Mansfield Today: Memories of faces and places in Mansfield

Memories of faces and places in Mansfield
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Submitted by Mary W. Bushnell on Thursday, August 28, 2008 
 
Interesting article about a death at Storrs ["Sisters donating burial plot for
Ramblin' Rich]. Sad story. I happened to find this article when looking up
information on the Mansfield Training School
After finishing a year at the University of Connecticut, I spent the summer of
1952 working at the Training School.
It was an unpleasant place. I was assigned to Wallace Hall (my maiden name was
Wallace!)... I think there were quite a few people housed there as throwaways
from culture, from children to deformed adults.
In September, I left for the Bellevue School of Nursing in New York City where
I graduated in 1955. I am a retired R.N and keep my license just to see if I can
still do the CEUs needed to maintain it. I am now 75 years old.
Ramblin' Rich must have lived on the Wallace property [in town] in an apartment
supplied by Mrs. Vidich. I know Mrs. Vidich died a long time ago of breast
cancer. Mrs. Vidich bought our house [the Wallace property] at Four Corners and
Ayla Kardestuncer lived in our cabin.
Mrs. Cichowski and Ayla are cousins. The Cichowskis bought the old Bushnell
Farmhouse, now called the Ash Farmhouse. ( It really should have been called the
Rybic Farmhouse, as they were the original family to own it.)
Greg Cichowski and Peter Newcomer disassembled the early-1700s farmhouse
[formerly on Route 195], to be reassembled on the Cichowskis' property, on the
road to the Fenton River off of Hwy 44.
Peter Newcomer had a PhD in old house restoration. Tragically, he died of a
heart attack in Colorado, where he had gone to pick up a [vintage] motorcycle,
before the project was completed.
It was not completed the last time we were back there. They planned to make it
into a bed and breakfast. [See Mansfield Today story, "House that state
considered not worth saving..."]
First floor-heated structure in New England
We lost contact with Ayla when she moved from Storrs. The cabin [where she used
to live] behind our house at Four Corner was the first floor-heated structure in
New England. It was designed by my father, Dr. Raymond H. Wallace, a Botanist at
the University of Connecticut.
The structure was built from logs felled in the 1938 Hurricane.
My father wrote a description of the system he designed to be sent to people
making inquires. (It had nothing to do with the university.) I recently came
across a copy of [this] letter written in 1941... I sent a copy to the Mansfield
Historical Society.  My husband, James Bushnell, who lived next to the Wallaces
at Four Corners, is a retired air conditioning expert. He is going to send the
document [the 1941 letter] to the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and
Ventilating Engineers, of which he is an active member, for publication in their
archives. Today, floor heat is widely used and is very successful.
My husband and I are survivors of the 1944 Hartford Circus Fire. That event has
affected me to this day. When we were evacuated last fall in the devastating
Witch Fire in our area, I had nightmares for a month afterwards.
Mary W. Bushnell
Solana Beach California, formerly of Storrs