House & Garden Tour Update

Six beautiful homes and six gardens of our fellow Newtowners’ will be featured at the 21st Newtown Historical Society House & Garden Tour this upcoming Sunday. (Unfortunately, due to a scheduling conflict, Connecticut Country House WILL NOT be on this year’s wonderful tour.)

This tour is always so inspiring, and this year includes homes overseeing Taunton Lake, mixing early American and modern styles, providing perfect artists’ retreats, and blending into the surrounding flowering landscapes. The outdoor sights offer winding brooks and walkways, hideaways, and perfected landscapes.

At two of the lakeside homes–one from the 1950s and the other from 1916– artists Pat Barkman and Susan McLaughlin Rosen look out their back windows while painting landscapes and imaginative views of nature. Both of these dwellings are surrounded by a different variety of foliage from spring to fall. From the third Taunton Lake home, an amazing contemporary surrounded by windows, sights include Newtown’s swooping bald eagles. Those who enjoy history will want to visit the Federal-period house on Boggs Hill with its spacious modern addition and unique landscape and the 1738 home on Brushy Hill that was moved from Middletown in 1990. Not far away on Shepard Hill is a custom-built contemporary with eclectic designs indoors and out.

On top of all of these homes and gardens are two more stunning grounds on Main Street and Sweet Meadow Road. At the former, outside a renovated 1787 home, lies a wealth of perennials, interesting shrubs and climbing plants that will test enthusiasts’ gardening knowledge. The owners of the latter home have been thoughtfully landscaping their three acres for the past 22 years, offering a cohesive blend of types, textures, shapes and sizes that also feature color for all three growing seasons. To top everything off, are the gardens at the Historical Society’s Mathew Curtiss house.

Tickets are being sold on the Newtown Historical Society website at www.newtownhistory.org , as well as at C.H. Booth Library, 25 Main Street; The UPS Store, 261 Main Street South; and The Toy Tree, 14 Church Hill Road. The price is $25 for adults if purchased in advance, and will be $30 the day of the tour. Children’s tickets (for ages 8-12) are $10 and $15, respectively.  Please call 203-426-5937 with any additional questions.

I do hope you’ll enjoy every lovely detail of these gorgeous homes and gardens, and go back home truly inspired…as I always do!

Love, Nora