Welcome to our news and history blog!

Welcome to our news and history blog!

Saturday, January 30, 2021

ANNOUNCEMENT: Debut Podcast of The Greenwich, A Town For All Seasons Show with Jeffrey Bingham Mead


Please click the link to SoundCloud and to Podcasts.com.

On the Tuesday, January 26, 2021 debut podcast of The Greenwich, A Town For All Seasons Show with Jeffrey Bingham Mead:

-You’ll hear about one result that manifested itself in November, 1920: the election for the first time in history of women Justices of the Peace in Greenwich.

-It’s made of bronze, standing over seven feet tall, and it was installed just over a century ago. You’ve no doubt passed by this imposing figure at least once in your lifetime if you’ve driven or walked along Greenwich Avenue in front of the Havemeyer Building, headquarters of the Greenwich Public Schools and Board of Education. We are referring, of course, to the illustrious statue memorializing Col. Raynal C. Bolling of Greenwich, who was killed during the First World War.

-Greenwich’s renowned Bruce Museum was originally built as a private home in 1853. Robert Moffat Bruce -a wealthy textile merchant and member of the New York Cotton Exchange- bought the house and property in 1858. In succeeding years it was the scene of many high society events. You’ll hear about one such party that was held in 1890.

-In November 1920, two thousand people gathered in the Chickahominy neighborhood of Greenwich to witness the laying of a cornerstone for a then-new Catholic church we know today as St. Roch near Hamilton Avenue Elementary School.

-We pause to remember the death a century ago of one of Greenwich’s most famous citizens -Commodore E.C. Benedict. His mansion, Indian Harbor, still stands, plainly visible from the pier at the terminus of Steamboat Road. You'll learn details of his extraordinary life and how he was remembered.

-You'll learn of an intimate focus exhibition you’re invited to attend. This one celebrates the Greenwich Historical Society’s recent acquisition of a luminous 1896 canvas by American impressionist artist Childe Hassam, titled The Red Mill, Cos Cob. The Historical Society’s exhibit offers a view into Cos Cob at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and the role this town played in the development of American Art. Lost Landscape Revealed explores how Hassam, one of America’s foremost Impressionists, and fellow artists, including Elmer MacRae and Kerr Eby, captured the appearance of the waterfront community known as Cos Cob’s Lower Landing.

Protect Historic Properties and Enjoy the Economic and Environmental Benefits for Greenwich Homeowners and Realtors is a Zoom-based online panel discussion scheduled for Wednesday, January 27, 2021 starting 6:00 p.m. With the escalation in homes being demolished for more contemporary structures, the need for saving Greenwich’s classic New England heritage is greater than ever. The permanent protection of our historic homes is the driver of a strategic alliance between Greenwich Historical Society and the recently formed Historic Properties of Greenwich. 

Join the discussion with preservation leaders Jane Montanaro, Executive Director, Connecticut Preservation, Elise Hillman Green, Russell S. Reynolds and Anne Young, Co-Founders, Historic Properties of Greenwich as they share research on the economic and environmental benefits of local property historic designation and outline practical steps homeowners can take to save our community history. 

Co-sponsored by Greenwich Historical Society, Historic Properties of Greenwich, Preservation Connecticut and Greenwich Association of Realtors. ONLINE HERE.
Show Host Jeffrey Bingham Mead -a descendant of the 17th-century founders of Greenwich, Connecticut- will share news of events, happenings and more as today’s debut excursion into Greenwich's history unfolds.
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The Greenwich, A Town For All Seasons Show

Jeffrey Bingham Mead, Host
P.O. Box 184

Greenwich CT 06836 Email: GreenwichATownForAllSeasons@gmail.com

ANNOUNCEMENT: Caroline Mills Smith Mead Memorial Garden and Mead Family Cemetery at Cos Cob

 

Caroline Mills Smith Mead (Mrs. William H. Mead)

The Historic Mead Family Burying Grounds Association, Inc., announces the establishment of the Caroline Mills Smith Mead Memorial Garden at the Mead Family Cemetery in Cos Cob. 

The Caroline Mills Smith Mead Memorial Garden was established in conjunction with the centennial of the passage of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution granting women the right to vote in elections. 

"While Mrs. Mead was not known to be a suffragist, the garden pays respects to a woman whose business acumen, foresight and philanthropy were well-known throughout Greenwich," said Jeffrey Bingham Mead, historian and founder of The Historic Mead Family Burying Grounds Association.

From the Greenwich News, June 10, 1910, page 7, column 5: "Mrs. Mead was a prominent woman in Greenwich, a woman of strong character in mind and one highly respected in town. She was born in 1826 in Stamford, the daughter of Ebenezer and Rhoda Smith. On her marriage to Mr. Mead she came to Greenwich to live in the old homestead which is now occupied by Mr. Young. Thirty-seven years ago her husband died and upon her then devolved the task of looking out after his large land holdings. In recent years she has done much to improve the property. She had four streets laid out, Mead Circle, Suburban avenue, Glendale street, and Randolph place, all of which are well built up. She showed remarkable business ability in all of her dealings, and much to build up Cos Cob. Mrs. Mead was one of the oldest members of Christ Church and was active in church work. She was a member of the New Canaan chapter of the D.A.R."


Caroline Mills Smith Mead's 'Mead Circle' real estate development in Cos Cob. Map dated 1906.

In 1906, Mrs. Mead laid out streets and developed real estate from her late-husband's lands she inherited upon his death. The area was at one time known as Mead Circle. It included Suburban Avenue, Tremont Street, Randolph Place, Glendale Street and some housing plots along the east side of Sinawoy Road. 

From Greenwich Graphic, June 11, 1910 after she died: "Mrs. Mead owned a large acreage of Cos Cob property, and although advanced in years was deeply interested in building up that part of the town, opening up her land into desirable building lots, handsome cottages having been built on many, Mrs. Mead's wish being that only a good class of houses be constructed, and the attractive section known as Mead Circle, which has so rapidly built up the past few years, was a part of her holdings." 

For example: 10 Tremont Street (circa 1900)19 Tremont Street (circa 1910), , 23 Tremont Street, was built circa 1906, as well as 25 Tremont Street. 


The memorial garden consists of a strip of land ("Right of Way to Cemetery") connecting the Mead Cemetery on the east side of the Cos Cob Mill Pond to the terminus of Relay Place. "This is the same path to and from the cemetery that she would have traversed when visiting the graves of her father, Ebenezer Smith, and her husband, William H. Mead," said Association president, Jeffrey Bingham Mead.

"She died in the home she built and gave to her caretaker, Mary Frances Peck, at 7 Relay Place," Mead continued. "Caroline's funeral was held in the home. Her final journey was from the house to the end of Relay Place, along the path to the cemetery where she was interred in June, 1910. In her recorded last will and testament she hand drew the property lines as they are still today in the 21st century." 

The land -including the cemetery, which was established circa 1791- has been in the family's possession since the late 17th century. It measures approximating one-third of an acre. 

Work on the memorial garden and cemetery was originally scheduled to begin in March, 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic and government-instituted lockdowns at that time delayed the initial start of the project. 

Starting in October, 2020 work resumed and is continuing throughout the winter into Spring, 2021. The Association's goal is to complete most work by May 15, 2021. 

This will include the creation of flower beds along the property lines and shoreline along the Cos Cob Mill Pond; the trimming and removal of some trees, planting of perennial and annual ornamental flowers and the installation of either an arbor or gate at the entrance. 


  



At the same time, work is being performed on the cemetery. This includes the replacement of sod and invasive vines, removal and trimming of trees, the planting of ground-covers and the cleaning of grave markers. 

Ebenezer Smith, father of Caroline Mills Smith Mead, is interred in the cemetery. 


A long time ago a massive oak tree once graced the landscape in front of the Mead home located where Cos Cob Elementary School is today. 

The drawing featured here is by Whitman Bailey of the "Bill Mead Oak." No one recalls when the tree came down, though it reputedly happened during a hurricane. The tree was so large that a large section of the trunk was hollow, allowing people to actually go inside. 

The date of this drawing, allegedly from a photograph, is 1930.


The William H. Mead House (left), now the site of  Cos Cob Elementary School (right)


The Caroline Mills Smith Mead House, circa 1904, at 391 East Putnam Avenue, Cos Cob.
Today it is the home of Greenwich Dentistry.  

The Caroline Mills Smith Mead Memorial Garden and the Mead Family Cemetery at Cos Cob are not open to the public

Escorted visits must be arranged by appointment-only through the Association. 

An application is in the process of submission to have the property listed on the Connecticut State Register of Historic Places. 

The Mead Family Cemetery at Cos Cob is a private family plot with burials restricted to Mead family descendants. 

Contact meadburyinggrounds@gmail.com for further information. 





Greenwich Life As It Is-And Was: Historic Ten Acres and the Grave of Major-General Ebenezer Mead (1921)

 Source: Greenwich News and Graphic, by Erwin Edwards. February 11, 1921. Page 4 and 10.



Ten Acres: Every resident of the Town but the stranger, knows where Ten Acres is. (Note: Ten Acres is now the campus of Greenwich High School off East Putnam Avenue and Hillside Road).

And why shouldn't every resident of the Town but the stranger, knows where Ten Acres is located, that is if a historic plot of land, which is as old as Horseneck, counts for anything in the mind of that resident?

Historic, yes, as historic as Put's Hill; perhaps not so widely known, but the two are always associated together by Greenwich people whenever either is mentioned, for both are connected with the history and life of Greenwich, and admin each other. 

It was across Ten Acres that general Putnam sped after his ride down the steep, now named in his honor, it being a short cut over the meadow to the main road leading to Fort Putnam, three miles away, where Putnam was hastening for reinforcements, after Tryon's raid on Greenwich.

Near the Boston Post road, or as it was called in those days the King's Highway, and on Ten Acres, was the home of a patriot, one who fought in the revolutionary war and attained high rank and one who did much for Greenwich -Major-General Ebenezer Mead.



The house which he occupied, and in the doorway of which he stood when General Putnam Dashed down the hill and cut across the meadow, is still standing and is just beyond the foot of the steep. 

A few years ago there was uncovered at Ten Acres not far from the house and to the west of it, a gravestone which marked the last resting place of General Mead.

How it was uncovered came about in this way: There came to Greenwich some years ago from the west a man whose boyhood days had been spent in Greenwich, by the name of James R. Mead.






After making some inquiries he learned that General Mead was buried at Ten Acres, a fact which he knew, but the exact spot he didn't know.

But he found someone who seemed to know where the grave was supposed to be, and this information was imparted to him.

he gave instructions to a responsible man to find out if the grave of General Mead could positively be proved  to be there. Carefully the underbrush, the earth and the grass, which had accumulated in long years was removed, time having leveled the original mound.

Soon a gravestone was unearthed, which lay flat on the ground, having been beaten to earth by winds and storms. It could be seen that it was cracked across its center width. It was carefully lifted out of its resting place and placed on the ground nearby.

Deftly the clinging dirt and moss was brushed off, and traces were then disclosed of the indentures of an inscription. 

Still more carefully removing the discolorations and the moss, which had adhered to it, then it was that the marks on it were plainly revealed, and the inscription was easily deciphered and read:


Maj-General

EBENEZER MEAD

died Feb. 7, 1818


Yes, that was the grave of General Mead. There was no doubt about it, the gravestone was the proof. The long neglected and almost obliterated resting place of this noted General, this Connecticut soldier, and Greenwich patriot had been found.



The Ebenezer Mead gravestone, relocated many years ago to the cemetery in Christ Church Greenwich. 


There was other wording on this brown gravestone, but only the name and the date could be made out.

The ground was smoothed over and the spot was left undisturbed otherwise. The monument was not taken away, and it is there today, or was, a short time ago, or it may be leaning alongside the near-by stonewall where it was placed.

It was the custom in colonial days, and later, to bury th owner of a farm or an estate, on the premises, usually in the orchard, in a lot back of the house, or by the road-side near the dwelling. And that is how it happened that the grave of General Mead was in Ten Acres, not far from his dwelling.

Just beyond the meadow where this grave is, or rather at the top of Put's Hill, is the large boulder, or monument, placed there in memory of General Putnam and marking the place where he started on his daring ride.

All which explains how that immediate locality has become historic, associated as it is, with great men and colonial life and revolutionary war days.

How Ten Acres came by its name would naturally suggest itself to most anyone. It is a large, level meadow, round in contour and contains just that number of acres, and there is not a tree on the field.

Just north of Ten Acres, West Brothers Brook comes tumbling down over the rocks, at such descent, and in such rapid current, that the water, dashing against the strong obstructions, is churning into foam, which suggested the name, Butter Milk Falls, a name as old as Ten Acres.

West Brothers Brook courses down through the meadow, but originally went its own way. years ago, however, a deep ditch was cut through the center of the field, and the water now flows in this ne channel, continuing its run until it meets its brother, East Brothers Brook, at the side of the Boston Post road, but a short distance beyond.

In the winter, Ten Acres becomes an ice pond, by means of a dam which causes the meadow to be flooded with water.

For years and years, a hundred years, Ten Acres has been a pleasure ground in the winter time. A popular skating pond, known far beyond the confines of Greenwich, and today it is more popular than ever as a pond to indulge in that pastime.

Though Ten Acres may some day be more exclusive than it is under its present owner, for he has never put up a "no trespass" sign, nor does he intend to, but if the public is ever disbarred from it, it will always have its historic associations which never can be taken away from it as long as the history of Greenwich remains.