.-- - - ~--. --- -.- - -.sao. -- - ~.-.. G R E E N w c H 3 5 o....... Rversde: From Proggers to Publshers BY CAMERON MOSELEY WTH MARGARET MOSELEY g.rdng the rals through Rversde to Yale and Connectcut College beforeww we had memorable glmpses of two Vctoran mansons on the east bank of the Manus Rver wth boats anchored downstream. When makng the trp by car on the Post Road we roller-coasted down a curvng hll crossed a brdge by a dam and zoomed up another curvnghll past a lumberyard a cluster of stores opposte a currycolored Catholc church a rundown roadhouse called The Palms and Vc- toran homesteads. Later at Yale'sarmy school preparng offcers to occupy Japan we met language tutors Yoneo and Mtsu Ara from Rversdeand at HarcourtBrace : after the war we met more Rversdepeo- ple - Alfred Harcourt Donald Brace and Dudley Meek. They also knew the Aras owners of one of the mansons! glmpsed from the tran and members of the RversdeYachtClub the downstream boat anchorage. Yoneo's father Rochro had come to ths country to promote the slk trade movng to Rversde n 1893. GREENWCH REVEW Above: Lowther barn for carrages and horses later replaced by a kennel for Pekngese. Snce 1890 four generatons of the famly have lved on the Lowther Pont property. Below: Ada's Varety Shop once the post offce then the Louse Shop - across from the ralroad staton. He and hs partner YashukataMura who bult a manson next door were then the only Japanese-Amercans n Greenwch. Lvng n Bronxvlle traveledto Connectcut sellng Harcourt Brace textbooks and met wth prncpals of Greenwch schools many of whom were from Rversde: Andrew Bella of Greenwch Hgh School (who lved n a Sheephll Road compound called Bellyacres); Cleon Dunn of North Manus School up the rver; and Robert Smpkns of Rversde School south of the Post Road. On streets cut through woods felds and orchards dozens of houses had sprung up near the school after t was completed n 1933. Growng faster than any other resdental J secton of Greenwch ths was an attractve-lookng communty - and we seemed to be fated to lve there. Weended up buyng a brown-shngled relc safe from proposedthruway routes n what Dudley Meek called "a shaky neghborhood." t was at the corner of ndan Head Road and Rversde Avenue two of the oldest roads n Rversde known untl 1870as Manus Neck. 25
G R E E t was a fertle bucolcarea that was not n the orgnal 1640 purchase from Chef Mayn Manos. n 1665 Gershom Lockwood bult a cart brdge across Asamuck Brook the swamp that s now BnneyPark - enablng Manus Neckers to attend the frst one-room schoolhouse n Old Town (later named Old Greenwch) and to hear ts frst preacher. The east bank of North Manus known as Dumplng Pond became the frst commercal center n the Greenwch area when post rders then mal coaches began fordng the rver at a sand bar formed where salt and fresh water met at low tde. Laborng between tdes Lockwood and Wllam Rundle bult another badly-needed brdge n 1687.At the end of Palmer Hll Road t has lasted two hundred twenty years. Lockwood's stone abutments are stll there. For two centures Manus Neck was devoted almost entrely to farmng fshng and fowlng. Untl the md-1800s RversdeAvenuewas called PotatoRoad for the spuds carted to storagecellars near the cove. Runnng south past the large Peck Ferrs and Knapp farms ndan 'Head Road ended at a stll-exstngjetty near Lowther Pont. n today's Harbor Pont treaty-mark deographson rocks n a glen ndcate that ndan trbes often gathered here. The Swanoys feasted on scallops clams eels and shad on what s now Mles McDonald's Glen Avonproperty. The mounded detrtus grew nto a grassy knoll - Rversde'soldest largest "green and clean" landscaped garbage dump. Wththe buldngof a Post Road brdge n 1788 west:-bankmanus became the man commercal center of Greenwch though taverns and small busnesses splledoverto Manus Neck. Sncebarges could clear the brdge only at md-tde new wharves were bult below t on the west bank. Loadng Rock wharf off SheephllRoadlost some trade and closed entrely wth the buldng of the 1926 powerhouse dam. From 1788untl the completon of the ralroad sxty years later the Post Road and the Sound were the only wayto travel to New York. On December 27 1848a tran from Stamford halted on the Manus Neck sde as rals were lad to a swvel brdge. Toapprehensvecheers t chuffed safely across the fnal lnk n the Boston- New York lne. New York real-estate mogul Jeremah W. Atwater descended on southern Manus Neck n the 1860s. He pad hgh prces for land on whch he bult sum- 26 N w c H 3 5 o ~o ~ r ~ 1898: saac Ferrs (.) and hs father Wllam Ferrs wth the last oxen n Rversde. They cost $25. n the famly for over three hundred years and the largest workng farm from the New York border to Norwalk n the 1930s the property was acqured from Swanoy Sachem Keofferam by Jeffrey Ferrs n 1639 the year before the foundng of Greenwch. 1889: Rversde Yacht Club's founder and frst commodore George. Tyson mer cottages and substantal year-round houses. Local lawyer Luke A. Lockwood helped hm wn approval for a ralroad staton/post offce near the rver. n 1870 they succeeded n gettng the town fathers to change the name Manus Neck to a more marketable "Rversde." Atwater and Lockwood then establshed St. Paul's Chapel as a prvate corporaton ndependent of Greenwch's Chrst Church. Sunday School began at Mrs. Stephen P. Selleck's then parsh church servces wth Lockwoodas senor warden/lay reader tll a mnster arrved n 1886. Rhoda Selleck St. Paul's frst Sunday school teacher and Luke Lockwood's sster. The rare trapezodal-truss brdge that stll carres Rversde traffc over the ralroad tracks used to span the Housatonc before t was moved here n 1894. Samuel L. Louden foresghted purchaser of extensve land around Hendre and Rversde avenues secured the postmastershp for hs son Sam a polo vctm and bult a post offce near the brdge. A center for poltcal talk and bcycle repar t grew buser after Sam's wfe converted a rear room nto an ce cream parlor. Ther daughter Louse became postmstress n the 1920s. After Sam's sster marred Wllam GREENWCH REVEW '
.... G R E E N w c Above: n the '20s the Bonhams and ther guests often staged Greek theatrcals - dancng around the fountans and gardens at Walhall ther ffty-acre waterfront estate. Rght: Rversde Yacht Club n 1889. t s the second oldest yacht club on Long sland Sound. Wlmot the barn behnd ther house across from the post offce became Wlmot'sbutcher shop wth door-to-door wagon servce. A lvery stable turned nto Cavanaugh'sgarage. Summer vstors enjoyed Dr. George Fsher's convenent Waldennn (now The Lodge) wth guest prvleges at the Rversde Yacht Club. When a four-store buldng opened north of Hendre t seemed Rversde would have a town center - untl not-n-mybackyardacton began supported by new zonng rules and by New Yorkhorse racng czar Chrstopher1. FtzGerald owner of an mposng house across from the 'shops. The buldng was subsequently moved to Cos Cob! When the post offce was relocated to the Post Road n 1933wth a new postmaster Louse doggedlyexpandedthe ce cream parlor namng t The Louse Shop. But prospects of a town center had faded. The ralroad had ts share of problems: ownershp changes strkes the longdrawn-outconstructonof passenger-level platforms. And wth the closng of the tcket wndow n 1972and the destructon of the landmark Vctoran staton by young arsonsts a dramatc era ended. The staton s now modern red brck. GREENWCH REVEW Down by the Sound Gdeon Ferrs opened a quarry on Wllowmere's steep eastern slope n 1830. New York salng barges arrvng wth the tde dumped coal on a per n the cove and departed wth grante blocks brought down by gravtyralroad from the quarry. These were used n abutments for the 1840 Harlem Rver Hghbrdge. n 1872 Amasa A. Marks successful prostheses manufacturer purchased twenty-fveacres ncludng the 1725 Ferrs homestead from Charles B. Hendre Jr. for $10500and more acreage from John B. Hendre and Henry Peck. Here Marks cut and rough-shaped local wllows(hence Wllowmere) for artfcal lmbs. He converted a farm buldng nto a sawmll bult a steam mll by Wllowmere Lake for hole-borng and dryng and shpped the parts from the cove.per to New York for fnshng. He and wfe Lucy Ann cultvated wllows and extensve gardens buldng an rrgaton tower above the quarry. Ther daughter Anna bre~ horses at her renowned stock farm but her poneer breedng of champon S~. Berrards at Wllowmere Kennels ended tragcally. One of her champons bt her and she H 3 5 o ded at Greenwch Hosptal. When her brothers dvded the property later novelst rvng Bacheller bought the extensve southwestern secton that became a mecca for publshers and wrters. A 1905 vst chez Bacheller prompted publsher Alexander Grosset to buy land and buld Thrushwood where he entertaned socety and lterat. After Grosset publsher Charles Duell moved nto the manson and part of the grounds became Grosset Road. One vst to the Grossets n 1924had left the Harcourts so smttenwth the area that they bought an Englsh manor house orgnallythe Ferrs/Hendre barn below the abandoned quarry. The quarry master's cottage was the honeymoon quarters for author Snclar Lews and hs second brde newspaper columnst Dorothy Thompson. da and Donald Brace followed the Harcourts from Pelham Manor. Accordng to ther daughter Donna Brace P Oglve they rented a shngled cottageon Meadow Road before buyng t n 1934 and turnng t nto Rockledges - an elegant Medterranean vlla overlookng the Sound. Sprted fun-lovng da held court at Rockledgesuntl the day she ded at almost 102 - stll sgnng absentee ballotsand worryng about whetheror not to vote for Lowell Wecker. Wth the rse of Htler German publsher GottfredFsher Berman sought refuge n the Unted States. Harcourt gave hm a desk n New Yorkand helped hm settle n Rversde. After the war artsts wrters and scholars contnued to gravtate here. The nformal lfe by the seashore attracted opera sngers Leonard Warren and hs frend Ezo Pnza. When Robert Carrck House Beautful's managng edtor moved from Wllowmere hs house was bought by Donna and Jack Mofflyperhaps n the hope they mght someday be publshers. Meanwhle our "shaky neghborhood" was beng stablzed. Summer rental cottages scattered n the woods behnd us were beng spruced up for year-round oc- cupancy. The McDevtt barn emerged as P a presentable one-famly dwellng. Developedby Henry E. Jones Jones Park was just a stone's throwaway and graphcs desgner Bradbury Thompson lved n one of the "cottages." Across the street from us stood St. Paul's new parsh house and nursery school. One lunchtme amd the dn of church constructon a funeral cortege slowly wound ts way through our crcular drveway and out past a road bar- 27
G R E E N W C H 3 5 0 ( \. \\ -{..... 1 1 ---- -- --...... \. rer. Valera Knapp Langeloth Bonham was passng through on her fnal departure from Walhall her ffty-acre estate wth two mles of shorelne at Rversde's southwesterntp. Her frst husband John Jacob Langeloth had completed a twenty-sx-roomrenassancepalazzojust before he ded n 1914.For thrty-eght years t was home to hs wdow who marred New York Tmes executve Frederck T. Bonham. n the fftes the property was developed nto Harbor Pont a prvateenclavewth ts own dock beach and Rversde's only polce booth. Out salng we learned more about Rversde'spast. Startngat Tna and Ole Amundsen's boatyard - formerly Marks sawmll and Stephen Clason's blacksmth shop - we maneuvered our wooden Mercury down Longmeadow Creek. Ben Lockwood's oyster cottage teetered on the bank. Next came Fes Palmer's oyster landng and boathouse and behnd them on Wllam Street the bungalow of slent flm star Leatrce Joy. She had come to be near daughter Leatrce Glbert Fountan who was wrtng a bography of her father matnee-dol John Glbert. Our boat took us past W. Harold Palmer's Oyster Pond wharf where the 1872 ffty-foot Clara A was moored. Harold's grandfather saac B. Palmer qut potato farmng for oysterng aboard ths gaff-rgged sloop or the sxty-foot steamer [thel. Oysterng boomed after 1850wth lcensed cultvatedbeds at the mouth of the Manus and n the cove. Pratng by upstart proggers (oystermen) trggered the Oyster Warsof the '70s. As 28 Above: Rockledges bult by Donald Brace of Harcourt Brace n the '30swhen the Wllowmere area was fast becomng known as Publshers' Row. Frequent guests there were authors such as Snclar Lews (partcularly when "Pnke" was workng on a book). Rght: Don and da Brace at breakfast on the verandah superv~ed by Hermes and a Scotte. rval factonsplundered each other'~beds and boats on foggy nghts sometmes resortng to murder "watch houses" sprang up along the shore and on slands. Joseph Wlmot retred Englsh sea captan helped frends defend ther waterturf untl vengeful poachers fresh from jal burned down hs house on Marks Road. The oyster fleet had dwndled by the turn of the century when taster oysters were found farther east. Harold and hs mother bought the famly oysterng busness n 1934. He added a cannery and refrgeraton to hs busy shuckngholjseand began sellng oysterson-the-half-shell. Polluton spelled the end of another era and by 1960 all shellfshng except lobsterng was banned. '" Salngpast the old Ferrs/Marks wharf and the Wllowmere per we could see Julan Curtss' huge green Vctoran house. n 1918t had been towed on pontooned barges from Belle Haven to Grove sland ncknamed Pg sland recallng fall days when tnerant butchers drove pgs to ths remote spot for slaughterng. The ntrcateweavng.of slands and coves made the area a perfect stagesbt for bootleggeroperatons durng Prohbton. Around the pont was John Eckert's Shorewood estate and Francs Merrell's RedTop.Farther on we saledbywalhall and turned uprver past the Lowther estate ts Vctoran manson stuated on a knoll wth spectacular southwesterly vews. Occuped snce 1890 by four Lowther generatons t has two substan- : GREENWCH REVEW
r -G~- - ~ R E E tal stone pers - one just for servants. Most of the orgnal sxty acres have become prvate assocatons such as Cathlow Drve where Charles Haght desgner of the Truman and Esenhower Whte House chose to settle. From there t was a short sal to our moorng at the Rversde Yacht Club. n 1885 George Tyson a yachtsman who headed the Amercan News Company bult hs summer mansonon what s now Club Road addng carrage houses stables a blacksmth shop even a wndmll. He founded and funded the Club n 1888 donatng waterfront acreage and buldng a clubhouse. Nearby the home of club member Lncoln Steffens was depcted n Leonard Ochtman's pantng "On the Manus Rver." Commodore Clff Hpkns energetcally served both Club and town for decades. He helped change the Town Meetng nto the RTM n 1933(south of the Post Road became Dstrct 5; north shared Cos Cob's Dstrct 8) and led the Rversde Assocaton'sfght agansta thruwayroute south-of-the-tracks. The name of hs Mane lobster boat Press on Regardless aptly descrbes hm. Northeast of the Club Florence D. Whte anew YorkWorldedtor who marred heress Anne Cleary after a twentyyear whrlwnd courtshp bought the Peck property from the rver to ndan Head Road. He bult the fortress-lkecarrglea (beautful meadow) n 1917and added a lovelylttle chapel. The property was subdvded n the '70s. Whle lfe n the harbor was exctng lfe on the Post Road was "as usual" wth two exceptons: at Humpty Dumpty old-tmers perched on tree stumps guffawedat newcomersgrabbng for Calforna hamburgers tossed to them n bags. And wth housng scarce after WW town and state had jontly fnanced two Veterans Vllages for ten-year rental occupancy just north of the Post Road. n 1953 Representatve Florence Fnney persuaded the state to establsh a. new Dstrct 12 for ths area and Havemeyer Park. The countrysde beyond the Vllages stll resembled Ochtman's 1894pantng "Rversde" a snow scene of farms and rollng hlls. But soon part of the workng farm at Old Orchard Road fork the golf drvng range and other vacant stretches were covered by.ranch houses splt levelsand Cape Cods requrngtwo schoolexpansons- along wthslo Hll Greenwch's frst condomnums. GREENWCH REVEW N w ~-- - c-- ~-H. -- 3 -- - - 5~ -- 0"'-; The Post Road began to str n 1957 when St. Catherne of Sena Church moved dagonally across Route 1 to a splendd new buldng. ts adjacent parochal school now closed equalled the combnedenrollmentof Rversdeand Eastern Junor Hgh. Hll House for senor ctzens once a convent occupes land where Orvlle Odde's 1905summer home stood - half a block from the Post Road trolley tracks. For years the lvelest topc n Rversde was the Thruway and where t would be bult. n the md-'50s houses n ts ~- ~ r.. another matter however. Weall rejoced when under pressure from Frst Selectman Ruth Sms and others the ralroad closed the plant. When rumblng helcopters roused us before the alarm on June 28 1983Staton WGCH announced that a secton of -95's Manus span close to Rversde had collapsed brngng death to three and serous njury to others. Those lvng n the brdge's shadow partcularly at the old Town Landng at the foot of Buxton. Lane spent a mserable summer and all. of Greenwch coped wth traffc jams. "On the Manus" panted by Cos Cob mpressonst Leonard Ochtman n 1896 shows the open landscape of the day. The Schutt house on Cummngs Pont bought by author Lncoln Steffans n 1905s at rght. From the permanent collecton of The Bruce Museum. path were moved to Lockwood Lane. saac Ferrs' Hlltop was razed and the Rversde Shoppng Center rased. After the turnpke's grand openng n January 1958 at convoluted Ext 5 odd-shaped new commercal buldngs sat cheek by jowl wth older structures on the Post Road. Across from Caldor's other dnng spots followed Humpty Dumpty whle the hghly successful Hay Day replaced a seres ofjnxed restaurantsopposte St. Catherne's. n 1963zp code 06878 frmly establshed Rversde boundares - from Harbor Pont to Palmer Hll wth a scraggly eastern border to Adams Corners; the post offce s now n the Rversde Shoppng Center. After house clmbng nto an appealng "bastard Cotswold Tudor" n the less shaky neghborhood of Club Road we became almost oblvous to the turnpke's thrummng the drawbrdge's rattlngand the tootng of tugs towng barges of coal to the Power Plant n Cos Cob. The ncreasng ar polluton from drty coal was Repars are stll n progress. No Rversde story would be complete wthout mentonng Ada's Varety Shop known for mles around. Just across from the ralroad staton the old Louse Shop was purchased by Ada's father n 1950- to keep hmself mldly busy after a heart attack. When Ada took over wth her sster Lorta as n-house notaryshe added new staples and a newsstand. But penny candy was her key to success - that and her backyardpartes fund-rasngefforts and wllngness to lsten to the woes of several generatons of unhappy kds and sometmes ther parents - not to menton her 25-cent charge for swearng! When the brdge over the ralroad near her lttle shop was shut-down for repars ths past year t was a monumental nconvenence; and fttngly at ts reopenng John Margenot asked Ada Cantavero - Rversde'sleadng ctzen- to cut the. rbbon. God may have created Greenwch but people created Rversde! 0 29 J