The Stonington Village Improvement Association
is involved in a wide range of community improvement projects in the
Borough of Stonington, on its own and in cooperation with other local
organizations, such as the Stonington Free Library, the Stonington Historical
Society and the Stonington Garden Club. What began in 1899 as basically
a tree-planting society has grown into a body of local citizens who are
deeply involved in maintaining and improving the quality of life in Stonington
in a great variety of ways. Below are a few of the activities the SVIA
is currently undertaking and which everyone in the Stonington community
is encouraged to get involved with too.
The Farmers Market
The Stonington Farmers Market, located adjacent to the Town Dock, began
in 1997 under the initiative of Geoffrey Little and has proved an enormously
popular addition to life in the Borough. Ten to fifteen vendors assemble beside the playground
and offer locally grown vegetables and fruits, jams, all sorts of breads,
pies and baked goods, lamb, fish, shrimp, scallops, flowers, decorative
plants and more, depending on the season. The Stonington Village Improvement
Association oversees this market under a tent in the center of the market
and provides fresh coffee and tea, kindly donated by local restaurants
and merchants. Contributions for the refreshments go to funding projects.
Click here to see scenes from our 2005 market
season. For Jennifer Chappell's Coastal Living magazine article
on the market, click here.
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The James Merrill House & Writer-in-Residence Program
James Merrill, who won many awards including a Pulitzer Prize in 1976,
was one of America’s great poets. When he died in 1995, he left
his residence in the Borough of Stonington to the SVIA. Upon receiving
the property, the SVIA set up the Writer-in-Residence Program to permit
promising poets and writers to use James Merrill’s apartment.
The future of the James Merrill House and the Writer-in-Residence Program
are inseparably integrated. The building at 107 Water Street, where James
Merrill lived and wrote for over forty years, is a source of inspiration
for poets and writers who themselves are allowed to live and work there.
The W-i-R Program is nearly ten years old, and past writer-residents
have attested to its value to them while they were there. Furthermore,
the use of the building to nurture the creative efforts of others is
consistent with the efforts James Merrill himself made to help other
artists during his lifetime.
The W-i-R Program is the use which justifies and makes possible the
preservation of the James Merrill House. Not only the house but the quality
of the program it supports is the legacy of James Merrill. For more information,
click here.
The James Merrill House
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Flower Boxes
The Stonington Village Improvement Association, as the Village Improvement
Society, was established specifically to beautify the Borough by planting
trees and plants. This original purpose continues in the SVIA's summer
Flower Box project, in which flower boxes are provided at cost to Borough
shopkeepers in order to enhance the sidewalks outside their shops.
The SVIA also undertakes to assist Borough officials in keeping the
streets of the Village free of litter by providing the dark-green metal-mesh
baskets you will see placed around the Borough. This is especially important
in the summer months when the Borough welcomes a large number of summer
residents and tourists, who previously had difficulty finding a place
to deposit their soda cans or paper wrappers while ambling along the
Borough's scenic streets.
Trees and their welfare were among the original objectives of the SVIA
in 1899. The SVIA was instrumental in replacing the trees destroyed by
the devastating hurricane of 1938. Later, the care of old trees and planting
of new ones in the Borough and in such public places such as Wadawanuck
Square became one of the SVIA's chief responsibilities. This was changed
somewhat when the Borough government began to appoint one of the Burgesses
as "Tree Warden" but the SVIA is still involved in trees, as
witnessed by their recent effort towards replacing diseased trees in
LaGrua Park, along Denison Avenue. The SVIA's focus with regard to trees
may have shifted over time, but healthy and attractive trees remain an
important part of the SVIA mission.
A Water Street Flowerbox
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duBois Beach
duBois Beach is owned by the SVIA who then sub-contracts the management
of the beach to the Stonington Community Center (COMO). The beach is
located at the southern most end of Water Street in Stonington Borough.
Its use is reserved for residents of the Borough and COMO members who
purchase annual beach memberships. The general public can to use duBois
Beach for a daily fee. For beach membership information, please contact
the Stonington Community Center through their website at www.thecomo.org
or by telephone at 860-535-2476.
Maintaining duBois Beach is not inexpensive. Apart from the current
renovations taking place winter weather often plays havoc with the sand
which inevitably needs replacing. There are costs incurred by renting
the portable bathroom, maintaining the wooden pavilion and water fountain.
Lifeguard, gatekeeper and maintenance personnel salaries must also be
taken into account. Dodson's Boatyard has generously donated their services
to repair, install and remove the swimming raft each season.
Through generous donations from members of the community, in 2004 the
SVIA renovated the beach. Improvements include a new stonewall with an
iron gate to replace the old chain link fence along the eastern and southern
sides of the beach, under grounding of telephone wires to the southeast
corner end of the beach; increasing the width of the sidewalk to make
pedestrian traffic safer, adding a cement platform to stabilize the seasonal
port-o-potty, and planting new protective landscaping.
2005 Beach Renovation Proiect
The east lawn area, opposite the beach, was recently renovated and
restored. Over recent years, some of the SVIA property on this side of
the point has been used for parking instead of for open space. To prevent
this from continuing, the SVIA is reseeding and expanding the lawn area
and adding “Old Stonington” irregular curbstones that were
donated by the Borough to prevent parking on newly seeded grass. The
result will be a beautiful green lawn perfect for family picnics or just
enjoying the view of Watch Hill.
This improvement is in keeping with the SVIA mission statement which
says we will “promote and assist with the development of parks” and
to “improve SVIA owned properties for the common good, recognizing
the shortage of other public open space within the Borough.”
History of duBois Beach
Creating a beach for the residents of the Borough of Stonington was
a major objective of the SVIA in the late 1940's. When property at the
end of Water Street owned by Richard Baum became available in 1950 (which
included what is now known as the Point House, the small parcel south
of the Point House, and the two joined parcels across Water Street),
Coert duBois, then President of the SVIA and Dana Burnet, Secretary,
made their decisive move. They agreed to purchase everything for the
cost of $20,000. In the words of former Borough resident and local Westerly
Sun reporter Elizabeth Trumbull in 1960, "Mr. duBois was able
to raise $5,000 almost immediately to secure the estate. For the balance,
he and Mr. Burnet put their faith in Stonington on the line and signed
personal notes." Their plan was to sell the Point House and its
lot for $15,000 to pay off the notes and keep the other parcels, which
by a year later they had done.
Now owning the future beach property, the SVIA, under the Presidency
of Mr. duBois, began the process of raising money to pay for fashioning
a beach out of the two western lots. Mr. duBois was largely responsible
for raising the total of $50,000 and he, a career diplomat who had retired
to the Borough, is credited with making the beach project a truly cooperative
community wide effort. As an example, after meeting with Mr. duBois,
the Portuguese community set up a committee and after a house-to-house
campaign, raised $2,500 towards the beach fund.
The beach itself required 500 truckloads of sand, and when another
10 to 20 were needed, the contractor Samuel Romanella donated them as
his own personal contribution to the beach.
Dana Burnet, at ceremonies dedicating the beach to Mr. duBois in 1960,
said "He (did not) want the beach to be simply the gift of a few
of our wealthier citizens though we owe a great deal to the generosity
of those same citizens. But Coert wanted it to be the people's beach
and the people responded. Our local industries responded; the automobile
agencies and others all helped with goods or services or money, or all
three. The churches helped us. So did the local unions, the fishermen,
and various local fraternal, social, religious, and patriotic societies."
The SVIA beach was dedicated to the memory of Coert duBois on Thursday,
August 4, 1960.
duBois Beach Pavilion
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Mathews Park
Mathews Park is located in the Borough at the northernmost point of
Water Street, directly across from Dodson's Boatyard behind their main
parking lot. The New York, New Haven, & Hartford Railroad Company
sold the space for the park to the SVIA for $1.00 in 1947. It is a hidden
jewel, surrounded by 7 foot high hedges. There is a bench donated by
local patrons Emery and Susan Ayres and two picnic tables and a grill.
The SVIA maintains the grass, hedges, gardens and picnic tables in the
park. Dodson's Boatyard generously maintains the trash receptacles. Residents
of the Borough are encouraged to use the park and enjoy its solitude.
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Christmas Stroll
Every year, the SVIA decorates a tree in Wadawanuck Square and lights
it (with generous help from the nearby Stonington Free Library) at a
community-wide ceremony that includes singing carols, sipping mulled
cider, and the countdown to the lighting of the tree. Following immediately
afterwards is the annual Christmas Stroll through the Borough, when local
merchants keep their shops open late and welcome visitors with hors d'oeuvres
and eggnog and other goodies.
The SVIA also places lights and seasonal decoration around Cannon Square.
Band Concert
Last year, the SVIA free band concert featured the renowned Coast Guard
Jazz Band. Borough residents, their guests and others gathered on blankets
spread on the lawn in Wadawanuck Square or in chairs set up in front
of the façade of the Stonington Free Library and listened, as
the sun set, to the sounds of Sousa, Rossini, Lloyd Webber and other
composers, in what has become one of the highlights of Borough summers.
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