Connecticut
Small Histories and Small Towns
History is made of great events and larger-than-life characters. That’s how the past is presented in high school and college, anyway. But there are smaller histories and more down-to-earth players who may warrant more local attention than they receive.
Case in point, when I was doing research for a historical novel, I came across Carolyn Wakeman’s book about Old Lyme, The Charm of the Place. In it, I discovered the town’s early 20th-century pharmacy on Lyme Street. Fritz Morris James managed it, likely the only African American in town then. Mr. James led me back across the river to his sister in Old Saybrook, Anna Louise James, who was the first African American woman to be licensed as a pharmacist in Connecticut. Her pharmacy still stands on Pennywise Lane.
From “Miss James,” I discovered her niece Ann Lane (later, Ann Petry). She graduated from Old Saybrook High School (OSHS) in 1929, and following family tradition, got a pharmacy degree. But her real fame was as a fiction writer. Her debut novel, The Street, was published in 1946 and went on to sell 1.5 million copies. She published other novels and short stories and lectured at several universities. Ann Petry died in Old Saybrook in 1997 at the age of eighty-eight.
I must have passed her house on Old Boston Post Road hundreds of times without a clue of her existence. I graduated from OSHS in 1974, when Petry was only sixty-six. I took a creative writing class in high school, but no one mentioned the famous writer half a mile from the school. As far as I know, no one invited her to the school to give a lecture or to talk about the craft of writing. She reportedly disliked fame and perhaps memories of small-town racism fed her seclusion. Whatever the reasons, I remained ignorant of her, her books, and her family’s history in Saybrook and Old Lyme until I was sixty-six.
There has been some recent effort to correct this omission. Last Fall, the Old Saybrook Historical Society featured an exhibit about Anna James the pharmacist, and Ann Petry the author. The Acton Library now has a permanent Ann Petry Reading Room and a display of her books and books about her. Still, it seems too little, too late. Maybe the town or the high school should have an annual Petry Writing Prize for local writers or students. Maybe the high school should devote a week or so to local history, to the people and places in town that warrant remembrance. Maybe every town high school should devote a week to looking back at the people and events that made their town.
Old Lyme and Old Saybrook are admittedly target-rich in history and famous people. Yet, many of Connecticut’s towns have hosted enough history and residents to write their own local Atlas Obscura of the forgotten. Maybe one of them will find another Ann Petry.
Edward McSweegan is the author of the forthcoming historical novel about Old Lyme, The Cottage Industry.
HARTFORD, CT (WFSB) – Dave Matthews Band’s U.S. tour will make a stop in Connecticut this summer.
The band scheduled a show for July 25, 2026 at The Meadows Music Theatre in Hartford, Live Nation announced on Tuesday.
The band’s tour starts on June 10 in New York and wraps up Labor Day weekend in Washington State.
Online ticket presale for members of the DMB Warehouse Fan Association started Tuesday at 9 a.m.
General on sale for tickets begins on Friday, Feb. 20, at 10 a.m. Check out LiveNation.com for more.
Copyright 2026 WFSB. All rights reserved.
NEW YORK – Track school closings and delays for Tuesday, Jan. 27 in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
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- MORE: Click here for real-time school closing updates.
List of school closings and delays
New York
- Byram Hills School District: 2-hour delay
- Central Islip School District: 2-hour delay
- East Islip School District: 2-hour delay
- Haverstraw-Stony Point School District: 2-hour delay
- Liberty Central School District: 2-hour delay
- Mattituck Jr. / Sr. High School: 2-hour delay
- Newburgh City School District: closed
- Poughkeepsie City School District: 2-hour delay
- Tuckahoe School District: 2-hour delay
New Jersey
- Barnegat Township School District: closed
- Bergenfield Elementary School: 2-hour delay
- Bergenfield Middle and High School: 2-hour delay
- David Gregory School: 90-minute delay
- Englewood City School District: 2-hour delay
- Essex Co. Vocational School District: 2-hour delay
- Fair Lawn Schools: 90-minute delay
- Hackensack School District: 2-hour delay
- Hoboken School District: 90-minute delay
- Jefferson Township School District: 2-hour delay
- Kinnelon Borough School District: 2-hour delay
- Livingston Township School District: 2-hour delay
- Memorial Day Nursery-Paterson: closed
- Middletown Township School District: 2-hour delay
- Mount Carmel Guild Academy: 90-minute delay
- Neighborhood Child Care Center: 2-hour delay
- Pequannack Township School District: 2-hour delay
- Ridgefield Park ATC: no transportation
- Riverdale Public Elementary: 90-minute delay
- Somerset Co. Educational SVCS. School District: 90-minute delay
- Springfield Adult Training: no transportation
- Springfield Township School District: 2-hour delay
- Tewksbury Township School District: 2-hour delay
- The Jardine Academy: 90-minute delay
- The Phoenix Center: closed
- Totowa School District: 1-hour delay
Connecticut
- Bridgeport Board of Education: closed
- Norwalk High School: closed
NEW YORK – Several inches of snow fell on Sunday across the Tri-State area, and observations from the National Weather Service are showing totals across New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
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Final snow totals
By the numbers:
The agency is detailing snowfall measurements as of Monday morning.
- Astoria 10.1 in
- Battery Park 7.5 in
- Bay Ridge 10.2 in
- Bellerose 10.5 in
How much snow did NYC get this weekend?
- Central Park 11.4 in
- Crown Heights 8.0 in
- Elmhurst 9.0 in
- Flatbush 11.3 in
- Fordham 13.5 in
- Howard Beach 11.0 in
- Midwood 9.0 in
- NYC/JFK 10.3 in
- NYC/La Guardia 9.7 in
- Sheepshead Bay 10.5 in
- Sheepshead Bay 9.7 in
- Throgs Neck Bridge 12.5 in
- Washington Heights 14.9 in
- Whitestone 11.1 in
- Williamsburg 12.0 in
- Williamsburg 10.5 in
- Bergenfield 11.5 in
- Cliffside Park 14.4 in
- Cranford 11.2 in
- Englewood 15.0 in
- Franklin Lakes 13.5 in
- Glen Ridge 9.5 in
- Harrison 10.0 in
- Hoboken 9.8 in
- Kearny 7.4 in
- Leonia 14.7 in
- Linden 9.6 in
- Little Ferry 13.9 in
- Mahwah 14.5 in
- Montclair 9.5 in
- Montvale 12.5 in
- Newark 12.1 in
- North Caldwell 11.5 in
- Nutley 9.0 in
- Park Ridge 12.8 in
- Pompton Lakes 14.0 in
- Ridgefield 15.8 in
- Ringwood 15.0 in
- River Vale 13.3 in
- Secaucus 12.0 in
- Teaneck 15.5 in
- Tenafly 16.3 in
- Union 11.0 in
- Waldwick 12.5 in
- Wallington 10.2 in
- Wanaque 13.0 in
- Wayne 14.0 in
- West Milford 15.0 in
- Westfield 10.0 in
- Westwood 12.5 in
- Wood-Ridge 10.0 in
- Bethel 15.7 in
- Bridgeport Airport 15.1 in
- Danbury 15.5 in
- Easton 14.3 in
- Greenwich 11.0 in
- New Canaan 12.6
- New Fairfield 16.0 in
- Newtown 10.5 in
- Newtown 13.7 in
- Norwalk 13.5 in
- Ridgefield 14.0 in
- Shelton 15.0 in
- Stamford 11.0 in
- Stratford 12.0 in
- Weston 12.9 in
- Wilton 13.8 in
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