| OCTOBER 10, 2010 -- The small village of Winchester Center is just four miles from downtown, but its quiet, rural nature makes it feel like a whole other world.
Volunteers who live in the area want to celebrate that ambience and heritage by bringing back an old tradition. The Winchester Grange, Winchester Center Congregational Church, Winchester Center Historical Association and Winchester Center Volunteer Fire Department are teaming up to organize "Winchester Center Day" on Oct. 16.
Passing through Winchester Center almost feels like a trip back in time, with the town green and gazebo in the middle, and the old white church, Grange Hall, historical association museum and a sprinkling of historic homes dating back to the 18th and 19th centuries along tree-lined roads. Cows graze not far from the center.
An organizer, Pam Wright, a member of both the church and Grange, said the last Winchester Center Day was held 10 or 15 years ago. Now, locals want to make others aware what the village has to offer.
"It's always been a community, but it used to be that everyone knew everybody," Wright said. "Now we're trying to get everyone to know each other again."
Julie Aiello of the historical association put it another way: "A lot of people don't even know we're here."
The village dates back to the early 1700s, said Dale Parsons-Marchione, interim historical association president. The museum was built circa 1700 as an academy for students in grades one through eight, he said.
The museum holds relics and antiques from families who lived in the area, from washing machines and shoe horns to kerosene lamps and butter churns. Parsons-Marchione and Benjamin Torres, historical association treasurer, said the center was where the first settlements were located, and where the first mills were built. It wasn't until the early 1800s that the mills started being built in what is now downtown Winsted, with manufacturers wanting to take advantage of the generating power of the Mad River.
The church, organized in 1771 and built in 1841, will host an open house from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 16. Residents will have their handcrafted quilts on display in the church. The quilts are part of the Quilts of Valor project, whose mission is to cover all service members and veterans touched by the war with quilts as a show of appreciation, said Terri Fassio, a spokesman for the Grange.
In addition, Fassio said the church will display prayer shawls made by residents, as well as handmade mittens, scarves and hats which will be donated to the Winsted YMCA. Visitors are asked to bring nonperishable food items that will be donated to the Open Door soup kitchen.
Meanwhile, the Grange will host a tag sale during the same hours. The historical association will have its museum open; it will serve freshly made apple cider and popcorn, and sell pumpkins.
The association will also lead tours to the red one-room schoolhouse, built in 1815, on Platt Hill Road. The fire department will have its fire trucks on display, and children's activities will be held on the town green. |
