Potluck dinner meeting features historian Peter Vermilyea at Merwinsville Hotel

 

Potluck dinner meeting features historian Peter Vermilyea at Merwinsville Hotel

The Merwinsville Hotel will welcome historian Peter Vermilyea for the annual potluck dinner meeting Friday, Sept. 7 at 6 p.m.

Vermilyea has a true passion for history. A resident of Litchfield, he teaches history at Housatonic Valley Regional High School in Falls Village and at Western Connecticut State University.

A graduate of Gettysburg College, he is the director of the student scholarship program at his alma mater’s Civil War Institute. He received his M.A. History from West Conn and his Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study in Educational Leadership from Southern CT State University.

Vermilyea is a longtime member of the Litchfield Historical Society Board of Directors.

He is also the author or editor of four books and more than a dozen articles. His local history titles are “Hidden History of Litchfield County,” published in 2014, and “Wicked Litchfield County,” published in 2016. He also writes an interesting blog on local history hiddeninplainsightblog.com .

Those attending are asked to bring a salad, side dish, or dessert to share, and the Hotel will provide burgers, hot dogs and drinks. The evening will begin with appetizers at 6 p.m., followed by dinner at 6:30 p.m. A short business meeting of the membership will be held at 7:15 p.m. and Vermilyea will finish the evening by sharing several stories from his books.

This year is the 175th anniversary of the Merwinsville Hotel, which opened for business in 1843, as a meal stop for the Housatonic Railroad.

Free admission and open to all.  Vermilyea will bring his books with him for signing and sales.

The Merwinsville Hotel is located at 1 Brown’s Forge Road in Gaylordsville, CT, only 15 minutes from Kent, Sherman, New Milford and the Harlem Valley/Wingdale Railroad Station. For further information, call 860-350-4443 or visit www.merwinsvillehotel.org

Author: Harlem Valley News