Cranbury (Norwalk)
Encyclopedia
Cranbury is a neighborhood or section in the northeast corner of the city of Norwalk
in Fairfield County
, Connecticut
, United States
.
The Save Cranbury Association, a local community group, describes itself as an "association of citizens dedicated to the preservation of the historical, rural quality of Cranbury area of Norwalk".
Dog walking and frisbee playing is popular in the park (there is a full frisbee golf course), and there is a children's playground. The park also features many trails.
The property had been the estate of Edward B. Gallaher, owner (since 1917) of the Clover Manufacturing Company on Main Avenue, which made industrial abrasives such as sandpaper. He began buying the land, which was previously farmland owned by different families, in the 1919s.)) After Gallaher's death, the property was left to his alma mater, Stevens Institute of Technology
in Hoboken, New Jersey
, which continued to own it while Gallaher's wife lived there. After she died, the institute sold it to the city in 1965. The Gallaher mansion, still on the property, is a 20-room, Tudor Revival-style English fieldstone manor house built in 1930 or 1931 (ref May 5, 2010 Connecticut State Register of Historic Places, Hartford 468=bot/>). The mansion, which is now used for community meetings and weddings, has oak paneling, French doors and stained glass windows.
In May 2006 the city Recreation and Parks Committee held a public hearing on proposed rules to restrict unleashed dogs to the orchard area of the park. The hearing drew strong opposition and the proposal was tabled. Spurred initially by the leash controversy, Friends of Cranbury Park formed that month both to support keeping many areas open to unleashed dogs and to improve the park in general. In July 2006 the group planted more than 50 perennials, including butterfly and Rose-of-Sharon bushes, to create a butterfly garden in the park.
A new entrance and exit to the park, lined with daffodils planted by volunteers the previous October, were opened in May 2007. Near the new front gates, the city plans to make a partially refurbished pump house into an information center where a person will be assigned to track visitors and alert them to park regulations. One of the former entrances to the park, on Grumman Avenue, will become an exit, according to city officials. The Kensett Avenue entrance was to be closed and only used for emergencies or large events. Officials of the city Parks and Recreation Department said in early 2007 that it plans to restore the estate's formal gardens and small, 800 square feet (74.3 m²) tea house.
In 2008, Friends of Cranbury Park and the city Recreation and Parks Department announced classes would be offered at the park on such subjects as dog obedience, Frisbee, yoga, tai chi, watercolor painting and photography.
founded The White Barn Theatre
in 1947 on her 18.5 acres (7.5 ha) estate at the corner of Cranbury Road and Newtown Avenue.
With the theater, created from an old horse barn on the estate, Lortel aimed to present unusual and experimental plays, promote new playwrights, composers, actors, directors and designers, and help established artists develop new directions in ways they might not have been able to do in commercial theater.
Plays by numerous well-known dramatists started at the 148-seat theater (some of which went on to commercial success elsewhere). Among the playwrights who premiered works at the theater were Sean O'Casey
, Eugene Ionesco
, Edward Albee
, Samuel Beckett
, Terrence McNally
and Lanford Wilson
. Actors Milo O'Shea
and Eileen Heckart
trod the boards at the theater.
On September 26, 1992 the White Barn Theatre Museum was set up by expanding and renovating a former small storage area off of the theater.
Lortel bequeathed the property to her theater foundation, which later proposed putting a housing development and possibly a school on the site, something opposed by members of the Save Cranbury Association.
The Connecticut Friends School
, which bought the property and received zoning approval to construct a new school building on it, planned (as of the summer of 2007) to keep and renovate the theater.
received zoning approval to build a new school on the site of the White Barn Theatre and Lucille Lortell's estate. as of late July, the school needed a building permit in order to proceed.
The school would be 24000 square feet (2,229.7 m²) in size and would have a "vegetative roof", solar panels, and be built around a hill, which was expected to decrease heating and cooling costs. The building would be set back more than 100 feet (30.5 m) from the pond on the property and 5.5 acres (22,257.7 m²) of the 15.5 acres (6.3 ha) site would be preserved as open space in perpetuity. A co-director of the Save Cranbury Association, created by area residents who were concerned about potential use of the property, told the city Zoning Commission in 2007 that she supported the school's move. The building would cover 3.09 percent of the property, although zoning in the AA residence zone it is located in allows for 25 percent coverage. Only four or five schools in the city have as much land as the school.
The school is designed to serve a maximum of 125 students, and the traffic analysis, septic system and space for parking are all planned with that level of enrollment in mind. As of 2007, the school provided one small bus for students.
Norwalk, Connecticut
Norwalk is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of the city is 85,603, making Norwalk sixth in population in Connecticut, and third in Fairfield County...
in Fairfield County
Fairfield County, Connecticut
Fairfield County is a county located in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The county population is 916,829 according to the 2010 Census. There are currently 1,465 people per square mile in the county. It is the most populous county in the State of Connecticut and contains...
, Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
The Save Cranbury Association, a local community group, describes itself as an "association of citizens dedicated to the preservation of the historical, rural quality of Cranbury area of Norwalk".
Cranbury Park
Cranbury Park, almost 220 acres (89 ha) in size (or 192 acres (77.7 ha), accounts differ), is located in the neighborhood.Dog walking and frisbee playing is popular in the park (there is a full frisbee golf course), and there is a children's playground. The park also features many trails.
The property had been the estate of Edward B. Gallaher, owner (since 1917) of the Clover Manufacturing Company on Main Avenue, which made industrial abrasives such as sandpaper. He began buying the land, which was previously farmland owned by different families, in the 1919s.)
Stevens Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology is a technological university located on a campus in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA – founded in 1870 with an 1868 bequest from Edwin A. Stevens. It is known for its engineering, science, and technological management curricula.The institute has produced leading...
in Hoboken, New Jersey
Hoboken, New Jersey
Hoboken is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population was 50,005. The city is part of the New York metropolitan area and contains Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub for the region...
, which continued to own it while Gallaher's wife lived there. After she died, the institute sold it to the city in 1965. The Gallaher mansion, still on the property, is a 20-room, Tudor Revival-style English fieldstone manor house built in 1930 or 1931 (ref May 5, 2010 Connecticut State Register of Historic Places, Hartford 468=bot/>). The mansion, which is now used for community meetings and weddings, has oak paneling, French doors and stained glass windows.
In May 2006 the city Recreation and Parks Committee held a public hearing on proposed rules to restrict unleashed dogs to the orchard area of the park. The hearing drew strong opposition and the proposal was tabled. Spurred initially by the leash controversy, Friends of Cranbury Park formed that month both to support keeping many areas open to unleashed dogs and to improve the park in general. In July 2006 the group planted more than 50 perennials, including butterfly and Rose-of-Sharon bushes, to create a butterfly garden in the park.
A new entrance and exit to the park, lined with daffodils planted by volunteers the previous October, were opened in May 2007. Near the new front gates, the city plans to make a partially refurbished pump house into an information center where a person will be assigned to track visitors and alert them to park regulations. One of the former entrances to the park, on Grumman Avenue, will become an exit, according to city officials. The Kensett Avenue entrance was to be closed and only used for emergencies or large events. Officials of the city Parks and Recreation Department said in early 2007 that it plans to restore the estate's formal gardens and small, 800 square feet (74.3 m²) tea house.
In 2008, Friends of Cranbury Park and the city Recreation and Parks Department announced classes would be offered at the park on such subjects as dog obedience, Frisbee, yoga, tai chi, watercolor painting and photography.
White Barn Theatre
The late actress Lucille LortelLucille Lortel
Lucille Lortel was an American actress and theater producer who is remembered as the namesake of an off-Broadway playhouse and theatrical award....
founded The White Barn Theatre
White Barn Theatre
The White Barn Theatre was a small theater founded by actress, producer and theater impresario Lucille Lortel on the property of her estate in Norwalk, Connecticut that premiered numerous plays from major playwrights and plays that went on to successful Broadway and Off-Broadway runs.Lortel founded...
in 1947 on her 18.5 acres (7.5 ha) estate at the corner of Cranbury Road and Newtown Avenue.
With the theater, created from an old horse barn on the estate, Lortel aimed to present unusual and experimental plays, promote new playwrights, composers, actors, directors and designers, and help established artists develop new directions in ways they might not have been able to do in commercial theater.
Plays by numerous well-known dramatists started at the 148-seat theater (some of which went on to commercial success elsewhere). Among the playwrights who premiered works at the theater were Sean O'Casey
Seán O'Casey
Seán O'Casey was an Irish dramatist and memoirist. A committed socialist, he was the first Irish playwright of note to write about the Dublin working classes.- Early life:...
, Eugene Ionesco
Eugène Ionesco
Eugène Ionesco was a Romanian and French playwright and dramatist, and one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd...
, Edward Albee
Edward Albee
Edward Franklin Albee III is an American playwright who is best known for The Zoo Story , The Sandbox , Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , and a rewrite of the screenplay for the unsuccessful musical version of Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's . His works are considered well-crafted, often...
, Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
, Terrence McNally
Terrence McNally
Terrence McNally is an American playwright who has received four Tony Awards, an Emmy, two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Rockefeller Grant, the Lucille Lortel Award, the Hull-Warriner Award, and a citation from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has been a member of the Council of the...
and Lanford Wilson
Lanford Wilson
Lanford Wilson was an American playwright who helped to advance the Off-Off-Broadway theater movement. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1980, was elected in 2001 to the Theater Hall of Fame, and in 2004 was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters...
. Actors Milo O'Shea
Milo O'Shea
-Early life:He was born and raised in Dublin and educated by the Christian Brothers at Synge Street, along with his friend Donal Donnelly.He was discovered in the 1950s by Harry Dillon, who ran the "37 Theatre Club" on the top floor of his shop The Swiss Gem Company, 51 Lower O'Connell Street...
and Eileen Heckart
Eileen Heckart
Eileen Heckart was an American actress of stage, screen, and television.-Early life:Heckart was born Anna Eileen Heckart in Columbus, Ohio, the daughter of Esther and Leo Herbert. She was legally adopted by her grandfather, J.W. Heckart. Her family was of Irish and German descent...
trod the boards at the theater.
On September 26, 1992 the White Barn Theatre Museum was set up by expanding and renovating a former small storage area off of the theater.
Lortel bequeathed the property to her theater foundation, which later proposed putting a housing development and possibly a school on the site, something opposed by members of the Save Cranbury Association.
The Connecticut Friends School
Connecticut Friends School
Connecticut Friends School is a K-8 elementary and middle school located in Wilton, Connecticut run by the Religious Society of Friends. Founded in 1998, the school's enrollment consists of approximately 60 students....
, which bought the property and received zoning approval to construct a new school building on it, planned (as of the summer of 2007) to keep and renovate the theater.
Connecticut Friends School
In July 2007 the Connecticut Friends School (CFS) of neighboring Wilton, ConnecticutWilton, Connecticut
Wilton is a town nestled in the Norwalk River Valley in southwestern Connecticut in the United States. It is located in Fairfield County. As of the 2010 census, the town population was 18,062. In 2007, it was voted as one of CNN Money's "Best Places to Live" in the United States.Located along...
received zoning approval to build a new school on the site of the White Barn Theatre and Lucille Lortell's estate. as of late July, the school needed a building permit in order to proceed.
The school would be 24000 square feet (2,229.7 m²) in size and would have a "vegetative roof", solar panels, and be built around a hill, which was expected to decrease heating and cooling costs. The building would be set back more than 100 feet (30.5 m) from the pond on the property and 5.5 acres (22,257.7 m²) of the 15.5 acres (6.3 ha) site would be preserved as open space in perpetuity. A co-director of the Save Cranbury Association, created by area residents who were concerned about potential use of the property, told the city Zoning Commission in 2007 that she supported the school's move. The building would cover 3.09 percent of the property, although zoning in the AA residence zone it is located in allows for 25 percent coverage. Only four or five schools in the city have as much land as the school.
The school is designed to serve a maximum of 125 students, and the traffic analysis, septic system and space for parking are all planned with that level of enrollment in mind. As of 2007, the school provided one small bus for students.