Letter to the Editor: Save the Mead Park Carriage Barn

Oct. 5, 2010 Clarification from Mimi Findlay:

In my letter about the Carriage Barn I was incorrect to say that the Garden CLUB  was responsible for the trees on the Gold Star Walk.  It was the GARDEN CENTER.  I regret the mistaken information, which I took from page 41 in the Historical Society's 1951  "Landmarks of New Canaan" without corroborating that fact.

I regret the confusion that I have perpetuated between the two fine organizations, and I apologize to the current President of the Garden Center, Debbie Raymond and I thank Penny Young for bringing it to my attention.

Original Letter:

Editor's Note: The Mead Park Carriage Barn, formerly referred to as the Richmond Hill garage, is slated for demolition.  

Following is a letter from Mimi Findlay, one of a group of residents who are working to save the building.  

Constructed in 1901, the Mead Park Carriage Barn captures over one hundred years of the town's social and cultural history:

- From the days when Standard Oil shipped kerosene from its refineries by rail car to bulk stations from where horse-drawn tank wagons distributed it to local hardware stores thence sold to the consumer;

- From 1933 when the Town bought the property, as Mead Memorial Park was being developed around it, and A WPA sewing program for local women was headquartered there; 

- From World War II when Women sewed clothes for refugees and folded bandages there;

- From the Post War era when the American Legion held meetings in the building and the VFW Fife and Drum Corps and the Town Band practiced there;

- And the Garden Center (note clarification) began planting the Gold Star Walk bordering the lake on the east, a flowering memorial tree for each boy; now there are plans to extend the Gold Star Walk to 36 trees, memorializing all our World War II casualties.

- Up until today, fifty years later when the Town has posted notice that it intends to demolish it this month, to add 800 more square feet of open space to the existing 24 acre park.

Why not create an interpretation center inside the old brick barn, a museum of changing exhibits, to memorialize our veterans and illustrate their various stories?

Someone wrote to me, "It is important to preserve buildings that a fallen soldier would recognize if they were to return to town. If we want our children and grandchildren, to understand the stories we tell them, there needs to be a tangible setting of the past….  The idea of further memorializing people in this building makes perfect sense. The hands that carried guns into war, were also the hands that constructed our heritage."

To have a place of orientation to learn about the lessons wars can teach, with an quiet outdoor place sheltered from the noise of Richmond Hill Road behind the building, to sit under that huge cottonwood tree, would enhance the Gold Star Walk and the memorial that it tries to create.

Please sign the petition.

Mimi Findlay

Member, Friends of the Mead Park Carriage Barn