From left, Douglas Hempstead, chairman of the museum’s board of trustees, Susan Gilgore, PhD, executive director, and Elizabeth Fort, senior museum administrator.

Review and Photos by W.A. Demers

NORWALK, CONN. — The 17th annual Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum’s Old-Fashioned Flea Market got under way on September 15 under perfect, sunny skies and comfortable outdoor shopping temperatures. The event is a true harbinger of fall, even though the solstice awaited on the 22nd. Shoppers, many folks back from vacations with children back to school, began strolling through the museum’s park-like campus at 10 am, stopping to peruse the burgeoning merchandise laid out by more than 80 dealers on tables, on the lawn, inside popup canopies and lining the path through the park. There were food trucks deployed at the show’s entrances, and blue fabric construction fencing still cordoned off the mansion museum due to ongoing renovations inside. All the action was outdoors, and no one was complaining.

The museum’s executive director, Susan Gilgore, said, “The Mansion’s Old-Fashioned Flea Market returns every year by popular demand. Communities in our region love it, judging by the large crowds from all corners of Connecticut, New York State and beyond, and it is a wonderful event for people of all ages that helps us raise visibility and some vital funds for our institution’s educational and cultural programs. We certainly look forward to the reopening of the mansion in 2025 after a two-year hiatus, as we will be able to share with our Flea Market visitors this newly upgraded, iconic and always magnificent National Historic Landmark!”

Dexter Bunte of Highland Falls, N.Y., has been collecting for nearly 40 years, sourcing most of his merchandise from yard sales. He was most enthusiastic about the wooden male and female figures he had recently acquired at an estate auction, although he did not have any information about them.

The Mansion’s Old-Fashioned Flea Market lives up to its name — a few antiques and collections co-mingle with vintage material hauled out from basements and attics as well as handcrafts. Everything from an antique Eighteenth Century work desk to brightly knitted hats and mittens and toys and home décor from the 1960s-70s can be found here. Many of the dealers are residents of Norwalk or nearby Fairfield County, Conn., towns.

Flea Market chair Steve Balser said that after a change in date for last year’s event, when it was conducted in late August, it was good to be back presenting the flea market in September. Balser is also an exhibitor. This year he brought an Eighteenth Century writing desk, an early pine dry sink, a selection of carpenters measuring sticks, chocolate molds, English weights and more.

There was not much furniture on offer as the flea market is usually more attuned to tabletop displays with a mix of vintage household items and collectibles. Antique tools were another category represented, this year featuring the return of father and son, Aaron and Dexter Bunte, Highland Falls, N.Y., operating in adjacent spaces. The older Bunte, Dexter, has been collecting for nearly 40 years, scouring yard sales for most of his merchandise. “I do it for therapy,” he quipped as he held up a pair of wooden male and female figures recently discovered at an estate auction.

Darien, Conn., rare book dealer Gil Rodriguez had some literary and photographic gems, and for the 45 rpm record collector, this pile was a motherlode of the vintage format.

Vinyl LPs and 45 records are making their way out of basements and attics. Such was the case with Darien, Conn., rare book dealer Gil Rodriguez, who, along with books and photography, had a generous stack of vintage 45 rpm records.

Local authors find that having tables promoting books they have written is a good means of exposure. Greg Dillon was showing and selling his book The Thin Blue Lie, which he said was a true story of “FBI corruption, coverups and retaliation,” while in the next space over author and lecturer Luca DiMatteo educated visitors about his blog and beach read mystery, Green Haven. DiMatteo is also a principal at Connecticut Book Festivals, which is gathering this year in West Hartford on Saturday, November 23. There, too, was Allia Zobel Nolan, who turned her experience as a senior editor of religious books at Reader’s Digest Children’s Publishing to branch out with her own titles, including Harriet Hurry-Up and the Oh-So-Slow Day.

Complementing the flea market dealers are representatives from area social organizations set up around the park offering information about their activities. These included members of the Norwalk Garden Club, who not only provided ice-cold water to visitors but also information on a wide range of horticultural topics, such as how to combat the spotted lantern fly, controlling invasive plants and how to promote paths for pollinators.

Members of the Norwalk Garden Club provided ice-cold water to visitors as the day got warmer, but also information on a wide range of horticultural topics.

With many folks buying older homes, some with antique or vintage issues to be addressed, Steve Barta was representing himself as the “Wicked Good Handyman,” with an impressive list of carpentry, masonry, flooring, painting, plumbing skills and more. The author of How to Choose the Best House, Barta said he has worked in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century homes and was offering his services within a 10-mile radius of Norwalk.

Dee Smeriglio and Helga Garnett were back again this year, representing the Eagles Club of Norwalk, accepting donations for cancer research and treatment and offering a wide variety of free plants that Helga starts in the spring to have available for the show. Garnett’s popular fire starter cones are both colorful and useful as thoughts turn to hearth and home. The cones come to her from everywhere, including Florida and Texas. They are dipped in colorful waxes and fill up the baskets that Garnett is given by friends and neighbors.

Donations of another kind filled the market’s White Elephant table, which afforded shoppers special items donated by neighborhood households, museum members and friends of the museum. Roseanne Conoscenti and Rose Carroll led a group of volunteers to set up and manage sales.

From left, volunteers Betty Downing, Rita Galbo, Rose Carroll (yellow-tinted glasses in the middle) and Joanne Duff manage the White Elephant table, featuring donations from community residents and friends of the museum.

At a table under the shade of one of the park’s magnificent elm trees were Douglas Hempstead, chairman of the museum’s board of trustees, Susan Gilgore, executive director, and Elizabeth Fort, senior museum administrator. Hempstead described some of the mechanical upgrades the museum is undergoing to improve the safety of the building and enhance the visitor experience. He said the museum will have new HVAC capabilities so that it can stay open year-round rather than closing in the summer due to heat and in the winter due to lack of heating. It’s getting a fire suppression system as well as electricity to the second and third floors. In the basement and on the second floor, the museum will provide more space for public use, including a meeting room for lectures and school events. Archives will be moved to the basement.

The museum itself has much to relate, and that tale will resume inside once the mechanical upgrades have been completed and it is once again ready to receive visitors. Said to be one of the earliest and most significant Second Empire-style country houses in the United States, it was built by financier and railroad tycoon LeGrand Lockwood, completed in 1868. If you want to experience the splendor of the Victorian era, this mansion is the place to visit. The family lived in the mansion until 1938. It was sold to the city of Norwalk in 1941 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1971.

For additional information, www.lockwoodmathewsmansion.com or 203-838-9799.