History of Greenwich, Connecticut

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The history of Greenwich, Connecticut.

Contents 1 Colonial times 2 Travel challenges in the 17th and 18th centuries 3 Revolutionary War and after 4 Art colony 5 Ku Klux Klan 6 Twentieth and Twenty-first centuries 7 Historical Society 8 National Register of Historic Places 9 Notes 10 Further reading 11 External links

[edit] Colonial times

On July 18, 1640, Daniel Patrick and Robert Feake, in the name of New Haven Colony, bought all the land between the Asamuck and Potommuck brooks, in the area now known as Old Greenwich, from Native Americans living in the area for "twentie-five coates."^[1]

The Dutch, based in New Amsterdam, claimed the area and, fearful of not being protected by New Haven Colony, the early settlers in 1642 agreed to become part of the colony of New Netherland. This made Greenwich a "manor" and Captain Patrick and Feak the "patroons of the manor." (Patrick had married Annetje Van Beyeren of New Amsterdam.) Until 1650 Greenwich officially remained a part of the Dutch colony.^[1]

In 1650, the English and Dutch colonies agreed to boundary lines which put Greenwich back under the control of the New Haven Colony. Greenwichites continued to live as they had previously, which drew complaints from some Puritans who said (in a 1656 complaint to colony officials) that the residents "live in a disorderly and riotous manner, sell intoxicating liquors to the Indians, receive and harbor servants who have fled their masters, and join persons unlawfully in marriage." That year, Greenwich was told to become a part of Stamford. It wasn't until May 11, 1665, that the General Assembly in Hartford declared Greenwich a separate township.^[1]

In 1672, the "27 Proprietors" purchased land west of the "Myanos River" from the remaining Indians. This tract was called "Horseneck" because of the neck of land (now known as Field Point) was a common horse pasture. Official title to the land didn't actually come until 1686.^[1] Even after Greenwich became a town, the area was known as "Horseneck" at least as late as about 1800, with several travelers through town using the name.^[2]

The town supplied locally grown produce to packet boats to New York City starting in colonial times.^[1]

[edit] Travel challenges in the 17th and 18th centuries

The main route from Boston to New York, called "The Country Road," in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, went through Greenwich (later becoming U.S. Route 1), but it was a very rocky, hilly -- even precipitous -- route until improvements were made in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. Many travelers recorded their experiences in diaries or books.

Sarah Knight, 38, journeying by horseback in 1704, remarked on the "mountanos" (her spelling) incline the road took on the east side of Greenwich, which "broke my heart in ascending." (It was very probably the steep "Putnam Staircase" that features in the account of Israel Putnam's flight during the American Revolution.)^[3]

A Scottish physician, Alexander Hamilton (no relation to the more famous founding father), journeyed from Maryland to Maine in 1744, arriving in Norwalk on August 29. That day, the traveler wrote (with his spelling), he "rid 10 miles of stonny road, crossing several brooks and rivulets that run into the Sound, till I came to Stamford. A littel before I reached this town, from the top of a stonny hill, I had a large open view or prospect of the country westward. The greatest part of it seemed as if it were covered with a white crust of stone, for the country here is exceeding rocky, and the roads very rough, rather worse than Stonnington."^[4]

On the return trip, Hamilton experienced the relief many travelers wrote about when he got over the New York border onto better roads: "'Farewell, Connecticut,' said I, as I passed along the bridge. 'I have had a surfeit of your ragged money, rough roads and enthusiastick people.'"^[5]

In 1750, James Birket, traveling toward New York, wrote that the stretch between Greenwich and Stamford was a "Most Intollerable bad road" (his spellling).^[6] In 1786, another traveler, Englishman Robert Hunter Jr., made note of the "steep precipice that General Putnam galloped down when he was surprised by the enemy. One would think to look at it, it must be a certain death. -- The road is made to wind around this precipice so as to avoid (it) entirely. You have an elegant view of the country from the summit of it." In areas where farmers had cut down trees, the views from Connecticut hills were likely much more noticeable than today.^[7]

America's Founding Fathers also passed through town on the road. In 1774, the Massachusetts delegation to the First Continental Congress began riding along the route: John Adams, Samuel Adams, Robert Treat Paine and Thomas Cushing all rode together.^[8]

George Washington came through the area during the American Revolution and again, as president, in October 1789. Between New York state and Stamford, the Virginia farmer thought the land seemed "strong" with plenty of grass. He also noticed the crops and livestock: plenty of pumpkins and Indian corn visible, droves of beef cattle and a flock of sheep. "The cattle seemed to be of good quality, and their hogs large, but rather long legged." He particularly noted the numerous "fences of stone."^[9]

By the late eighteenth century, plans were underway to improve the road between Fairfield and the New York border, "for even travelers from overseas were learning to avoid this part of the road by taking the boat between New Haven and New York," according to Louise H. McLean.^[10]

[edit] Revolutionary War and after

During the Revolutionary War, General Israel Putnam made a daring escape from the British on February 26, 1779. Although British forces pillaged the town, Putnam was able to warn Stamford. The general's tricorn hat, with a bullet hole piercing its side, is displayed at "Putnam's cottage," the tavern belonging to Israel Knapp (at 243 East Putnam Avenue), where Putnam stayed the night before his famous ride.^[1]

The town grew after the construction of the railroad in 1848, linking it to New York City and eventually New Haven and beyond.^[1]

[edit] Art colony

Main article: Cos Cob Art Colony

Bush-Holley House, a circa 1730 waterfront mansion on the historic Cos Cob Harbor, became a boardinghouse in 1884, primarily serving artists and writers. "Between 1890 and 1920, beginning with classes taught by John Henry Twachtman and Julian Alden Weir for students from New York's Art Students League, the house became the center of the Cos Cob art colony."^[11]

Other artists associated with Cos Cob include Leonard Ochtman, Emil Carlsen, Mina Fonda Ochtman, Elmer MacRae, George Wharton Edwards, Theodore Robinson, and Childe Hassam.

[edit] Ku Klux Klan

The Ku Klux Klan, which preached a doctrine of Protestant control of the country and supression of blacks, Jews and Catholics, had a following in Greenwich in the 1920s. Across the state, the Klan's membership reached 15,000 at its peak of popularity in 1925.^[12]

In the 1924 election, one of the largest Klan meetings in Connecticut took place in Stamford. Grand Dragon Harry Lutterman of Darien organized the meeting, attended by thousands of Klansmen.^[12]

By 1926, the Klan was riven by internal divisions and became ineffective, although it continued to maintain small, local branches for years afterward in Greenwich as well as Stamford, Bridgeport, Darien and Norwalk.^[13]

[edit] Twentieth and Twenty-first centuries

In 1975, 15 year old Martha Moxley was murdered in the gated community of Belle Haven in Greenwich. In 2002, a jury in Norwalk found Michael Skakel guilty of the crime. The murder was depicted in 1993 in the book A Season in Purgatory by Dominick Dunne and in Murder in Greenwich in 1998 by Mark Fuhrman which was later made into a movie of the same title.

In 1983, the Mianus River Bridge, which carries traffic on Interstate 95 over an estuary, collapsed, resulting in the death of three people. Highway traffic had to be diverted onto local streets. Later investigations revealed that two of the pin-and-hanger assemblies holding the support beams had failed. The safety of similarly constructed bridges such as the famous Harvard Bridge was brought into question and investigated.

Originally, Greenwich Point (locally termed "Tod's Point"), which is on a peninsula and so includes picnic areas, a beach and small marina, was open only to town residents and their guests. However, a lawyer sued, saying his rights to freedom of assembly were threatened because he was not allowed to go there. The lower courts disagreed, but the Supreme Court of Connecticut agreed, and Greenwich was forced to amend its beach access policy to all four beaches. The man was billed $120 for the visits he had made to the park before the policy was changed. However, he refused to pay, setting off another debate in the town as to whether it was right to charge him. Finally, an anonymous donor left $120 in cash in an envelope at Town Hall to cover the expense.

In the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, 12 residents of the town were killed -- more than from any other Connecticut community. That day, schools were closed in town (as they were in nearby New Canaan).^[14]

[edit] Historical Society

Founded in 1931, the historical society purchased Bush-Holley House in 1957, restored it and by 1958 the house opened to the public as a museum. In 1991 Bush-Holley House was granted National Historic Landmark status.^[15]

"In 1975 the town's first National Register and Local Historic District, the Strickland Road Historic District, was established through the Historical Society's efforts. The district includes Bush-Holley House and protects over 25 houses built between 1730 and 1938." In 1989, the Justus Luke Bush Storehouse (1805) was purchased.^[15]

[edit] National Register of Historic Places

• Bush-Holley House — 39 Strickland Rd. (added 1988)
• Byram School — Between Sherman Ave. and Western Junior Hwy. (added September 2, 1990)
• Cos Cob Power Station — Roughly bounded by Metro North RR tracks, the Mianus R. and Sound Shore Dr. (added September 2, 1990)
• Cos Cob Railroad Station — 55 Station Dr. (added August 28, 1989)
• Fourth Ward Historic District — Roughly along Church, Division, Northfield and William Sts.; and Putnam Court and Sherwood Place (added May 21, 2000)
• French Farm — N of Greenwich at jct. of Lake Ave. and Round Hill Rd. (added May 3, 1975)
• Glenville School — 449 Pemberwick Rd. (added December 21, 2003)
• Great Captain Island Lighthouse — Great Captain Island, SW of Greenwich Pt. (added May 3, 1991)
• Greenwich Avenue Historic District — Roughly bounded by Railroad, Arch, Field Point, W. Elm, Greenwich, Putnam, Mason, Havemeyer, and Bruce (added September, 1989)
• Greenwich Municipal Center Historic District — 101 Field Point Rd., 290, 299, 310 Greenwich Ave. (added August 26, 1988)
• Greenwich Town Hall — 229 Greenwich Ave. (added June 21, 1987)
• Greenwich YMCA — 50 E. Putnam Ave. (added December 7, 1996)
• Josiah Wilcox House — 354 Riversville Rd. (added December 30, 1988)
• Knapp Tavern — 243 E. Putnam Ave. (added October 15, 1977)
• Merritt Parkway — CT 15 and right-of-way between the NY state line and the Housatonic R. bridge (added May 17, 1991)
• Methodist Episcopal Church — 61 E. Putnam Ave. (added September 25, 1988)
• Mianus River Railroad Bridge — AMTRAK Right-of-way at Mianus River (added July 12, 1987)
• New Mill and Depot Building, Hawthorne Woolen Mill — 350 Pemberwick Rd. (added March 23, 1990)
• Putnam Hill Historic District — U.S. 1 (added September 24, 1979)
• Riverside Avenue Bridge — Riverside Ave. and RR tracks (added September 29, 1977)
• 'osemary Hall — Jct. of Ridgeway and Zaccheus Mead Ln. (added September 28, 1998)
• Round Hill Historic District — Roughly, jct. of John St. and Round Hill Rd. (added August 25, 1996)
• Samuel Ferris House — E. Putnam and Cary Sts. (added September 10, 1989)
• Sound Beach Railroad Station — 160 Sound Beach Ave. (added August 28, 1989)
• Strickland Road Historic District — 19-47 Strickland Rd. (added April 22, 1990)
• Sylvanus Selleck Gristmill — 124 Old Mill Rd. (added September 2, 1990)
• Thomas Lyon House — W. Putnam Ave. and Byram Rd. (added September 24, 1977)
• US Post Office-Greenwich Main — 310 Greenwich Ave. (added February 16, 1986)

[edit] Notes

[edit] Further reading

GREENWICH IN GENERAL

• Mead, S. P., Ye Historie of Ye Town of Greenwich, County of Fairfield and state of Connecticut, New York, New York: Knickerbocker Press (1911). Reprint Camden, Maine: Picton Press (1992)
• Finch, William E., Greenwich: History of a Border Town, pp. 25-27.
• Atwan, Robert, General Editor, Greenwich, An Illustrated History, Greenwich, Connecticut: Greenwich Time (1990).
• Leaf, Margaret and Holland, Lydia, A History , Illustrated with Photographs of Greenwich, Connecticut, from Colonial Days to the Present, Greenwich: The Greenwich Press. (1935)
• Clarke, Elizabeth W., Before & After 1776: A Comprehensive Chronology of the Town of Greenwich: 1640-1976.
• Clark, William J., Images of America: Greenwich, Arcadia Publishing Company (2002)

THE ART COLONY

• Larkin, Susan G., The Cos Cob Art Colony, New York: the National Academy of Design (2001) ISBN 0-300-08852-3

[edit] External links

• The Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich Web site

• Putnam Cottage / Knapp's Tavern Historic House Museum