Students share hidden history

Tino Harper, Zach Walsh, and Duke Gentzler presented on William Grimes.
Patrick L. Sullivan
Tino Harper, Zach Walsh, and Duke Gentzler presented on William Grimes.
SALISBURY — Three teams of students from Salisbury School made the initial presentations of their local history projects at the Scoville Memorial Library Thursday, Feb. 15. The presentations were also streamed online.
Salisbury School is an independent boarding school for boys in grades nine to 12.
Teacher Rhonan Mikriski opened the presentations, noting it would be the first run-through. The final presentations will be included at the Troutbeck Symposium May 1-3 in Amenia.
Mikriski said the students are delving into forgotten corners of local history, particularly when it concerns marginalized groups.
The first group — Jasper Nadal, Derrick Dellea and Will Mumby — took a look at the treatment of mental health in Northwest Connecticut and the Hudson Valley.
The students made the point that institutions varied greatly in the quality of the care they provided, and in their philosophies. Were the institutions there to cure patients, or to simply house them?
The students touched on the Lakeville Home for Imbeciles, on the sprawling Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center in Dutchess County, and on the methods used to treat mental illness.
The latter category reads like a horror movie script. The techniques used included prefrontal lobotomies, insulin shock, hydrotherapy (immersion for long periods of time in cold or hot water, sometimes in sequence), and electroshock treatment.
The next group — Jack Kennedy, Judd Phillips, DJ Duntz and Parker Reynolds — took as their starting point the painting “The Last Moments of John Brown” by Thomas Havendon.
The painting shows Brown being escorted to the gallows for his actions in the infamous raid on Harper’s Ferry in 1859. He is pausing to kiss a Black infant.
The local connection is this: The painting was commissioned by the Battell family of Norfolk. The group found the painting to be a conscious attempt to rehabilitate the image of Brown, who was widely considered to be a terrorist for his anti-slavery activities.
Brown was also a native of Torrington.
The group also included a clip from D.W. Griffith’s 1915 film “The Birth of a Nation,” noting the film is famous for its technical sophistication and infamous for its blatant racism. The clip showed Black legislators during Reconstruction drinking alcohol and otherwise clowning around while on the floor of a legislative chamber.
The final group focused on William Grimes, a slave who escaped and made his way to Connecticut in 1814.
He became a successful businessman with barbershops in Litchfield, New Haven and Bridgeport. He married and had a large family.
Grimes was subsequently tracked down after nine years of freedom. He wound up turning his businesses over to secure his continued freedom.
He also wrote a book about his experiences, “Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave,” published in 1825.
The group noted that when Grimes was tracked down, slavery had not yet been abolished in Connecticut.
The students also suggested that the choice of barbershops as a business was in part a way to get around laws that prohibited large gatherings of African Americans.
And they discussed the cultural and social significance of African American hairstyles.
Built in 1820, 1168 Bangall Amenia Road sold for $875,000 on July 31 with the transfer recorded in August. It has a Millbrook post office and is located in the Webutuck school district.
STANFORD — The Town of Stanford with nine transfers in two months reached a median price in August of $573,000 for single family homes, still below Stanford’s all-time median high in August 2024 of $640,000.
At the beginning of October there is a large inventory of single-family homes listed for sale with only six of the 18 homes listed for below the median price of $573,000 and seven above $1 million.
July transfers
79 Ernest Road — 4 bedroom/2.5 bath home on 6.87 acres in 2 parcels sold to Matthew C. Marinetti for $1,225,000.
29 Drake Road — 3 bedroom/3.5 bath home on 2 acres sold to Harper Montgomery for $850,000.
6042 Route 82 — 4 bedroom/2 bath home on 1.09 acres sold to Spencer Thompson for $795,000.
125 Tick Tock Way — 3 bedroom/2.5 bath ranch on 1.9 acres sold to Fleur Touchard for $475,000.
August transfers
102 Prospect Hill Road — 3 bedroom/2 bath home on 6.35 acres sold to Karl Creighton Pfister for $565,000.
252 Ernest Road — 2 bedroom/1 bath cottage on .85 acres sold to Meg Bumie for $465,000.
1196 Bangall Amenia Road — 4 bedroom/2.5 bath home on 2.16 acres sold to Roderick Alleyne for $875,000.
Hunns Lake Road (#759929) — 59.1 acres of residential land sold to Argos Farm LLC for $3,325,000.
* Town of Stanford recorded real estate transfers from July 1 to August 31 provided by Dutchess County Real Property Office monthly transfer reports. Details on each property from Dutchess Parcel Access - properties with an # indicate location on Dutchess Parcel Access. Market data from One Key MLS and Infosparks .Compiled by Christine Bates, Real Estate Advisor with William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty, Licensed in Connecticut and New York.
Hunt club members and friends gathered near Pugsley Hill at the historic Wethersfield Estate and Gardens in Amenia for the opening meet of the 2025-2026 Millbrook Hunt Club season on Saturday, Oct. 4. Foxhunters took off from Wethersfield’s hilltop gardens just after 8 a.m. for a hunting jaunt around Amenia’s countryside.
Joining in the fun at the dedication of the new pollinator pathway garden at The Millbrook Library on Saturday, Oct. 4, local expert gardener Maryanne Snow Pitts provides information about a planting to Lorraine Mirabella of Poughkeepsie.
MILLBROOK — Participating in a patchwork of libraries that have planted pollinator pathway gardens to attract insects and birds to their native plantings was one of the accomplishments being celebrated at the dedication of a new pollinator garden at the Millbrook Library on Saturday, Oct. 4.
“A lot of work went into it,” said Emma Sweeney, past President of the Millbrook Garden Club, who started the local library’s initiative two years ago.
The Pollinator Pathway program is a national effort to plant native plants that native insects depend upon for sustenance and preferred plants for their own seasonal reproduction.
Jana Hogan of Ridgefield, Connecticut, Executive Director of the Pollinator Pathway program, was on hand to present a plaque to the library for its successful participation.
“A garden is not just a garden,” said garden designer Andy Durbridge of Wassaic, designer of the library’s garden. “It may serve as a model for other gardens along the line.”
Speaking to the 50 visitors at the dedication, Durbridge said that the library’s garden has a mission, that it is a working garden, planned to serve insects and birds over their seasons. The earliest plants support pollinators, while the full range of plants continues to serve the needs of those they attract, offering habitat, shelter and food.
A pollinator garden is akin to a prairie, rather than a formalized European garden, Durbridge noted.
The garden project was supported by the library’s Friends group using funds raised during the Holiday Silent Auction and ongoing book sale. A grant from the Millbrook Garden Club also provided support.
Smithfield Church
AMENIA — Fans of the smooth sounds and rhythms of Brazilian Jazz will enjoy “Rio Jazz: Intimate Brazilian Jazz,” a concert at The Smithfield Church on Saturday, Oct. 11, beginning at 3 p.m.
The concert is one of the acclaimed Bang Family Concerts, an ongoing series offering an eclectic range of performances by regional artists. The historic 19th-century church sanctuary offers perfect acoustics, thanks to its dimensions as a classic Greek square.
Assembled in 1988, Rio Jazz is led by Matt Finley, a pioneer in Brazilian jazz, who has brought together a combo of world-class performers for an hour of live music including a sampling of his own compositions. The Brazilian genre began in 1963, with the rise of the bossa nova and its growth in popularity in the U.S.
Members of the combo performing live are pianist Larry Ham, double bassist Lou Pappas, and drummer Jeff Siegel. Guitarist Jeff Ciampa from Orange County is playing for the Smithfield audience for the first time. And vocalist Denise Jordan Finley will join her husband in performing a collaborative composition.
The Smithfield Church is located at 656 Smithfield Valley Road in Amenia. A suggested donation of $20 will support future Bang Family concerts. A meet-the-artists reception will follow the concert. For more information, go to www.thesmithfieldchurch.org/concerts.