‹‹ MORE HISTORICAL NUGGETS

Landis, Jessie Royce (1904-72)

Large boulder at edge of Fairlawn Cemetery on North Salem Road, opposite New Street, where, legend says, five Norwalk men, exploring for the new settlement of Ridgefield, spent a night.

NUGGET #63

Landis, Jessie Royce: Nee Jessie Medbury, was a movie actress famed for playing mother roles (her “children” included Grace Kelly, Cary Grant, June Allyson, Tab Hunter, Anthony Perkins, Jean Peters, and Kim Novak); films included To Catch A Thief (1955), North by Northwest (1959), The Swan (1956); also wrote stage plays and did TV shows; her autobiography, You Won’t Be So Pretty, But You Will Know More, was published in 1954; she lived at 137 Old Branchville Road from 1966 until her death with husband, Major Gen. J.F.R. Seitz (q.v.); buried Branchville Cemetery.

Jack Sanders, Who Was Who in Ridgefield.

More Historical Nuggets

First Pride Day, 1998

FIRST ‘PRIDE’ DAY: “A Celebration of Community: Straight, Gay and Lesbian“ took place in 1998, on the Community Center lawn. Just a year later, a Rainbow Flag was flown for the first time in the nation over a state capitol, Hartford, on March 21, 1999.

Hezekiah Scott (1789-1879)

Hezekiah Scott was a weaver and operated a distillery on the brook near his home on Barlow Mountain Road — a stream now called Kiah’s Brook.

Paving

The first road paving, part of a state experiment, was done on the eastern end of Branchville Road around 1912. Catoonah Street was paved in 1922.