Source: Greenwich News & Graphic. Greenwich Life As It Is-And Was: Mrs. Caroline Mead's Real Estate Promotion and Success, By Lucian B. Edwards. Second Section, Page 1.
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| Caroline Mills Smith Mead. |
The first of Greenwich farming land to be developed into residential sites was owned by a woman who promoted what proved to be one of the most successful real estate operations ever planned for Greenwich.
She was Mrs. Caroline M. Mead of Cos Cob, widow of William H. Mead, "White Oak Bill" he was called by almost everybody who was acquainted with him, to distinguish him from another William H. Mead who had a saddlery shop on old Church Road, and was known as "Saddlery Bill."
There were so many families living in the town half a century or longer ago, by the name of Mead, that the surname was seldom mentioned when the men of the families of that name for spoken of or two. It was always "Lyman," "Cornelius," "Henry," "William J.," or other of the given names.
"White Oak Bill" began to sell off some of his extensive farmland centrally located at Cos Cob, before the Belle Haven Land Company was organized, to purchase the Bush farm for development into "high-class" residential sites.
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| The Mead home, now the site of Cos Cob Elementary School. |
William H. Mead's farm consisted of quite a large number of acres located on both sides of the Boston Post Road near Strickland Pond.
The house in which the family lived was of the Colonial architecture, a large two story frame dwelling facing the southeast having a spacious piazza along the entire front. It was located on the site of the present Cos Cob school building, the street now called Orchard Street passing the front.
Between the front fence and the street was a wide lawn, such as was customary to have a front of most of the houses in.
When the Mead house was built long before the stage coaches stopped making trips over the highway, the residence and the enormous white oak tree, that stood on the lawn just in front of the gate opening to the premises, were conspicuous objects of interest to in the stagecoaches.
This white oak tree had more than local fame. It was a big tree at the time of the Revolutionary War, and when the Mead family lived on the farm it had a circumference of at least 30 feet at the base, and the diameter of the trunk was not less than 10 feet at the narrowest part. Its great branches spread across both highways and over the house.
In a gale that occurred many of the branches were broken off and the remainder were removed where they grew out from the trunk.
There was a big opening at the base, and the boys and girls of Cos Cob used to play around the old oak, hiding in the interior.
Finally the old trunk became unsafe and it was taken down, thus removing the last vestige of one of the important landmarks of the vicinity.
William H. Mead really began the development of his farm land into residential sites. He opened Mead avenue through his land from the Boston Post Road to the River Road, making a fine wide street, and the lots very large.
Fine houses were seen in process of building, the latest to be erected being that of Frank Lockwood, at the northeast corner of Mead Avenue at the River Road which was completed some fifteen or twenty years ago. It was called the "Fifth Avenue" of Cos Cob and was considered the select residential section of that part of the town.
Mrs. Mead, who was a tall, slender woman of energy, progressive ideas and unusual executive ability, had an attractive cottage built on a lot on the south side of the Post Road, north of Mead Avenue, to which she moved from the old house which she leased to Mrs. James Beecher, sister-in-law of the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, where Mrs. Beecher had a young women's and girls school where Mrs. Beecher for a number of years.
Then Mrs. Mead started on her successful real estate career.
She opened a street some 300 feet or more west of Mead Avenue, extending to Strickland Pond on the south and west, calling it Relay Place, where lots were sold and houses erected.
Across the street from her cottage between the Post Road what was in early days called the King's Highway, was a triangular plot extending from Orchard Street to Diamond Hill. This land was divided into small smaller lots and a number of cottages were soon built on lots.
Joseph Lockwood, "Joe" they called him, who had become proprietor of the Greenwich drug store, purchased one of these building lots and had a two story frame building put up, the lower part having two stores and the upper part two flats.
In one of the stores he opened a drug store, selling it to Dr. Lockwood of Stanwich, who conducted the store for a number of years.
A grocery business was located in the other store, and there were indications at that time that there would be quite a business section in that vicinity.
Later however, a brick store building and garage were built at "The Hub," where the retail business of Cos Cob has since continued.
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| Mead Circle: Suburban Avenue and other streets in Cos Cob. |
Mrs. Mead opened a street just east of Strickland Brook, from the Post Road north and curving to the road east, where a large number of very desirable building lots, that were easily sold at large prices for that time, were developed.
They were good-sized lots and attractive houses were built, Mrs. Mead always insisting that houses built on the lots she sold should be attractive and a credit to the locality.
She called the section Mead Circle. In recent years Mead Circle which is so desirably situated for cottages in every way, accessible to trolley line, desirable neighborhood and attractive surroundings, has been rapidly "built up."
Formerly Strickland Pond, the tide mill pond that furnished power for the grist mill on the Cos Cob Landing, and a fine fishing pond for snappers, crab and smelts, would be nothing but an unsightly mud pond for part of the time each day, when the tide was out.
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| Grist mill at Cos Cob Landing. Strickland Pond is to the left. Cos Cob's Bush Holley House would be behind the photographer's vantage point. |
After the grist mill ceased to grind, the sluiceway was closed so that water remained in the Strickland Pond all the time, making the section more attractive that it had ever previously had been.
But the water became stagnant and offensive so a plan was devised to open the sluiceway at frequent intervals and that objection was easily overcome.
Mrs. Mead was actively engaged in the selling of her lots for a number of years, accumulating a considerable fortune in addition to that she had previously processed, from the sale of her lots. She sold her lots on easy terms to desirable purchasers, and offered every inducement to such persons to buy and build houses.
Advancing years and family health compelled her to give up business activities and she retired for a quiet life, always however, seemingly intensely interested when questioned about her real estate operations.
