We Did It!
We Opened the 1976 Norton School Time Capsule on July 4, 2026
Town Council Chairman Peter Talbot, Town Manager Sean Kimball, and Cheshire Historical Society President Mitzi Romano
Each item in the time capsule was wrapped in aluminum foil and, honestly, one of them could have been a petrified PB&J sandwich, based on its shape and size (but it wasn’t)! Easily identifiable items included a set of Bicentennial coins, 2 boxes of photo slides, 2 cassette tapes (no, DVDs did not exist in 1976), a blackboard eraser, blackboard chalk, Crayola crayons, a photo album of children on the playground equipment, and a copy of The Cheshire Herald newspaper. And lots of lots of paper items, which Town Historian Diane Calabro has been meticulously cataloguing!
The Town will be digitizing the cassette tapes and slides, which they will also be printing out.
Meanwhile, Diane Calabro has set up a display in Town Hall of the items that can be easily displayed.
She has also carefully preserved the paper items and assembled many of them in a notebook.
The Historical Society is in the process of purchasing a glass top display case for these items once the Town Hall display has run its course. The paper items, including collages and pictures made by some of the classes and stories written by second graders using ITA, along with various school-related forms and announcements, will be in a notebook that visitors can look through.
Time Capsule contents on display after grand opening. Orange mallet was not included - it was just a paperweight!
Norton School Alumni taking a trip back in time! Thanks to Debbie Brown for helping to spread the word through the Norton School alumni community.
Cheshire Patriotism
On June 6, 2026, Town Historian Diane Calabro led a Cheshire Trail Trekkers walk highlighting Cheshire Patriotism, which included a stop at the Hitchcock-Phillips House.
After meeting at Humiston School, the group headed to the Library to view the display honoring Barney Barnum and showcasing his Medal of Honor, which is currently on loan to the Town.
Library staff member Cara Luciani provided information about its contents while Town Historian Diane Calabro recounted the events that gave rise to this honor.
They then headed to St. Peter's Cemetery to view the grave of Eri Woodbury, born in New Hampshire, enlisted in the army in Vermont, awarded his Medal of Honor during the Civil War, and ultimately became the "Grand Old Man of Cheshire".
At the grave, Town Historian Diane Calabro described the events resulting in Eri Woodbury’s Medal of Honor recognition.
After viewing the monument erected to the memory of Titus Moss, who was killed at Chancellorsville, the group moved on to the Historical Society, to view Eri Woodbury's Medal of Honor, which was donated to the Society many years ago.
The final stop was on the Green, to learn the history of the Civil War Monument.
1976 Norton School Time Capsule
During our 2-year Inventory Project, we discovered this timely Time Capsule - fittingly contained in a milk can!
It is currently on display in our Diane Calabro Meeting Room, anxiously awaiting its reopening in less than one year.
We encourage anyone who was a student at Norton School in 1976 to contact us to help us plan an appropriate Opening Ceremony.
Two Lights for Tomorrow
The Cheshire Historical Society was proud to be part of this nationwide initiative to begin the celebration of the 250th birthday of the United States of America. The famous ride of Paul Revere occurred overnight on April 18 – 19, 1775. Two Lights for Tomorrow was intended to commemorate this event and remind us that our history is about working together for a better tomorrow. We displayed two lights through the night at the Hitchcock-Phillips House. We also noticed that Knott & Santoro Law Firm at the historic Silas Hitchcock / Mary Baldwin House at 125 Main Street also participated with two lights in their parlor window.
A “Jane’s Walk” for America 250?
Jane’s Walk is a global festival of free, volunteer-led walking conversations inspired by community activist Jane Jacobs, held annually on the first Saturday in May. With community partners, Preservation Connecticut coordinated the inaugural Jane’s Walk: Connecticut in 2024. This day of community engagement encourages people to share stories with their neighborhoods, discover aspects of their communities, and connect with their neighbors.
In 2025, Ball & Socket Arts provided a Jane’s Walk Tour of the West Cheshire area surrounding Ball & Socket, led by Agnes Wnuk. Agnes’s theme was how the more things change, the more they stay the same, focusing on the history of the neighborhood. The tour lasted for about one hour. Historical Society President Mitzi Romano provided Agnes with a couple of “breathers” by providing information about Cheshire’s first “beautification committee” in the person of Julia Humiston, and a story about the integral part that the Button Factory played in early firefighting efforts.
While Ball & Socket has indicated that they would like to repeat their Walk in the future, the Historical Society would like to provide a “downtown” tour. Several options have been suggested, including a revival of the “Titus Moss Walk Back in Time” tour, which was originally provided in 2006. The script exists but this effort would require actors as well.
If you are interested in participating in this effort as part of America 250, please contact us. In 2026, this event will occur on May 2nd, but planning will need to begin well in advance of that date.