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Looking Back at Our Town: New Canaan in 1927

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An estimated 200 residents filed into the Lamb Room at New Canaan Library on Monday night for a presentation led by NewCanaanite.com contributing editor Terry Dinan, on New Canaan in 1927. New Canaan Library’s selection of “One Summer: America 1927” for a community-wide reading initiative will culminate this week with Wednesday’s speakeasy in the same Lamb Room and Saturday’s original play at the Powerhouse Theater. Terry, who writes the news site’s popular “0684-Old” local history feature, walked the crowd through a rapidly changing time in New Canaan’s history. The 1920’s saw New Canaan’s population jump by 40 percent, and important pieces of the town’s downtown and landscape took shape in the period. In 1927 itself, both Karl Chevrolet and New Canaan High School were founded, and the town marked locally much of what Bryson chronicled in his book, including Babe Ruth’s 60-home run feat and Charles Lindbergh’s trans-Atlantic flight.

Around Town

New Canaan’s First Selectman, Library Director Give Away Donated Copies of ‘One Summer: America 1927’ for ‘One Book New Canaan’

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First Selectman Rob Mallozzi has plenty of personal reasons to embrace this year’s “One Book New Canaan” selection. He’s already started Bill Bryson’s “One Summer: America 1927,” a work of nonfiction chosen by New Canaan Library for the community-wide reading program, and plans to finish it while on vacation during Feb break next week. “So far, it’s a fascinating look at the hoopla and significance surrounding Lindbergh’s flight to Paris,” Mallozzi said. “As a history major, I love the book so far. Can’t wait to read more.”

And there’s this: Mallozzi’s own father attender Baker School in Darien with one of Lindbergh’s sons in the 1930s and early-‘40s.