This podcast is made possible by Peter F. Alexander of Site Design Associates; the Long Island Sound Institute (LISI), the Ambassador Museum United States of America, Kevin M. J. O'Connor of Jeffrey Matthews Wealth Management, and listeners like you everywhere!
I’ve got a petition for you sign to save historic homes in the Fourth Ward Historic District.
It’s Friday, the 10th day of June in Year 2022 -a picturesque one under near-cloudless, sunny skies. It’s a perfect day to take in the outdoors, and hopefully you are able to do so.
In 2015, James O’Day of the American Society of Landscape Architects called this early 20th century ‘Great Estate’ located in Cos Cob “a hybrid of the Olmstedian Picturesque and the Italian Renaissance, with rustic granite walls that enveloped a formal garden with a rectangular plan. Situated amid a rugged New England topography populated with rocky outcroppings and dense forest, its orderly presence in the landscape was an anomaly…. the manor house, a rambling stone and shingle pile, on the nearby hill overlooking the gardens and the pond. The promontory also provided a panorama of the Long Island Sound and Oyster Bay in the distance. A rustic cascade of stone steps with a wrought iron handrail descended from the house, ambitiously linking it to the garden.”
I’m referring, of course, to Wyndygoul. This is, I believe, the only one of the ‘Great Estates’ that is open to the public. You, too, can enjoy its trails, ponds and gardens in one of Greenwich’s many cherished public parks.
Originally it was the property of Ernest Thompson Seton, a wealthy naturalist and Englishman who bought up six old farmsteads in the village of Cos Cob. He is credited as co-founding what would become the Boy Scouts of America.
I’ll be on-location in Pomerance Park among the exposed foundations of the old manor house, sharing with you some of the history associated with this remarkable estate from a bygone time.
I’ll share with you a column penned by Judge Frederick Hubbard dated March 17, 1932. He reflects on Greenwich’s colonial homes and New England architecture, focusing on a home owned by Dr. Darius Mead who was a founder of one of the town’s great educational institutions, Greenwich Academy.
You’ll also hear about where and when the first concrete roads were created in Connecticut. Care to guess which town this occurred?
As we continue to observe the 125th anniversary of the founding of Greenwich’s Police Department, you’ll hear that not all who trod our streets and sidewalks were law-abiding -and how they made a special place for themselves in the town’s history.
By way of the Long Island Sound Institute, a project of Peter F. Alexander, Landscape Architect, and his Greenwich-based firm Site Design Associates, I’ll share a piece by Edwin Edwards from a century ago about three islands off the Greenwich, Connecticut coast: Captain’s Island, Little Captain’s Island and the Clump.
We’ll have all this and more as today’s show unfolds. There’s lots and lots of history in Greenwich, Connecticut. It’s my pleasure to bring it to you today from Wyndygoul in Cos Cob’s Pomerance Park.
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