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July 18, 1640 is Greenwich, Connecticut's Founders' Day. While it is not a legal holiday, it is a day that has been and still is loved and honored. The town in the past has held large parades featuring floats, and marching bands. Retailers have been known to dress in period costume, and indeed let us not forget the bargains galore during the annual Greenwich Sidewalk Sales Days.
In its broadest sense we on Founders' Day pause out of respect for our original settlers who abandoned their native lands and devoted their lives to the founding and continuance of values and principles that would plant the seeds of Greenwich, Connecticut’s origins and set in motion a path for this community to thrive and become what it is today. You’ll hear a sampling of how the people of Greenwich celebrated Founders’ Day.
On the Friday, 15th of July 2022 show:
Imagine for yourself being among the guests at the coastal ‘Great Estate’ called Walhall in the Riverside section of Greenwich. It was here that John Jacob Langeloth, a mining millionaire, indulged his love of music and the arts with concerts that attracted 1,500 guests and visitors. Imagine, too, being with his wife Valeria Knapp whose once had 25,000 daffodils strewn across the grounds of the estate whose devotion to the pleasures of gardening was legendary.
“Limestone was quarried at Bedford, Indiana, and floated down the White, Wabash, Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans, and from there to the shipped through the Gulf of Mexico, north on the Atlantic Ocean to Long Island Sound, and finally unloaded at the Langeloth’s concrete yacht landing in Riverside.”
When Walhall was completed just before the beginning of World War I, it was an imposing three-storied twenty-six room Italian Renaissance mansion built of smooth cut limestone, concrete and steel on Roman classical lines.
Join us on today’s show as you’ll learn more about Walhall as found in the Junior League of Greenwich’s book on this legendary era in Greenwich, Connecticut’s history.
One of Judge Frederick Augustus Hubbard’s talents was storyteller, published under the pen-name Ezekiel Lemondale and about what he called ‘cracker barrel stuff.’ Our featured column from Judge Hubbard dates from September, 1931, in which he discusses labor matters, names of Greenwich localities and more.
As we are pausing to observe Greenwich’s Founders’ Day, we’ll go through the pages of Greenwich Before 2000 -an updated, revised edition of Before and After 1776: The Comprehensive Chronology of the Town of Greenwich.
What happened from 1670 to 1676? Tune in and find out.
Some of you may remember back in mid-April of this year a story in Greenwich Free Press about the furor in Old Greenwich centered on an exterior display outside the offices of Abigail Fox Designs -and the violation that was issued.
So, imagine for yourself what happened -and the attention that was entailed- in December, 1922 when six large buck deer were hung in front of Finch’s Pharmacy on Greenwich Avenue, the result of a local hunt club that has just returned from Canada.
My, how times have changed.
On Crimes and Misdemeanors, John H. Tyson (a minor at the time) of Riverside was arrested, fined $50 and costs for speeding down Greenwich Avenue at a rate of 30-40 miles-per-hour. In July, 1898 burglars were hard at work on Field Point Road breaking into several “handsome homes,” and stealing mostly silver items.
I'll have more about Discover Greenwich Creating a Sense of Place, celebrating the 90th year anniversary of the Greenwich Historical Society.
I'll have news of exhibits, activities and events for the public.
You've come to the right place to learn about the history of the Town of Greenwich, Connecticut, one of America's most interesting and extraordinary communities.
Be sure to tune in to the next episode of the Greenwich, A Town for All Seasons Show podcast scheduled for Friday, July 22, 2022.
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