Steep Rock Association Launches Centennial Year Speaker Series with Rossiter’s Riverside Retreat
Steep Rock Association is launching its centennial year celebrations with a virtual Speaker Series and invites the public to learn more about the wonders of the natural world and historical contributions of land trusts to the quality of life in the Litchfield Hills. Participants may attend any or all programs at no cost.
Steep Rock will host its first program, “Rossiter’s Riverside Retreat” on Thursday, January 16th from 6:00-7:00 pm. In a richly illustrated presentation featuring “then and now” comparisons with 120-year-old photographs from the Gunn Historical Museum, Carol Santoleri, author of The History of Steep Rock Association: The Jewel in the Crown, will shed light on the making of a land trust that has blossomed within Washington, CT over the past 100 years.
According to Santoleri, “Ehrick Rossiter (1854-1941) recognized the inherent beauty of the Shepaug River Valley and bought up riverfront land, including a renowned hillside known as Steep Rock. Carriage roads were built through the valley’s fields and forests linking scenic overlooks, river crossings, and picnic spots. He called his riverside retreat Steep Rock Park.” In 1925, Rossiter founded one of the earliest land trusts in the country to preserve it for the public benefit. Today, his 360-acre retreat is the heart of Steep Rock Preserve.
Brian Hagenbuch, Executive Director of Steep Rock Association, stated, “Rossiter was a pioneer in the field of land conservation. We’re honored to have Carol Santoleri launch our centennial year with this highly informative and engaging topic on this visionary conservationist.”
In addition to the January program, the series continues with presentations on the Shepaug River Railroad, 100 Years of Conservation, and Chief Waramaug and the Archaeology of Washington. Each presentation is free and open to the public and will be presented over Zoom. Registration is required. For more details and registration, visit Steep Rock Association’s website: www.steeprockassoc.org/events-programs.
Carol Santoleri
Carol Santoleri is the author of The History of Steep Rock Association: The Jewel in the Crown (2020). A landscape historian and photographer, she has spent the past 25 years hiking the trails of Steep Rock Association with friends and family. With a fine arts degree in landscape architecture from Rhode Island School of Design, a master’s degree in early modern landscape history from
Columbia University, and six years as a curatorial research assistant at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carol brings both an artistic eye and a research-based perspective to her work.
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