NEW FAIRFIELD – Demonstrations, exhibits and readings from Civil War letters and diaries will be featured when the New Fairfield Historical Society presents its first “Open School House” program of the summer at the Little Red Schoolhouse on Brush Hill Road.
Admission is free to the event, which will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The 11th Regiment Connecticut Volunteer Infantry Company A, ” Averill’s Rifles,” will be on hand to demonstrate what life was like for a Union soldier during the war.
Their encampment will include a soldier’s living quarters, clothing and weapons
Re-enactor Mary Lou Pavlik, dressed in the full costume of a 1860’s lady, will read family letters that were sent home during the war, and Cheyenne Dupre will read from the 1861 diary of Miss Carolyn Rogers, a 15-year-old girl from New Fairfield and student at the West Centre School, as the schoolhouse was then known.
The diary recounts Rogers’ daily life at the beginning and during the war’s first year.
There will also be a bake sale, and interested persons can enlist in the 11th regiment. More information on the 11th Regiment is available at http://www.11thcvi.org/
The Little Red Schoolhouse has been maintained by the historical society since 1969 to retain the character and history of the small town New Fairfield once was. It was one of seven that served the town before Consolidated School was built in 1941.
It is open to visitors on the third weekend of the month.