going to be traveling up the valley through Gaylordsville and so purchased land on the route and began building a hotel. He then insisted the railroad stop at his hotel if the company wanted his right of way and call the stop Merwinsville. The company agreed.

Merwin built a ticket office and waiting rooms on the south end of the hotel and also a built a shop and school for girls.

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Train staff and a dozen or so customers would have a meal during the 20 minute stops at the peak, but business took a hit with the invention of the dining cars in the 1870s, which allowed travelers to eat on their train ride. The contract with the Houstanonic Railroad ended in 1877 and the family held dances in the third floor ballroom and boarded summer travelers in the decades to come to try to sustain the hotel.

First the school, then the store closed and then the railroad company replaced the Merwinsville stop with the Gaylordsville one about 50 yards down the track.

A man named Michael Hastings bought the building soon after the ticket office left in 1916 and used it as his residence with his son in the upstairs apartment until 1947. It was then used as storage for the Gaylordsville Fire Department until a fire in 1970, leaving the building vacant.

Restoring it

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Ruman recalls the condition of the building at that time. She and her sister would walk around the rim of one of the rooms on the second floor that had a gaping hole to the level below.

The first two floors have since been restored and the hotel is decorated similar to what it might have looked like in the 1800s, as the volunteers piece the history and each room’s function together.

“We sort of have to guess on some of this,” Ruman said, adding they use some local history books. “There’s not a ton, but it’s a little to go on.”

The restoration effort has now shifted to the ballroom.

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Renderings of what they envision the ballroom to look like once it’s restored sit off to the side of the room, which looks more like an attic at the moment than a place the Harvey Girls once performed.

Before the ballroom can truly be used for events, the restoration group will have to build a new staircase that is more accessible than the steep stairs now that go up to the third floor. To do this, they will have to switch the well and septic. The overall project is expected to cost at least $500,000.

There is also continuous upkeep.

“There’s always a lot of maintenance,” Ruman said. “We take things as they come, depending on funds.”

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The organization is a nonprofit and donations can be made through their website to help with the projects.

A master gardener is working with the group and plans to plant a kitchen garden in the spring.

A special place

Ruman said she believes the building is one of the last rail stop hotels east of the Mississippi River with a ballroom on the third floor and is honored to keep it standing and going after 175 years.

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“It’s really special,” she said. “There’s not anything really like it.”

Another unique aspect of the hotel is its architecture. It has nine columns and was built in a Georgian style with latticed balconies. Dumbwaiters were used to deliver the food from the kitchen up to the four dining rooms. The train only stopped for 20 minutes so the food had to be ready fast.

Ruman said it’s great to see how far the hotel has come, especially given all of the hours her father has put into it.

“We’re really proud,” Ruman said. “It’s such a hidden gem.”

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Dec 31, 2018

For more than a dozen years Karl Fuchs, a second lieutenant in the Gaylordsville Volunteer Fire Department In New Milford, routinely headed for the door when there was a major fire in town, even when he was at work.

But four years ago, Fuchs was forced to look for another job when Nestle, his longtime employer, closed its research and development operation in town.

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"I didn't go to every call, but if it was a structure fire or something major, there was no problem," said Fuchs, a third-generation volunteer whose grandfather was a founding member of the department. "Now I'm working in Westchester. I'm an hour away, and I can't do that."

Fuchs isn't the only volunteer fireman in New Milford or elsewhere forced by the changing economy to take a job outside the community where he lives and serves.

"Twenty to 25 years ago, a lot of members worked in town and were able to leave their jobs when they were needed," said Chief Jim Galbraith of Water Witch Hose Co., the town's largest volunteer department. "But now it's tougher, because a lot more people work out of town."

Three years ago, chiefs from Waterwitch, Gaylordsville and Northville devised a plan to ensure adequate fire protection during the crucial daytime hours when many of their members may not be available.

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If there is a report of a structure fire between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. during the week, anywhere in town, the call goes out to all three volunteer companies.

The system is used even if the report is of smoke in a building or a car fire inside a garage, former Northville Chief Jerry Romaniello said.

"The `all call' tone activates all three departments' pagers, and gets everybody moving," he said. "It seems to be a fantastic system."

Under that system, the highest ranking officer of the department that answers the call is in charge until an officer from the company that would normally respond arrives on the scene, Galbraith said.

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Occasionally too many firefighters show up, but that's not a problem.

"There's nothing wrong with getting people there, because you can always turn them away," Galbraith said. "You don't want to be caught short."

Although many volunteer ambulance corps in the Danbury area and elsewhere in the state have been forced to rely on paid personnel to answer calls during the day, the situation with volunteer firefighters isn't as dire, most local fire chiefs said.

"On the fire side during the day, we're fine," said Sherman fire and ambulance Chief Matt Heinz. "But the times are changing. "Years ago when there was a fire call, employers said go. Now they're saying you can't do it."

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One reason the reduced number of daytime volunteers has a greater impact on the ambulance corps is that it responds to twice as many calls as firefighters do, said Chief Ken Parciasepe of the Stony Hill Fire Department, one of two volunteer companies in Bethel.

"Our ambulance corps will run approximately 700 EMS calls per year, and 60 to 70 percent of them are during the daytime. Last year we had about 400 fire calls, and half were during the day," Parciasepe said. "There's just a lot higher demand for the ambulance, and part of the reason is that people are getting older."

A decade ago, volunteer fire departments across the state were complaining about manpower problems, although the shortage has been eased in recent years as more departments have established junior corps to attract young members.

Northville is one of several volunteer departments with an active complement of aspiring volunteers, like 17-year-old James Hall, who joined two years ago because he wanted "to do something for the community."

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Hall's father, stepfather and brother are all volunteer firefighters. Junior members aren't allowed to fight fires, but they help out at fire scenes and can become regular members when they turn 18.

"We've got seven junior members now, and we've got quite a few regular members from the juniors in the past, which is the whole idea," said Northville volunteer Dave Lang

at [email protected]

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or at 203"' 731-3342.

NEW MILFORD — When Roger Shaw was 8 years old, he memorized several Michael Jackson dances on YouTube and posted them to his Instagram.

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Little did he or his family know he would soon get noticed by a talent agency and become a child actor.

Now 11 and a fifth-grader at Sarah Noble Intermediate School, Roger has appeared in 10 productions for TV, movies and commercials including “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “Blacklist,” “Life and Beth,” “Help me Mary” and “Evil Lives Here.”

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The road to Roger’s acting career began when John Casablancas Modeling & Acting Agency in Rocky Hill called his mother and said, ‘I saw these Michael Jackson dances and I’d really like to meet him,’” said Roger’s mother, Megan Shaw, who also has 6-year-old twins. “They liked that he was self taught and they liked his look.”

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When Roger and his mother drove to the agency, Roger was hired on the spot.

“He started doing modeling classes, acting classes and he was really liking it,” Shaw said.

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Mother and son began making weekly trips to the agency after school — and Roger’s world began to change.

He would spend two hours, along with about 10 other kids, walking a runway and practicing lines.

“They had a lot of teachers, such as the president of the drama club from Yale. It was always someone else teaching him a different idea or a different lesson, so that he finally got comfortable,” Shaw said.

One skill Roger learned is how to slate — which means he has to say his name, agency, location, sometimes his height — out loud.

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“Every time he has an audition, he has to say those things,” Shaw said.

After three months, Roger got selected for an event called the International Modeling & Talent Association, or IMTA.

“This is an event where huge talent agencies from all over the world come to scout talent. However, you have to audition and then you have to be chosen,” Shaw said. “He had to train for that event for a year. The training was focused on acting and modeling.”

“You need to be comfortable on stage in front of hundreds of people,” Shaw said.

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Roger was practicing for a year for the IMTA — and then COVID-19 came. The event, which was scheduled to be in Manhattan in July of 2020 — was canceled.

Yet, Roger continued to train every week — but virtually, over Zoom.

“The trainer, who is a professional teacher or actor, would send us slides via email, which are lines to read and memorize. Roger would read them and they’d go back and forth,” she said. “It was frustrating because there is no comparison to in-person tutoring.”

In January 2021, Roger and his mother traveled to an IMTA event in Orlando, Fla.

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From Monday to Thursday, in front of about 500 people, Roger practiced a variety of different skills such as walking the runway and a skill called “Kids’ Spot,” where he had to get comfortable speaking about something he liked.

“I felt very nervous. The hardest part was getting on stage and talking,” Roger said.

Roger chose to talk about karate, which he said he loves and for which he now has a Brown Belt.

At each rehearsal, “the agencies look at you, they want to see how you look and how you carry yourself,” Shaw said.

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Friday was callback day.

“That was when you found out if any agencies liked you from the work you did all week,” Shaw said.

From IMTA, eight agencies in the U.S. were interested in Roger, and Shaw chose two of them.

Getting gigs

Today, Roger gets an acting gig when his agencies call his parents to tell them about it or when his parents see something available on different acting apps, such as “Backstage.”

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He has auditioned across the tri-state area.

When he goes to auditions, it’s a long day for him, said his mother.

“We’ll have to be on set sometimes at 7:30 in the morning,” Shaw said. “He’s 11 years old and he gets really tired. By 5 o’clock he will fall asleep in the car.”

In order for children to get acting jobs, they must have a trust account set up in their name, Shaw said.

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Fifteen percent of every job automatically goes in the account and can’t be touched until the child turns 18. The rest can be deposited into that account or can be cashed for the child to use. The child must be present when they are cashed.

While Roger is having a lot of fun with acting, “this is a lot of work,” Shaw said. “We are constantly looking for things to do in the business.”

Roger has set his sights to be in a big movie or TV show, his mother said.

“I see him on a long running comedy show, like Modern Family,” Shaw said. “Roger is just really is attached to family. My parents live with us and Roger loves it. He is very family oriented.”

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[email protected] 203-948-9802