On the tenth anniversary of that terrible day, the Woodbridge Volunteer Fire Association unveiled…read morethis memorial to the murderous attacks on the World Trade Center. You can see it right at the main entrance of the Woodbridge Volunteer Fire Department. Members of the association traveled to JFK airport and returned to Woodbridge with a 1,200 pound steel beam from one of the fallen towers. A crane was needed to hoist the beam in the air and place it into its final position at the memorial. The memorial's design has the beam rising from a pool of water. At night, the pool is illuminated in a blue light that shines an image of the Twin Towers onto the firehouse. A stone at the base of the memorial is engraved with these words: "Never Forget 9-11-01" Around the steel beam is a memorial garden that also honors the fallen firefighters of Woodbridge.

1654. That's a looooong time ago. But that's when the first settlers arrived in Ansonia. So it…read moremakes a sense that most of the homes in this area, at least on Elm Street, precede the American Revolution. This is a 2-sided marker from the CT Historical Commission in the familiar white lettering on a blue background. It has the same inscriptions on each side. The marker was dedicated in 1976 and is in excellent shape. The blue background is fairly bright with no signs of fading or peeling. You can see the marker directly across from the Police Department, more or less at the intersection of Elm Street and Platt Street. The full inscription reads: Here the first settlers came in 1654 and established a settlement called Uptown Derby. It is now part of the City of Ansonia, incorporated in 1889. South of this green is the home of General David Humphreys who, as aide-de-camp to General George Washington, accepted the British colors in surrender at Yorktown. Many of the private homes on Elm Street are pre-Revolutionary and the Episcopal cemetery has gravestones dating back to 1741. During the Revolution, men who lived here served with the Second Connecticut Regiment and drilled on this green, then called Cankwood Plain. Erected by the City of Ansonia The Ansonia Historic District Commission and the Connecticut Historical Commission 1976 155 CT towns done, 15 to go

Are you a Beatles fan and are you pretty good at Beatle trivia? OK, fanboy, what unusual musical…read moreinstrument, dating to the 1800's can be heard on "We Can Work It Out", "A Day in the Life", "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!", "Hello, Goodbye", and "Your Mother Should Know"? The answer is a harmonium a/k/a melodeon. They are varieties of free reed organs. And guess what old CT town manufactured melodeons? Ever use a book of matches? Some of the earliest matches made in the US of A were also made here. The Woodbridge Historical marker from the CT Historical Commission is located on an exterior wall of the Old Center School, which now houses the police station and various town offices. You'll see the familiar white lettering on a blue background mounted high on the gable end of the brick building. The marker was dedicated in 1979 and is in pretty good condition with no signs of fading or peeling The full inscription reads: Woodbridge The town consists of portions of the colonial jurisdictions of New Haven and Milford. Founded in 1738 as the Parish of Amity, it was incorporated in 1784 by act of the Connecticut General Assembly and named after the first parish minister, the Reverend Benjamin Woodbridge, who served 1742 to 1785. The first meetinghouse was built in 1740 on the green and met the needs of the community until 1832, when it was replaced by the present building, dedicated on January 1, 1833. The early economy was largely agricultural, but there were several small factories producing such items as melodeons, corkscrews, cement, candlesticks, clocks, and spinning wheels. Some of the earliest friction matches in this country were made in Woodbridge. The decline of farming and improved transportation after 1900, together with the natural beauty and topography of the land, have contributed largely to its growth and distinction as a residential community. Erected by the Town of Woodbridge the Amity & Woodbridge Historical Society and the Connecticut Historical Commission 1979 156 CT towns done, 14 to go

The sign up front. I can never tell if this place is open. I would revise my review once I get the…read moreopportunity to actually tour it. It would be nice if they had hours of operation and grab and go calendars readily accessible.

The Seymour Historical Society is a gem! The Catherine Matthies house serves as a working museum…read morealong with hosting the Society. The Society puts on 8 to 10 programs throughout the year and invites the community in for them and to view the collections. The speakers that they get for the programs are fantastic! I have attended talks on bees, the Naugatuck River dams, all the wars, on Yale Bowl, on old trails and roadways in the area, and all sorts of other topics. If you haven't had a chance to visit, check their Facebook page or website, www.SeymourHistoricalSociety.org for upcoming event dates.

I've been here many times and each time I'm fascinated. Absolutely loved the Pezidential search!!!…read moreGreat way to get us to Look at everything and truly see things!! Love the history, variety of Pez and dispensers available. The sour Pez intrigued me and I had to try them, YUM!!

After seeing the Pez visitor center featured on CBS Sunday morning, I knew I had to visit the next…read moretime I was in Connecticut. The visitor center/museum/store is quite small. The first floor has a lot of older has dispensers, character, dispensers, sports and animal dispensers as well as international dispensers. On the lobby wall you will see a display of 792 Pez dispensers. The gift shop is also on the first floor along with the world's largest Pez dispenser. There is a cute photo where you put your head on top of a pest dispenser. A Pez themed chopper built by Orange County choppers is on the second floor. We were given a Pezz bingo card when we entered, we needed to locate specific pest dispensers. With a completed bingo card you could spin the wheel and get a dispenser. Admission for kids 3-12 & seniors is $4 while adults are $5. You get two dollars back to spend in the store. There is plenty of parking in their lot.

My boyfriend and I went for a mini vacation in Norwalk, CT and I booked the Sunset Harbor…read moreLighthouse Tour which we went on this past Sunday evening from 6:30-8:30, on 8/10/25. This tour was definitely a highlight of our trip! Captain John and Charlie were great and all the passengers aboard had a great time! We passed three lighthouses-Peck Ledge LH, Sheffield Island LH and Green's Ledge LH. Charlie, co-captain of Captain John, had just toured the inside of Green's Ledge LH the day before which is listed on Airbnb for $6,000! He went around the ship showing everyone the floor plan. It especially exciting to be on the Long Island Sound and to see the red and white towers from Northport, since I live on Long Island!! We were able to see several different viewpoints of the sunset and osprey nests as well. Definitely recommend to residents of Norwalk AND tourists alike!

Like a lot of other dork type middle age dudes I'm a sucker for a good lighthouse. Actually I've…read morebeen to a few clinkers which says that I'm apparently I'm also a sucker for a bad lighthouse as well but there's no need to worry about that at Sheffield because it's all good here. So if you want to come you've got two legal options. 1. Show up via kayak (or I suppose boat then taking a short swim) during hours when they are running tours and you will be met on the shore by a volunteer who will ask you to pay a few dollars for the privilege of taking the lighthouse tour/hanging out on the island. 2. Or, you come via the regularly scheduled boat that runs from the dock on North Water Street in Norwalk from late May until the end of September. There are various public & private decks for parking all around the area so it shouldn't be too hard to find a close space. I don't remember what the price is for option #1 but for option #2 the below currently apply: Adults: $22.00 - Children 12 & Under: $12.00 Senior / NSA Member $20.00 Active Military with ID $10.00 Children 3 & Under: $5.00 Family 4 Pack (2 Adults, 2 Children) $55.00 A few random facts: Boats depart weekends only every year over Memorial Day weekend and eventually go daily from July until Labor Day and then back to weekends only until the end of September. Check seaport.org for the current schedule and for special events such as their clambakes. Once you get to the island you get to take a brief tour of the lighthouse which was built in 1868 (downstairs only for now as the upstairs tower portion is being worked on and hopefully tours will be allowed there in the not to distant future once they get the stairs in better shape along with figuring out a way to dissipate the heat which we were told was well over 100 degrees the day we were there in August) and you can also walk through the nature trail via the Stewart B. McKinney Wildlife Refuge. If you are going to walk on the nature trail or along the beach that fronts Sheffield Island Harbor just know that things are "wild" and that you will get eaten alive by flies, mosquitoes and I wouldn't be shocked if the trees had lots of ticks. The lighthouse was relit in 2011 for the first time in 91 years. Why Sheffield Island? The island was named after Revolutionary War veteran Captain Robert Sheffield who bought the island in 1804. He married Temperance Doty, a Mayflower descendant and such started the current lineage of the island's name. The 47 acre island is private property that is primarily owned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service with the Norwalk Seaport Association depending upon the website owning only three or four of those acres. You will be reminded a few times of where you can and cannot walk. Speaking of an area you can't walk by it would be the dilapidated house on the right near the dock. That house is still owned by the Stabell family who sold the island to the Norwalk Seaport Association in 1986 for 700K. I forget the exact story we were told but it's something along the lines of the "home" (more of a dilapidated shack) cannot be renovated because of Fish and Wildlife Service rules and if they raze the structure they lose the land so the shack stands as is. The island itself is around a mile and half from the dock in Norwalk and the boat is kept at a country club pace in both directions which equals about 40 minutes to make the trip in each direction. This is fine as one of the crew did a fairly good job or telling everyone about some of the various islands & lighthouses & birds in the area and about the local shellfish industry. Past that it's just sit back and relax on some of their picnic benches and have a picnic or don't do a damn thing except the enjoy the beautiful view. Either way it's awesome.

Mike (the owner) has a real love for the restaurant, its history & its customers. The servers were…read moreterrific, as was the food! I'm from out of state but would go back in a second. Highly recommend this place.

Let me start by saying I've never been here but was intrigued by its history for years. I purchased…read morea gift card from a local radio stations promotion because I figured this is a great reason to try this place out. I received a $50 gift card for $25 so I'm already ahead of the game! I'm not here to bash Twisted Vine but to hopefully open up someone's eyes to my perception as a guest. I have been in the food service/restaurant business for over 50 years, and I'm drawn to places like this for their nostalgia and history. The reviews are all pretty mixed and I get that. A lot of guests' experience have to do with whatever or whoever they experience in their one hour exposure to their dining choice. We approached the restaurant from the main sidewalk and went to what used to be the main entrance to the bank. It was secured so we went over to the lounge/bar entrance and figured we'd get in and ask to be directed to the dining room. There was an event going on so we were asked if eating in the downstairs was acceptable to us. It was, so off we went to the downstairs. Back to the sidewalk for a moment... The windows looked as if the restaurant had been closed for years. You really couldn't tell if they were open or not. OK...back downstairs. As we arrived at the bottom of the stairs, there was an overwhelming aroma of mildew. You know that musty basement scent. I ignored it and continued. There was one table with guests sitting there, this is at 6:00 PM on a Friday night. I didn't think much of it, but I was suspicious of the lack of business on a busy night. We were told we could sit wherever we'd like so since this was a special occasion for my fiancé and me, we sat kind of in the corner downstairs. The tablecloth tables added a nice touch and the ambiance I was what I was looking for. As we sat down and started to look around, we commented on the musty smell and started to notice the surroundings. There are a lot of brick walls downstairs and the efflorescence on all the surface of the bricks was typical of older structures. This powdery substance was on the carpet in the entire dining room. It should be vacuumed up as it is easily spread around by foot traffic, and no one wants to worry about it getting it near their food. It extended about 4 inches out onto the carpet, so this was not new dust. The entire downstairs could benefit by a good vacuuming! When we were done eating, which I need to say was pretty good, I went to the men's room. The toilet seat in the men's room is covered on the underside with dried feces, and the rim of the bowl looks as if it hadn't been cleaned in more that a few days. This was disgusting and really turned me off and made me decide to write a review. With all the things we saw on our way in; dirty windows, musty smell, missing wall baseboards in the men's room, dirty carpets all over and brick dust falling all over the place, the dirty men's room topped it off. If I had gone to the men's room prior to eating, we would have left and not ordered. My feelings are, if the bathroom, and all the spots in the restaurant are dirty where the public can see it... what must the restaurant look like in the back of the house where the public can't see. I know it costs money to repair old things that are in a state of disarray but for the sake of the guests who will patronize your place, please wash the windows, vacuum the carpets and clean the toilets (disgusting.) I'm glad we went to dinner and it was an eventful evening for us however; we will not be returning. The men's room really topped off the reason for my review. I hope you take this information and "look" at your restaurant when you get there. These are easy fixes and I now understand why the business was so slow when we got there. I hope you can take this information for what it's worth and take corrective action on it. It's pretty easy, just look at what the quests see when they come to your business. I don't know if the owner ever visits this restaurant but there has to be a manager who is accountable for this. Best of luck to you.

Things I learned from the Shelton Marker:…read more 1) The Pootatuck Indians lived here originally 2) Its first European settlement was way back in 1639 3) Over the years, Shelton manufactured oak and chestnut boards, pins and pianos 4) In 1790, Shelton was home to 120 slaves. This is a two-sided marker from the CT Historical Commission with the familiar white lettering on a blue background. It's located on a strip of grass on the right side when you travel north on Howe Avenue, in front of the baseball field at Riverview Park. The front of the marker highlights events and highlights for six named years, and the back of the marker is a chronological narrative of the city's history. The sign dates to 1977, and its condition shows signs of serious deterioration with scattered fading, peeling and chipping in multiple locations. The top of the marker on both sides has been badly affected. Because of its condition, I am reluctantly giving this two stars because it is in below average physical condition, compared to the over 150 similar CT Historical Commission markers I have written about and photographed. Not even typing the glorious name 'Pootatuck' could counterbalance that. The full inscription reads: (front) Shelton 1639 - Stratford area settled, with present-day Shelton as the northern part. 1717 - Northern settlers established Ripton parish. 1789 - Ripton separated from Stratford and became the town of Huntington, named for Governor Samuel Huntington. 1870 - Derby-Shelton dam built, allowing industrial development along the Housatonic River. 1915 - The borough of Shelton incorporated as a city, named for Edward N. Shelton, industrialist and promoter of the dam. 1919 - Town of Huntington became Shelton by act of the General Assembly. (reverse) The Pootatuck Indians were the original inhabitants of Shelton. They had a palisade fort above Riverview Park and their burying ground was in the Park. By 1680 they had sold all their lands to the Stratford settlers and moved north. The First industry in the area was the Leavenworth Shipyards, 1685, on the Housatonic River at Indian Well. The nearby hills were forested with oak and chestnut, which was used for planking. As the lands were cleared, farmers moved in. They sent cattle, pork products, corn, and oak timber to the West Indies on Leavenworth ships. The 1790 census listed 2742 adults and 120 slaves. By 1900 Shelton was an industrial town of 5600 people and manufactured everything from pins to pianos. In 1977 Shelton has become a residential and light-industrial city with 30,000 people and more than 60 manufacturers. Erected by the City of Shelton The Huntington Historical Society and the Connecticut Historical Commission 1977

I had the HONOR of being a part of the show- The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee on…read moreThursday. There are only two performances left now at Centerstage in Shelton! Don't miss it! I haven't done something like this since I was in the 8th grade and it was So Much Fun to be on the stage again! Director/Music Director Liz Muller has done such an amazing job and it was so awesome to meet her! Keep your eyes on her! She is a total rising star. As are the talented cast and crew! The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is a musical comedy with music and lyrics by William Finn, with a book written by Rachel Sheinkin, conceived by Rebecca Feldman with additional material by Jay Reiss. The show centers on a fictional spelling bee set in a geographically ambiguous Putnam Valley Middle School. The theater was awesome setup with tables, cabaret style. You can bring in outside food and drink and it was so fun and entertaining all while having dinner. Can't wait for the next show there!

Excellent community theater. I have seen many shows here for a number of years and am always…read moreimpressed by the production values. I'm surprised there are not more reviews for this place. They have recently undergone a change of management but they still seem to be getting better. Strongly recommended.