REMEMBERING TOPSMEAD

Conversations with
Bob Orintas


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​​Topsmead Neighbors and

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Land Acquisitions

Miss Edith maintained contact with the families who owned property adjacent to Topsmead and made many purchases of their property to add to her Topsmead holdings. They would visit and maintained casual, neighborly relations.

One neighbor was the Beirne family, who lived on the north side of East Litchfield Road where Jefferson Hill Road intersected, before Route 118 was built. There was Martin Beirne, his wife Mary, two daughters, Peggy and Eileen as well as Martin’s sister Winifred, who we called Winnie. I have an old photograph showing the two girls at my brother’s first birthday party in September of 1933 at Underhill. Miss Edith bought two pieces of land from Martin. The first, in 1926 was a 32 acre field south of Jefferson Hill where the butterfly garden and bird viewing blind are now located. A second piece was purchased in 1936 that was the old Beirne farm adjacent to their house and land; it was about 46 acres.  It had a house and several barns and outbuildings. The house eventually became the gardener’s house occupied by Alec and Eva Derouin.
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by Margaret Hunt


TAKING STOCK  | January 2023
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Photos by Margaret Hunt

On my First Day walkabout at Topsmead this morning, I took stock of the state of the landscape to see how all things Topsmead were looking for the start of 2023.  DEEP staff and FTSF volunteers have been hard at work.  Many corners of the landscape are cleaned up and tidy, ready for what winter will bring.  Other corners are still making plenty of work for the DEEP clean-up crew.
 
The main driveways are outlined with snow markers ready for the arrival of the winter snowshoe and cross-country ski crowd.  The parking area upgrade is finished, with its low-visibility expansion and newly installed wooden borders that define the line between the adjoining fields and parked cars.   The house and butterfly gardens are peacefully a-slumber for the winter beneath their earthen blanket.  Outbuildings and barns are shuttered up tight except for those that house the winter clean-up machines and equipment.
 -read complete Musings essay-
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Topsmead in winter photo by Tom Holzel