Category: Connecticut

Cedar Hill Cemetery Hartford Connecticut

Yesterday we ventured out to see the Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford Connecticut because we heard it was the final resting place of Katherine Hepburn and we’d never been to the grave of a modern celebrity before. Why not? We drove a few hours, this time knowing it closes at 4PM. Still, with 270 acres to poke out we knew we’d be out there for a while.

We managed to snag a spot in their weirdly limited parking up at the church and began to ankle it into the cemetery itself, which was down a long, paved driveway of sorts. On the way there was a nice view of the Autumn leaves over a body of water. A couple benches were here too just in case you wanted to linger, though there wasn’t a gravestone in sight for quite a while.

There were however pamphlets on the way in to take self-guided tours or an audio tour. This is where things got interesting because our previous internet search had only said that Katharine Hepburn and Yung Wing – the first Chinese man to graduate an American University (Yale) were buried there. But there were SO MANY other interesting people here!

I am only going to mention the ones that I found interesting because there were literally dozens and I don’t want this blog entry to be a book. But here we go! There were several friends of Mark Twain, an ungodly amount of bankers and founders of insurance agencies including JP Morgan himself (who I guess got filthy wealthy “funneling capital for Europe to the emerging American economies.”) Jacob Weidenmann who was the cemetery’s landscape architect (and what a lovely job he did. The trees here were stunning! All in their Autumn colors!) Several actors including Katharine Hepburn, Robert Ames, and Fern Andra, several artists including William Gedney Bunce, Albert Entress, William Glackens, and George Wright. Samual Colt who founded Colt’s Patent Firearms Company largely recognized for the improvement of the manufacturing of revolvers. If it’s women’s history you’re in need of there was Isabella Beecher Hooker who was a suffragist and who fought for the Married Women’s Property Law which passed in 1877. And Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was known for being the father of deaf education in the US founding what is known today as The American School for the Deaf. There were several inventors including the guy who figured out how to produce horseshoe nails by machine George Capewell which adorably had horseshoe nails carved into his stone.

But my two favorite monuments went to one for creepy creativity and the other for just being fascinating. Mark Howard was a prominent figure in the insurance agency and for whatever reason after he died he had a pyramid erected as his monument. Now, I’ve seen pyramids before but this was the first one that came with an angel playing peek-a-boo from the door. It was both gorgeous and slightly terrifying. I just don’t think angels should be peeking out from anywhere. That’s some sneaky behavior! But an even more impressive monument went to Horace Wells a dentist who discovered the use of nitrous oxide (laughing gas) as an anesthetic and died at 33. Someone put a lot of effort into showing his achievements on his four-sided stone that showed a woman awake and a woman at sleep through anesthesia. Eerie and striking. This was my favorite piece of art in the whole cemetery.

We’d eventually find what we came for – the modest monument to Katharine Hepburn. People had left a tennis ball, a golf ball, and several lipsticks. I don’t know much about her, haven’t even seen any of her movies, literally only know her from one interview with Dick Cavette which I watched with great amusement for her complete inability to sit like a normal person in a chair.

All and all it took us two hours to find the monuments recognized by letters in the pamphlet. We did not find the bonus list or wander beyond the sections shown in the pamphlet. Cedar Hill is 270 acres which means it just keeps going! I didn’t even mention all the war leaders or politicians but there were a number of them too. In any event this cemetery was one of the prettiest I have been to and was so expansive that there was really something for everyone here.

And so that was our trip. I highly suggest this cemetery to any history buffs, taphophiles, or anyone just looking for a relaxing afternoon stroll.

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Elm Grove Cemetery – Mystic Connecticut

Twas a grey and gloomy day to take the cat for a walk through a random cemetery, as one does. This cemetery had signs posted at the gate stating dogs were not allowed. It said nothing about cats.

Mystic has been a wonderful place to visit in the past. I’d appreciated the apple picking, the day shopping, the pizza binging, and someday I shall visit the aquarium. Surely such a cute little city must have a fine and glorious cemetery, no?

We went to find out. The stones seemed to be mostly from the 1800’s to the present, almost all were marble. One monument was a mourning woman who had lost a bunch of babies. Tragic but not unusual. What was unusual was that they had a monument to them.

The cat was over stimulated to say the least, but she seemed to be enjoying it none the less. She even managed to court a ginger gent who spent a good twenty minutes stalking our party. Figures she’d find a boyfriend being unfixed and ready to roll. Later on a car would come by, see the cat, and think this was the funniest thing in the world – a cat on a leash in a cemetery. They told us the ginger tom who’d been following us belonged to a house across the street and he frequented this cemetery on the daily. I was impressed. A cemetery with its own cat. That’s pretty cool.

It was a relatively quick visit. The cat sure had fun but I’m not sure I would suggest this cemetery to anyone who is travelling to see it. There was the usual smattering of grieving women, a cherub or two, and some interesting nautical themed monuments but mostly this was pretty standard faire for a cemetery.

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Avery & Dash Collections – Stamford Connecticut

Avery & Dash Collections was so affluent an establishment that they use an ampersand (this little guy &) instead of the word and. We were greeted warmly at the door where I said a cheerful hello to an older lady. Despite my drab appearance that day I usually can pretend I fit in just about anywhere and women in particular are generally happy to accept that I do. Men on the other hand….

There was a very articulately dressed young man in his twenties, tall and lean, who looked at us coming in like we were shit-covered rats. Oh God they let in the Poors. His whole body literally tensed up at the thought and I have never in my life wanted so badly to invade someone’s personal space as I did in that moment. You know, just run up and give him a big bear hug, rub some of those destitution cooties all over his silk shirt. Not wishing to be escorted off the property via cop I behaved, though I did make sure to pass unreasonably close as we walked by.

This place was chic. So fancy! Just… overtly so. But it was more than that. It was playful. Here mixed in with the fine china were crystal dinosaurs set on the table. OK, if you’re the kind of rich that puts crystal dinosaurs out for the dinner guests you’re OK in my book. That’s just hilarious. Obviously, there were pieces of real dinosaurs and other fossils here and there including a sea scorpion which had to have been locally found. I’d never set eyes on one before but I always wanted to.

Here the leopard spot pillows were made of actual leopards. Now I do not condone in any way the hunting of leopards or the use of their gorgeous pelts but when else would I ever get a chance to touch a real goddamn leopard fur? I pet it. It was super course lacking in any softness whatsoever.

This place also had a lot of paintings and other things you’d hang on the wall. Things you’d normally see in a museum. And then a few things that were OBVIOUSLY clever poor people fleecing the rich for all they were worth including a bell jar full of ordinary sea shells for SIX HUNDRED AND NINETY FIVE DOLLARS. Clearly, I’m in the wrong profession. I wanted to meet whoever sold that piece to a place like this. You, my dear, are mypersonal hero.

Onward we went getting more and more engrossed with this place with every breath. It did however have a possibly haunted bathroom. I say this because there wasn’t really anything in it but when I went to leave it there was a HUGE bang like someone had just thrown a dresser at the wall. I looked back, horrified something may have fallen, but there was nothing to fall in this little one stall bathroom. We left soon after. I can take a hint.

If you are fortunate enough to be haplessly sitting on a mountain of cold hard cash this place would be well worth a good poke. And if you’re a Dicken’s styled street urchin like myself you still might have fun seeing just how big the wage gap in the US really is not to mention seeing a lot of things that should live in a museum! I very much enjoyed this place.

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The Antique & Artisan Gallery – Stamford Connecticut

Earlier on in the day we had decided to take the long drive to Connecticut to check out an “antique store” that had one review which seemed to be talking about a hiking trail and had a photo of a little dog. This intrigued my travel companion but when we showed up at the listed address it was CLEARLY just someone’s swank driveway. A second choice ended up actually being a super pricey little furniture store that had a big sign reading, “No photography.” Their loss – they would have gotten free publicity from this blog.

Not wanting to have wasted two and a half hours of driving time he picked a third destination which ended up being the Antique and Artisian Gallery and this WAS WORTH IT. It did not look from the outside to be an antique store but looks can be deceiving. In front of a giant artificial hedge wall there was a bunch of garden statuary – most Grecco Roman in style, all with a gorgeous patina, some purposely with missing limbs or heads to be perfect replicas of real statues. It was the sort of thing you might find in a well-manicured hedge maze or flower garden in front of a mansion. Still, we didn’t know just how rich this antique store was, that’d take a few moments more.

The initial room at the entrance still didn’t belie where we had ended up. The antiques here were a continuation of garden statuary and seemed more or less normal faire but beyond that we found a hallway of mirrors and on the wall an intricately painted medieval era wagon back. I had NO IDEA people ever painted wagons with motifs or that they were just as beautiful as actual paintings of the time. It was startling to realize that some parts of the dark ages were… colorful. But who had kept this wooden panel for several hundred years?!?

Beyond this was an absolutely enormous sprawling antique mall with artifacts I was afraid to even breathe on. Above us were chandeliers of every variety, most exactly what you’d think of when the word chandelier comes up, but then there was one in the shape of a ship so obviously I was drawn to it. That’s weird. Turns out it was $36,000 worth of weird. I gasped. I had mentioned earlier that this part of Connecticut is where rich folks from NYC come to be in mansions among the trees but lord, I didn’t realize just how wealthy. I stopped looking at price tags. I didn’t want to jinx myself and break something worth a college education!

I was absolutely delighted that one whole booth and smattered about there was a series of absolutely pristine wooden Victorian birdcages that were just as exquisitely huge and eccentric as the mansions that probably once housed them. Some were even in the shape of castles and this delighted my sense of whimsy. A single live and solitary female Glouster canary moped around in one – surrounded by luxury but lacking any companions she seemed a sad and depressed little creature but not nearly as much as the taxidermized birds under bell jars we started to find!

The fads of the super wealthy often revolve around the “exotic” – that is artifacts from far off lands and or a great distance in the past. This place was a better representation of this than usual with an enormous amount of Chinese pottery. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if there were Ming dynasty vases in there! I didn’t breathe on any of them!

Not to be outdone there were medieval European artifacts of various kinds, a number of Asian religious statues, everything from Buddhas to Vishnu, as well as a bunch of scary masks from around the world. Dolls too. Swanky creepy ethnically diverse dolls from God knows where. Probably deeply cursed. I mean wouldn’t anything with these prices be?

This place was WILD to poke through. It was just soooooo out there to be amongst so much stuff from the likely unreasonably affluent. Like a completely different world. But I mean I do think it’s a good thing to explore things so different from your own existence. You never know what you are going to see or learn. So, if you happen to have Scrooge McDuck level finances or you just want a glimpse into this world check it out! As well as the antique store right next door at Avery & Dash Collections.

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Another Man’s Treasure – Salem CT

After checking out Nathan Hall’s Antique Center we still didn’t have enough for the day and were far enough from home to want to slip yet one more little exploration in there, so we ended up not too far away at Another Man’s Treasure which was our second pick after the first turned out to be an obsolete store… Anyway, it’s in a little plaza, in the corner store at the back.

And I must say the displays in this place were really nice. They even somehow made a couple jars of pickled god-knows-what from god-knows-when look amazing! And they somehow managed to make a couple closets into displays as well. All and all though this was a rather small shop and didn’t have much in the way of the usual things I am drawn too. It was all a bit… sanitized… but hey, if that’s the sort of thing you’re into check it out if you find yourself in the area!

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Nathan Hale Antique Center – Coventry CT

The Nathan Hale Antique Center was one of our more unique adventures. We had travelled all the way out to Connecticut after getting a lead from an antiques pamphlet having no idea that this particular shop was in an old church. I admit the outside looked pretty run down and we had our doubts but upon wandering the whole perimeter looking for an entrance we found a little shop in the basement selling all sorts of Christmasy things (as it was December) mixed among the antiques. It was small, charming, and sweet, and we were told all of the upstairs was also an antique store if we wanted to wander back outside to the front entrance.

And we were happily surprised by this recycled church! Here there were several stalls with different kinds of antiques, all very well displayed for the most part. It was cozy and warm and everything I hadn’t previously associated with an old church. There was even a few vendors who’d set up on the podium. Obviously, all the pews were gone. I was surprised to see more medieval looking art in a few nooks and corners as well as a lot of country chic type decor. It was all very cozy.

And another great thing about this place was that there was another antique store right across the road and another still just down the street a little ways although that one was closed on that particular day.

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Max Reefs [Saltwater Fish Store] – Bridgeport CT

I have been trying to set up my own heavily planted freshwater fish tank for a couple months now and it’s going well except I can’t find anyone local with live plants so I decided when we were at the Startford Antique Center that we should check out a fish store when we were in the area. Only problem was my phone was not reading my location correctly so I had to give this duty to my navigator and he had no idea the shop just a mile down the road was a saltwater store. I knew immediately when driving in as it’s called Max Reefs which… well there aren’t any reefs in freshwater are there.

Most saltwater fish stores are tiny, hidden, and only open for three random hours a week. They have far more in common with a speakeasy than a pet store but this place? YIKES. It was by far the biggest saltwater shop I’d ever been in. It was in an old warehouse building so the ceilings were high giving it an even more spacious look. And unlike the other stores I’ve been to the lighting was maxed out and everything was so bright!

I immediately was taken by a fish I’d never seen before – a spotted grouper – and his darling personality as he danced about trying to get my attention. There were rows and rows of fish here in little holding tanks. This facility looked far more like a distributor than a shop but the variety was crazy! They had fully grown clowns of every kind – even a pair of lightning maroons which just made my jaw drop. GORGEOUS. And all the fish were so healthy! And lively! They also had some really big starfish, some sea urchins, a few different kinds of shrimp, and an unfathomable array of corals and coral frags for every price range, both hard and soft.

They were light on supplies but did have a fridge/freezer of various foods and three sizable tubs of live rock (both brown and purple) as well as a pile of dead rock as well. I really delighted in checking out this store and am sorry I was in no position to buy anything (although seriously if I did have a big ass saltwater tank that spotted grouper would have come with me and maybe that pair of lightning maroon clows because MAN where they pretty!) If you live in the area or you’re just looking for variety I highly suggest giving this place a visit – and since some of you have requested I check out more fish stores both fresh and saltwater this won’t be the last blog entry on such places. Happy fish keeping!

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Stratford Antique Center – Stratford CT

Of course, I couldn’t go a week without checking out a different antique mall. This one was a two-hour drive and worth it because it was an unending Byzantine labyrinth of all sorts of oddness. That was 16,500 square feet and 200 dealers worth of strange. Loved every second!

As with any of these adventures the shop soon came out with the theme of the day: animals that should be featured on a meme reading, “You know what a *something* looks like, right?” Whether they were old folk art paintings, weird stylized sculptures, figurines, or random artifacts there was all sorts of bizarrely created animals – each and every one of them looking at least a little bit off. One of which neither one of us could identify read cryptically, “cat.” Sure. That’s what that was.

There was the usual assortment of dolls, clowns, and Old Timey racism but also a number of art pieces and various paintings and wall hangings that could satisfy any decor. There was even one of two babies “sleeping” with a doll that probably didn’t kill them. We spent a few hours picking through the isles, booths, and glass cabinets. It was a really decent spread! All sorts of things! Even a figurine of a black gentlemen dressed in the Victorian era’s finest to offset the other racist garbage. I love to see someone celebrating minorities that did succeed (and just because history has largely made sure that didn’t last and forgotten them doesn’t mean they didn’t exist at all.)

So that’s where I’ll end this blog entry. If you happen to be in the Stratford CT area or are looking for a big place to go picking this seems to be a good bet!

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Clinton Antique Center – Clinton CT

We’ve been to the Clinton Antique Center before but it was such a large place that it was worth another visit a few months later. And this time didn’t disappoint!

If you read about my previous visit you may remember this place as the antique center where I found a booth FULL of Nazi shit. Like real Nazi things used by actual Nazis probably during World War II. You may be happy to note that although it looks like the same dealer may be selling in his usual booth all the Nazi shit was gone. Hopefully because of public backlash because that level of bad mojo shouldn’t just be hanging out in public spaces. There was however still a whole booth dedicated to racist black memorabilia just around the corner which had one of the most heinous prints I’ve ever seen of a little black boy screaming as a goose clamps down on his most tender of bits which apparently were through a glory hole?! Now this says nothing about black people but the needless sexualization of a SMALL BOY as well as the flagrant racism says much more about the artist! WHAT A CREEPY ASS OLD MAN HE MUST HAVE BEEN. Good riddance.

But really this shop had a lot less offensive material than in previous visits. Most of it this time seemed to be directed at indigenous Americans. You know Indian rubber pull dolls and cigar statues and whatnot. There was also a lot of fun stuff like – a fox who seemed delighted to be taxidermied, a boar head that looked like it was used for testing cosmetics before being put on someone’s wall, a CAST IRON BICYCLE which must have been so fun to ride, many many creepy clowns, a lot of dolls giving an obscene amount of side-eye, and of course a whole bookshelf of books that had titles which aged very badly. Every one of them was a modern innuendo and I was in stitches going through them starting with Scouts in Bondage, Wooden Willie, and Memorable Balls. Seriously, if I lived in a place large enough for a bookshelf or a coffee table I would have been on these like shivers on a Chihuahua. Just hilarious.

It was well worth the revisit! And I am very happy they pulled the Nazi bullshit off the shelves. If that is to be sold at all it should be under great suspicion behind the scenes.

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Indian Hill Cemetery – Middletown CT

I admit I haven’t been doing as much travelling lately. Somewhere between trying (and failing) to avoid covid and being completely burned out this blog has suffered a bit of abandonment but that’s not to say I didn’t want to be out exploring. Quite frankly I need to be for my mental health!

And that’s how we ended up at the Indian Hill Cemetery in Middletown Connecticut. We had both realized that neither one of us had made it to a garden cemetery in the great state of Connecticut yet and this one popped up on Google’s suggestions. So we packed up the cat who was equally stir crazy and went on a little day trip!

Indian Hill Cemetery was said to have over 6,000 monuments with a few famous ones mixed in including two journalists – Joseph Wright Alsop (a liberal political writer who penned Matter of Fact which showed up in over 200 newspapers and whose life inspired several novels and a Broadway play) and Stewart Alsop (who co-wrote Matter of Fact with his brother and also wrote for The New York Herald Tribune and The Saturday Evening Post as well as penning three political books.) As well as one scientist – Wilbur Olin Atwater – who was an agricultural chemist who was in charge of the Department of Agriculture’s experiment stations from 1873-1907, a world known liberal economist John Kenneth Galbraith who advised presidents from Franklin D Roosevelt all the way through to Clinton! As well as a TON of congressmen and governors and a handful of Civil War veterans including Major General Joseph King Fenno Mansfield who fought and died in Antietam, and Civil War Medal of Honor recipients William Stone Hubbell and John Gideon Palmer.

It was a beautiful day for being in the middle of winter and since it was unseasonably warm there wasn’t a speck of snow around just a bunch of creepy trees which I think added to the ambiance. The cat seemed to enjoy it too with lots of open space and a vulture circling above she was cruising through that cemetery like she owned the place. So much so I wandered off on my own figuring they’d catch up.

Now Indian Hill isn’t as impressive as the other garden cemeteries I’ve been to but I might just be jaded at this point. It did have a bunch of increasingly tall monoliths and the tallest Celtic cross I’d ever seen. Plus it was situated in a hilly area behind the college that overlooked a good part of the city. I had fun taking pictures of the moon which was also out that day. It was during this time the cat got spooked and wanted nothing more to do with exploring so we were forced back into the car. Normally we would have found something else in the area to do seeing as we drove an hour and a half to get there but the cat was not settling down and growled and hissed the whole way home. What had got her knicker’s in a twist? We have no idea. But that ended our day…

I wouldn’t really go out of my way to go to this cemetery again but if you happen to be in the area or someone who is interested in the famous monuments by all means check it out! It’s not a bad cemetery it was just not as expansive or as elaborate as I’d hoped. It contained only one cherub, no angels or weeping women, and no slate either.

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