Saturday, July 23, 2022

Summer is Sizzling! Rambleside, Great Captain's Island, Inventors in Greenwich, Yachts Burn Off Steamboat Road and More!

 


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! 


We’ll step back in time to Greenwich, Connecticut’s Great Estates era, an extraordinary time when grand mansions, beautifully landscaped grounds and fabulous gardens were designed and created for the pleasure of their owners. 


On today’s 22nd of July episode of Greenwich, A Town for All Seasons you’ll hear about Rambleside, as found in the Junior League of Greenwich’s book on this legendary era in Greenwich, Connecticut’s history.


Located in mid country Greenwich, Rambleside was built in the 1920s for Zalmon Gilbert Simmons II and his wife Frances Etheridge Grant. Simmons’ father founded the successful Simmons Bedding Company, in turn inheriting it when his father died in 1910. The company was grown into a national concern with its mattresses found in the White House and on two of the world’s luxurious ocean liners, namely, the S.S. Normandie and the R.M.S. Queen Mary. 


The Town of Greenwich, by the time the family moved in, was said to have been the richest town per capita in the world. 


You’ll hear about the 25-room mansion being designed by New York’s most celebrated interior decorator of that era, Elsie de Wolfe, its cottages, outbuildings, and more.





Judge Frederick Augustus Hubbard was a storyteller who published under the pen-name Ezekiel Lemondale and about what he called ‘cracker barrel stuff.’ Our featured column from Judge Hubbard dates from May 12, 1932, in which he shared with his readers about Great Captain’s Island and rats on Island Beach. 




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 1677 to 1685? Greenwich needed a schoolmaster, tax matters were revealed, King’s Highway got its name; we know it today as East Putnam Avenue, and Greenwich’s first marriage was recorded -and more. 


Erwin Edwards, in his published column a century ago in the Greenwich News & Graphic, illuminated the people of Greenwich with news of a special class of souls who dwelled here: Inventors. 


One hundred years ago the people of Greenwich witnessed the destruction by fire of a number of wooden buildings and a boat plant on the west side of Steamboat Road, including the loss of nine or more yachts, motor boats and canoes belonging to yachtsmen of the Indian Harbor Yacht Club and other prominent citizens. 


Discover Greenwich Creating a Sense of Place, celebrating the 90th year anniversary of the Greenwich Historical Society, has been a summertime hit. I'll have news of exhibits, activities and events for you and the public to enjoy, plus more history than we know what to do with. 


Summer is sizzling on more ways than one. 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 29, 2022. 










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