Newtown Historical Society Plans House & Garden Tour

The annual Newtown Historical Society House and Garden Tour will be held on Saturday, July 8, from 11 am to 5 pm.

There will be five properties on the house tour this year including the famed gardens of  Sydney Eddison, author of many popular gardening books, at 65 Echo Valley Road.

The properties also include the gardens of Maureen and Richard McLachlan at 32 The Boulevard; a circa 1840 farmhouse at 20 Echo Valley Road owned by Cheryl and William Edelen; a circa 1790 Hanover District schoolhouse owned by Brad and Fran Taylor at 1 Tamarack Road; the 1710 “John Glover” Homestead of Mae and Robert Schmidt on Echo Valley Road; and the circa 1840 saltbox at 18 Tamarack Road purchased recently by Sung and Michelle Pak. Mr Pak is the facilities manager for Martha Stewart.

On display at the Edelen home will be the wood-fired ceramics of Jim Edelen. A 1988 graduate of Newtown High School, Jim Edelen recently received his master of fine arts at the University of Iowa and is planning to establish a pottery in Newtown.

The tour will be held rain or shine.

Tickets, $20 per person, will be limited to avoid overcrowding.

Tickets are available at the C.H. Booth Library or by mail. Call 426-5937 for more information.

If still available, tickets also may be purchased the day of the tour at the Matthew Curtiss House, 44 Main Street, between 10:30 am and noon.

Proceeds from the tour will support the Matthew Curtiss House Museum.