Keeler Tavern celebrates Architect Cass Gilbert's birthday Sunday

Written by The Ridgefield Press
Wednesday, 04 November 2009 05:54

In celebration of architect Cass Gilbert’s 150th Birthday, the Keeler Tavern Museum will have a party on Sunday, Nov. 8, from 4 to 6 at $25 per person.

The event will be in the Garden House that Mr. Gilbert designed for his wife at what was the family’s summer home for 50 years.

Architect Gilbert designed many civic buildings including the Capitol of Minnesota in St. Paul, the U.S. Custom House in New York City, the Ives Library in New Haven, the Detroit Public Library, the Woolworth Building in New York City, and the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. The Woolworth Building is considered his masterpiece.

Mr. Gilbert purchased the old Keeler Tavern in 1907. He added the classic Garden House with its brick-walled garden in 1915. He designed and contributed to Ridgefield the fountain at the intersection of Main Street and West Lane. After Mr. Gilbert’s death in 1934 his widow, Julia Finch Gilbert, lived in what they called the “Cannonball House” until her death in 1957.

Helen Post Curry, Cass and Julia Gilbert’s great-granddaughter, will join the gathering for champagne, hors d’oeuvres and birthday cake and an opportunity to view photographs of Mr. Gilbert’s various commissions and photographs of the property when he lived there. Birthday gifts to further the preservation of the Garden House will be welcome.

For more information or to make reservations, call the Keeler Tavern Museum at 438-5485 Monday through Friday, 9 to 3.