Marquis de Lafayette, French nobleman and soldier whose great aid to the struggling American colonists during the Revolution will never be forgotten, was numbered among the famous visitors who enjoy the hospitality of "Dearfields," when the palatial old residence was the home of Colonel Thomas A. Mead. This visit of this famous figure of bygone days is but another glamorous historic incident in the wealth of tradition with surrounds the property upon which today stands the modern building which soon will be opened as the Greenwich store of Franklin Simon & Company.
Further glamour is added to Lafayette's visit to "Dearfields," when one realizes that his visit to Greenwich was one of the first stops which the nobleman made after landing at New York upon his historic visit to the United States in 1824. Landing in New York on August 20, Lafayette and his entourage proceeded almost immediately toward Connecticut, being met at the state line near Byram River by an escort of prominent citizens of that day, among this number being of course, Colonel Mead. He was escorted directly to "Dearfields" where a lavish reception in his honor took place. Leaving "Dearfields" he proceeded to Put's Hill, which he walked down to pay tribute to General Israel Putnam, one of Greenwich's traditional heroes of the Revolution.
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