#1 La Leche League – Dorothy Thompson   back to quilt

Dot was a nursing student at the time she quilted the La Leche League

block. She was the head of the Valley La Leche League and was helping

women breast feed their children.  She wanted to do a block to represent

her interest.  She was also the mother of 6 children in 1976.

#2 Jones Tree Farm – Ruth Lee (1904-1987)  back to quilt

Ruth was a retired history teacher from Shelton High School. Philip James Jones was a Welsh-Irish immigrant who began working his land in the White Hills Section of Shelton in the 1850s.  The farm is on Israel Hill Rd. near Rt. 110.   The Jones family planted Christmas trees in the 1930’s and to this day still sell Christmas trees along with other products like strawberries and blueberries.

#3 Strawberries from Jones Tree Farm – Dorothy K. Sommers  back to quilt

Dorothy lives near Jones Tree Farm and was able to pick strawberries when Terry Jones planted the fields sometime after 1960.

#4 Nelson Tomlinson House – Georgette Kierce  back to quilt

The Tomlinson house on the corner of Longfellow Dr. and East Village Road, was built in the 1840s by Nelson Tomlinson and his uncle Deacon Charles Tomlinson who were farmers. Tomlinson and his wife Charity Maria Drew had 8 children.  Two of their sons served in the Civil War, but only one survived.  The house became the home of his youngest daughter, Georgiana, who married Dan Knapp.  Mr. Knapp was in the sawmill business. 

When Georgiana died, her daughter, Avis moved across the street to a house with a large oak tree in front.

The oak tree was saved from destruction because of its historic landmark designation. Phil Jones verified that Ed Robinson was in charge of all the biggest trees in Connecticut and the classified the trees by size, determining their age by “nudging them”.  Mr. Robinson said the tree is probably 300 or 400 years old and ranks fifth among the oldest oak trees in the state. 

In 1964 the Mulford family moved into the house, living there for the next 35 years. The quilt square depicts a very large tree in front of the house.  The Tomlinson brothers planted two pine trees before the Civil War. These were struck by lightning and were taken down in the 1970’s.  Quilter Georgette Kierce selected. the house and the oak tree across the street because she could see the Mulford’s house outside her window and the oak tree has historical significance.

#5 Plumb Memorial Library – Christine Todisco (20 Feb 1922-22 Jul 2005)  back to quilt

In the winter of 1891, David Wells Plumb, a successful Shelton businessman, chaired a meeting of city residents who voted to establish a public library. The residents raised nearly $2000 at that meeting, and in October 1892 they voted to appropriate a three-quarter mill tax toward the library's support. They also appointed six people as library directors, with Plumb serving as library president.  More...

#6 White Hills School – Ann Zak   back to quilt

Ann was a student at White Hills School for eight years.  She included the outhouse – there were two, one for the boys and one for the girls – because it was historically a part of the school. 

 #7 Horse Racing on the Housatonic River – Louise Cole  back to quilt

People could ride across the Housatonic River before the dam was built. Louise always liked horses and was interested in hearing about the horse racing on the Housatonic River.  She thought it would be intriguing to attempt to make her patch look like frozen water and used a heavy satin fabric for the river.  For the hills in the background she stuffed the material with cotton to give the hills a three dimensional appearance. A picture of the Reverend A.A. Bickford (the last minister of the White Hills Baptist Church) in his cutter may have been the inspiration for this quilt patch. See The White Hills of Shelton, published in 1968 by the White Hills Civic Club History Committee, p. 48a. 

#8 Beard's Saw Mill by Wells Hollow– Janet Van Iderstine   back to quilt

Janet saw a picture of the mill, or one like it, in a Shelton history book and used it as inspiration for her block.  The idea of so many mills in the Huntington section fascinated Janet and determined her choice of subject.

#9 Four Poster Bed – Pat Kreitner   back to quilt

A picture of a canopied bedstead in the salt box house owned by Jeannette Beardsley is featured in The White Hills of Shelton, published in 1968 by the White Hills Civic Club History Committee, p. 16e. If you look closely at the right hand side of the bed, you may see a black cat. The cat was Pat's family pet, Shadow.

 #10 Ousatonic Dam – Florence Bialek   back to quilt

The woman who began this block was unable to finish. Florence volunteered to make this block since she saw the dam practically every day.  The Ousatonic Dam provided the water power for the factories along the river.  Edward N. Shelton was the president of the Ousatonic Water Co. and began dam construction in 1863. The dam was completed in 1870 and downtown Shelton was born.  Edward Shelton was a descendant of Daniel Shelton.

#11 Indian Well – Florence Bialek  back to quilt

Florence lived near the Indian Well and her family hiked in the State Park. The area became a park in 1928 when the State of CT purchased the land. There is a picture of Indian Well as it looked in 1930, in The White Hills of Shelton, published in 1968 by the White Hills Civic Club History Committee, p. 16d.

#12 SHS – Shelton High School sports – Helene Pacowta  back to quilt

Helene’s niece was in the color guard and marched in the Rose Bowl Parade.  She also liked the idea of the making the balls and the coordinator suggested making the rose 3-dimensional.

#13 Durrschmidt House 1880 – Daniele Dognin  back to quilt

Max Durrschmidt, well known in Shelton, built this house as well as several other buildings including St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church.

Describing the construction of her square, Daniele Dognin said,  “It was very interesting because it’s an appliqué quilt and we learned all the techniques.  And it’s also great because you do embroidery, the detail with the embroidery, like the little moldings and things like that to bring out.  And we… picked what we wanted.  Nobody told you what you should be choosing for fabric and I just loved to be part of it… I used lace for the gingerbread.”  Displaying a collection of fabric and trims saved from the project, “This was the lace for the railing and this was for the gingerbread on top…and then, of course, embroidery cotton.”

Mr. Dognin contributed, “We were the first non-Durrschmidt’s to own the house and we bought it in 1972 to restore it.  We’ve been working at it ever since. It’s a rather nice Victorian for the period and there were very few of those in the city of Shelton because many of the industrialists and people of wealth lived in Derby at the time on Atwater Avenue. It’s got the crinoline, it’s called, on the roof at the center.  The house has been changed in the sense that when we first bought it Route 8 wasn’t here, the bridge wasn’t here, Constitution Blvd wasn’t here and it was a not so busy street out here in front.  Those things are all changed today and… we’ve grown a lot of trees to try to give ourselves privacy.”   

#14 Covered Bridge connecting Shelton and Derby –

Audrey Talcott 31 october 1926-20 June 2000)  back to quilt

Audrey chose the block because she lived near the bridge on Roosevelt Drive.  Audrey was an artist and displayed her work in the area. 

#15 The Modesty – Roberta Lucey  back to quilt

Roberta’s grandfather was a sailor based in Portland, Maine and sailed ships like the clipper ship the Modesty.  A picture of the ship in an early history book on Shelton inspired her block. These ships would come into Shelton harbor and go up to Naugatuck before the dam was built.  They would sail to the West Indies.  Roberta worked with Ann Zak at Griffin Hospital and that is how they came to work on the quilt together.

#16 Flower Garden and Orchard- Dorothy Wilson (16 July 1899- 20 December 1987)

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 #17 ‘76’ – Mary Alice Bohn  back to quilt

Mary Alice was the coordinator of the Shelton quilt, along with several other bicentennial quilts at the time. She supervised the quilting of the blocks, assembled the finished quilt, and created the ‘76’ patch near the center of the quilt. She defines the Shelton quilt as an appliquéd pictorial quilt.

#18 Eli Nettleton Baldwin Stump Joint Factory at 104 Mill St.  

– Kathleen Reed (1916-1980)   back to quilt

The land was purchased from the Indians.  The mill was powered by water to turn the lathes.  The mill had many uses during the years from manufacturing lacy filigree mats for Daguerreotypes to guns and gun caissons for the Civil War.  The mill also made parts for the Huntington Piano Co.

Kathleen’s daughter, Diane Kathleen Reed Jowdy, has lived in her family home for 50 years. She remembers that her mother later used some of the fabric depicting the mill in aprons for “her granddaughter, Madelyn, and me”.  In about 1954, Kathleen and her husband, Winston, bought the mill from Eli Nettleton Baldwin IV and his daughter, Helen Blase, who were the last of the Baldwins to live and work there. When the Housatonic River flooded in 1955, the property was damaged, but since the sale was based on an intact dam, Mr. Baldwin and his daughter restored the mill before turning it over to the Reeds. Mr. Reed ultimately removed the 50 lathes from the original metal shop to convert the space to a research laboratory.

#19 Wind mill – Linda Cawthra   back to quilt

The wind mill was located at the Birdseye Farm on Mohegan Rd. and was used to pump water. Every morning Emily Birdseye would release the brake which allowed water to be pumped for the barn and house.

 #20 Hubbell Monument – Bernice McEwen  back to quilt

The tallest monument in the White Hills Baptist Church Cemetery.  Mrs. McEwen chose to create the square because her husband is related to the Hubbell family.  The monument is located in the Upper White Hills Cemetery and was built by Lucius Hubbell. A picture of the monument appears in The White Hills of Shelton, published in 1968 by the White Hills Civic Club History Committee, p. 32g.

Mrs. McEwen also has quilts hanging in the Huntington United Methodist Church, 338 Walnut Tree Hill Rd. and at the Shelton Historical Society.

#21 Thaddeus Kosciuszko – Virginia Borkowski  back to quilt

Virginia wanted to include Polish-Americans in the quilt and she admired Thaddeus Kosciuszko.  He was one of the first European volunteers to aid the American Revolutionary Cause in 1776.  He was a brilliant Polish military engineer.  He designed and constructed fortifications to help defeat the British especially at Saratoga and West Point, NY.

#22 Peach Brandy – Mary Robbins  back to quilt

The Bridgeport Hydraulic Co. grew a peach orchard on Isinglass Rd. in the 1940's.  The employees would pick the peaches and the apples from the apple orchard by Trap Falls Reservoir and sell the fruit at a stand on the corner of Old Shelton Rd. and Huntington St.

 #23 Curtiss Memorial Fountain

Helen Thomas (19 Sep 1919—25 Apr 2005)  back to quilt

The watering fountain, on the Huntington green, was once a watering trough on Ripton Road. It was donated by Julia Curtiss Nash in memory of her father, Lewis Curtiss in 1895. The fountain was placed so its two troughs could water the horses pulling the daily stagecoach to Bridgeport, and was filled from a spring off Ripton Road. The fountain depicts a woman on a horse, wielding a spear against an attack by a jaguar. It represented the tough spirit of the early settlers who created Huntington out of the forest.  Information from: http://electronicvalley.org/tour/HuntingtonGreen.htm

#24 Birmingham Corset Factory – Charlotte Batchelor  back to quilt

The Birmingham Corset Factory was established in 1892-1898.  It was built as a three-story building on Bridge and Canal Streets and employed 300 people.  The company moved to Bridgeport in 1898. Sometime between 1910 and 1919 the building was expanded to five stories. Mrs. Batchelor chose to design and sew this square because of her interest in costume design.  She found a corset advertised in a 1902 Sears Catalog and created a larger drawing for the quilt.  The building is currently being developed into a 110-unit condominium by Bridgeport developer John Guedes.

#25 Hoop Skirt

Harriet Nowell (14 August 1916-23 December 2004)  back to quilt

In 1852 Samuel Drew and his brother Isaac built a wooden shop and hired 20 people to make hoop skirts.  The building is located at 354 Coram Ave.  When bustles became more fashionable in the 1870’s the brothers sold the building.  It became a boarding house known as the Rayner Building.

#26 Holly Hobby – Yvonne Meyer

(21 April 1938 - 17 May 1983)   back to quilt

Yvonne’s daughter, Michelle Damon, lives in Cheshire, CT. Michelle was 12 in 1976 and had a Holly Hobby doll, which her mother thought typified what Colonial people might wear.  Michelle says the background material on the patch is from a dress Yvonne made for Michelle when she was 5 years old.  Yvonne’s cousin, Virginia Schrillo, worked on the patch depicting the Huntington Piano Company (#29).

 #27 USS Constitution – Carole Bulakowski  back to quilt

As a boy, Commodore Isaac Hull lived in Huntington Landing on Riverdale Ave., was the commander of the USS Constitution.  The ship, also known as “Old Iron Sides”, can be visited in Boston. 

#28 Vargoshe’s chickens – Mary Kintzler  back to quilt

Mr. Vargoshe had an egg business in Huntington Center.  The square represents Mr. Vargoshe’s boots and his chickens.  The farm house was sold and is now Real Estate2. Mary remembers Mr. Vargoshe as an extremely nice person. She learned about the quilt project from Dorothy Sommers (quilter of patch 3), who lived across the street.

#29 Huntington Piano Company  – Virginia Schrillo

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Virginia remembers that she was taught how to quilt with Yvonne and a few other ladies.  They made pillows with a quilted star pattern before starting their patches for the Bicentennial Quilt.  She remembered the coordinator was a professional and kept the ladies on schedule.  She also remembered they had fun and brought their lunches for those quilting sessions.   

The Sterling Piano Co. of NY  established a subsidiary company in 1894 to make less expensive pianos and moved it to Shelton in 1897.  Huntington pianos are part of many area homes. The most famous pianist linked with the company, Ignaz Paderewski,  In the 1930’s the building became the Boys & Girls Club. In the 90’s it was destroyed by fire and remained empty for many years before being demolished to make way for the recently constructed senior housing, The Ripton. More on Huntington Piano Company...

#30 City Seal – Shelton CT/US Bicentennial/1776-1976 – JoAnn Olearchik and Evelyn Terenzi  back to quilt

JoAnn and Evelyn were members of the Bicentennial Commission. The seal was created by Rick Lanaro, who submitted the winning design to a city-wide contest sponsored by the Commission.

#31 Salt Box – Muriel Lodie  back to quilt

The salt box design was typical of houses in the 17th and 18th centuries.  The house depicted in the quilt patch has the name "Lodie" stitched on the mailbox on the fence in the lower right hand corner.

The most famous saltbox house associated with Shelton was described in a book of the same name. Published by Jane DeForest Shelton, daughter of Edward Nelson Shelton, in 1900, her book is still held in library collections across the state. She told a friend “all the characters in the book are real…as I wished to continue the record of our family in the old house …the book is exactly true in most details.”

Her book used an 1868 artist’s rendering of the Capt. Joseph Birdseye Saltbox house built in 1760 as its frontispiece. She wrote about a family of three generations of cousins who built a saltbox house in 1758 in the Upper White Hills of Shelton. The Daniel Shelton house built in 1758 had collapsed by the time the book was published. She visited with the last inhabitants of the house before it crumbled. The grandfather clock and glass decanter and flip glass from those families are on display at Plumb Library today.

The White Hills of Shelton, published in 1968 by the White Hills Civic Club History Committee, includes a section on salt box houses on pages 17-29. A picture of a salt box  house described as being red and the home of Alexander DeMarco on Maple Avenue appears on page 16c. The name "Lodie" is stitched on the mailbox on the fence in the lower right hand section of the quilt patch.

#32 Marks-Brownson House – Rita Wtorkowski  back to quilt

Originally built circa 1820 by merchant Hezekiah Marks, a representative to the general assembly, the house is an example of late Federal/early Greek Revival vernacular architecture.  

Upon Hezekiah's death, his widow and heirs moved to Lockport, NY. In the 1820’s the property was owned by Sally Bennett until it was acquired by Sheldon Brownson and his eldest son, Henry I. in 1866. When Henry's son, Harry Brownson married Gertrude Buckingham on October 5, 1904, they set up housekeeping in the family's homestead where they remained for the next six decades. Harry Brownson was a farmer and also sold flowers to Bridgeport florists while his wife Gertrude managed the books for the very productive farm. After Harry’s death, Gertrude sold the house to the Derby Savings Bank in 1968.

In 1970 the Shelton Historical Society acquired the house for $1 from the Derby Savings Bank. The only condition required it to be moved from the corner of Old Shelton Road and Shelton Road (the site of the Huntington branch of the Derby Savings Bank). Thus the house was moved about one mile to the corner of Ripton and Cloverdale Roads onto land donated by Wisner and Helen Wilson.     

The Brownson house was chosen by Rita Wtorkowski. The search for Rita was complicated by the task of determining the letters of her name, there appeared to be a number of possibilities.  Luckily, at this point in the project, a quilter who had saved newspaper articles came on the scene. She was able to short cut the search by verifying the proper spelling, a good thing since Rita had moved away from Shelton.

#33 Woman Churning Butter--Mary Ellen Reilly

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#34 Farmer with Scythe – Gerry Mayne

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Mary Ellen and Gerry went to the library together and they quilted the patches at the same time.  The patches represent some history of Shelton and its farming past. She stitched her two sons’ names in the square – Robert and Ronald Mayne. 

#35 White Hills Baptist Church – Dolores Ovesny back to quilt

Dolores lives in the White Hills of Shelton. The White Hills Baptist Church was built in 1839. The land on which the church was built had been part of the Donald Judson Farm until 1837 when it was bought by Ferris Drew of Carmel, NY. Since the closest Baptist church required a trip to Easton, Drew was instrumental in building a church in White Hills, assisted by his brother James Drew and Lucius Hubbell. It is surmised in The White Hills of Shelton that “…Lucius laid the foundation and probably Grandison Hubbell did the carpentry since Grandison built about every house and barn put up in white Hills between 1835 and his death in 1891 at age 77.”

The church was modernized and redecorated in 1894.  Up until then baptism took place in the brook at the foot of Beardsley Road near Rufus Hubbell’s sawmill. The church closed in 1916 following the move of residents away from area farms and into industrial centers. Drew also donated land to create the Upper White Hills Cemetery adjoining the churchyard.

Information from:  http://electronicvalley.org/tour/WhiteHillsBaptistChurch.htm  A drawing of the church appears in The White Hills of Shelton, published in 1968 by the White Hills Civic Club History Committee, p. 32p.

#36 Shelton Looms (Sidney Blumenthal Co.)– Sherry Davis (nee Walsh) back to quilt

Sherry was the youngest quilter—17 at the time the quilt was made.  She is now married and lives in Maine with her family. Sherry made the square to represent the velvet mill which was located between Howe Ave. and Canal St.  She thought the velvet she used for the bustle came from the mill because it came from the attic in her grandfather’s house.  She embroidered her square in Maine where she attended college and mailed it to Shelton.  Sherry’s aunt, Barbara Glover, did the quilting. 

The Sidney Blumenthal Co. began in 1898 and closed in 1953.  The company was a maker of textiles and locally called Shelton Looms.  A series of photographs was created by Lewis Hine in 1933 showing women at work in the Shelton Looms.  In 1953 B. F. Goodrich Sponge Products Div. bought the building and in 1974 it was sold to Grand Sheet Metal of Ohio who renamed it Sponge Rubber Products Co.  After a 1975 fire, the city reclaimed the land which is now a grassy 7-acre site along the Housatonic River renamed “Veterans River Walk”.

#37 View From My Front Window – Ruth Ovesny back to quilt

Ruth still lives on her farm and enjoys the view from her windows. The view is of the farm she lives on and the various corn fields, barns, cows, and pond.   This patch her farm including the split rail fence, apple orchard to the right, pond in the rocky swamp area on the left, 3 barns in a ‘U’ shape with a black and a brown cow grazing; the corn field is represented by the green and gold patches.

#38 PTA/GSA/BSA– Mildred Bulow (29 June 1914 - 30 November 2001)

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PTA – Parent-Teachers Assn.; GSA – Girls Scouts of America; BSA – Boy Scouts of America

#39 Cider Brandy

Helen Simon (27 January 1906 – 4 January 1999)

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Helen was a teacher at Shelton High School.

#40 Pine Rock Park – Barbara Glover   back to quilt

In 1888 trolley lines were laid north on Howe Avenue,  turning at the Canal St. Bridge toward Derby.  Pine Rock Park, an amusement park, was built and run by the trolley company, in order to encourage people to ride the trolleys on the weekends.  The park included wild animals, a merry-go-round, dance hall, picnic area, and balloon rides.  The park closed in 1904.  In 1930 the land was divided into building lots.

Shad in the river:  In 1870 a 145-pound fish was caught.  Mrs. Glover lived in the southeast section of Shelton and created the Pine Rock Park design.

#41 Steam Train – Barbara  A. Bartomeli  back to quilt

In 1888 a railroad and trestles were laid on the Shelton side of the Housatonic River.  The railroad went from Derby to Shelton to Newtown.  A Shelton train depot was built in the 1880’s and passengers could ride to the West Coast via Albany and Chicago.  The passenger line was discontinued in 1921. Barbara made the block because she wanted to be a part of Shelton and to have something for her children to remember her by.

#42 School Bus – Margaret Depeau  back to quilt

Margaret Depeau drove school bus #2918.

#43 Skaters – Joann Lavin  back to quilt

During the early 1900’s there were many places for skating and one of those was the Housatonic River.  People could skate from the Shelton to the Derby side and back in the winter months. Skating was Joann’s favorite winter pasttime.  She enjoyed listening to the older women’s stories about skating on the Housatonic River and she liked the idea of being a part of the project.  She compared the art of appliqué to painting a picture. 

#44 Star Pin Co. – Zaida June  back to quilt

Zaida June’s grandfather worked in the shipping department of the Star Pin Co.  The smaller companies depended on the waterways and the railroad, but as times changed, these smaller companies either merged or went out of business.  Star Pin Co. bought the Sterling Pin Co. of Derby, CT sometime between 1945 and 1950.  The founder of the Star Pin Co., James C. Hubbard, died in 1929 at the age of 84.  The Star Pin Co. was on Canal Street near the current Boys & Girls Club.