Landmarks of New Canaan, Part 6

Author:
Publication date: 1951
Publisher: New Canaan, Connecticut : The New Canaan Historical Society
Number of Pages: 522

USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > New Canaan > Landmarks of New Canaan > Part 6

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People began to write letters to the paper suggesting improvements, mostly plantings, and a bird sanctuary. But the ball field was still the major undertaking for ten more years, though it seems to have been playable after a fashion from about 1920. "Completing the ath- letic field and draining the bog" were inajor topics at a meeting of the Civic League in April, 1922, at which Henry Kelley showed blueprints and sought help in furthering devel- opment. The Advertiser says that Stephen B.

Hoyt, president of the Bird Protective Society, H. M. Wolfe, member of the Skating Club, and Wilmot T. Cox, a tree planting expert, were present and made valuable suggestions.

In general there wasn't great progress during the twenties and the record is scanty. The people with imagination never let down and slow progress was made with the mammoth landscaping job-slow because money was scarce and public interest fitful. The Plant, Fruit, and Flower Guild sponsored preparing some of the high ground near the tracks for the Children's Garden Club, thus centering that group's activity in the park. There are children now gardening there whose parents tilled the same ground under the same instructor, for Mrs. John Buckley first took charge about 1926. Mrs. A. M. Gerdes, who has always been a mov- ing spirit in the children's gardens, recalls the park as an uninviting place in those days.

The record notes that in April, 1924, the Civic League was again inquiring what was to be done toward "completing the athletic field." The Park Commission obliged by accepting all the help it could get and told the league that it would be nice if they cared to finance "tennis courts to the north of the Children's Gardens." This led to construction of the first court, though it took a couple of years more before it was finished.

The Bird Protective Society precipitated quite an issue in 1924 by suggesting that part of the park land be fenced off and reserved for a sanctuary under restrictions. The Commis- sioners turned to the Town Counsel for guid- ance and were told they could take help when and where it could be found, and they could devote any part of the land to whatever seemed to them most in the public good, but they could not relinquish nor delegate control to an un- official body. This didn't square with the bird lovers' plans at that time so nothing came of the proposal.

A crucial decision presented itself in 1925 which could have radically altered the whole later character of the park-some people still think it would have been for the better. In that year the Stamford High School decided to stop admitting New Canaan children and the Town

suddenly faced the necessity of building a High School. Few issues have so agitated the citi- zenry or led to so violent a division and this be- longs in a different history. But the park almost got the High School. It was to have been built where the children's gardens and the tennis courts are now and it would have dominated the grounds in more ways than onc. On Oc- tober 9, 1925, a special Town meeting voted to put the new school there by 297 to 155. On November 28 another Town meeting rescinded that decision by a vote of 328 to 216. It was that close.

There was another big volunteer "Park Day" on Monday, March 30, 1925, when the "pub- lic was invited to assist in preparing an athletic field" by donating services and teams. This time real progress was made for the Board of Finance appropriated a whole thousand dol- lars to match a similar amount raised by sub- scription, and the field got graded top-soil and was seeded. It gradually lost first place, after that, among park problems, although in 1929 it is recorded that Anthony Cerretani donated $190 worth of labor and material to its improve- ment, and as late as 1932 one of the projects on foot was to "drain the lower end of the ball field."

But this is getting ahead of the story, for the years of the great depression were boom years for Mead Park. Public interest was keen and sustained and pocketbooks were opened-pub- lic and private, local and national. In the dec- ade of the thirties the park, as we see it with such pride today, was built. That period is a story in itself.

[ March 13, 1947]

The great depression of the thirties was the making of Mead Park. It became the principal beneficiary of unemployment relief in this area. This created much activity which bred greater interest on the part of more citizens who in turn contributed more ideas, donations and appro- priations. One of the most difficult problems of the Federal work relicf agencies-the FERA,

CWA, WPA, PWA, ad infinitum-was to find enough suitable projects. The New Canaan Park Commission, in the words of Henry Kelley, "always had a project."

In the early days of the depression, when charity was considered a local problem, New Canaan started its own unemployment relief. The Town had been spending only the re- quired minimum of $300 a year on the park from 1915 right through 1929, except for $1,000, in 1925 and $1,500 in 1928. But with arrival of the depression expenditures were stepped up sharply, and in the four years, 1930- 33, the Town spent $21,000, compared to $6,400 in the preceding fifteen years. Annual expenditures never dropped below $4,000 again. Fewer people like finance than ought to, but these figures are interesting and are indica- tive of the community spirit. To them should be added the large contributions of civic minded citizens and clubs, of which there is, unfortunately, no detailed record.

The Park, at the beginning of 1930, consisted of an athletic field in fair shape, a shallow pond that was full of obstructions and covered an in- definite arca depending on rainfall, the plots of the Children's Garden Club and one nonde- script tennis court. The rest was undeveloped and in a deplorable condition. For instance, in April, 1930, the commission took steps to stop dumping by putting up signs and building some fences.

A comprehensive plan of development was prepared early in 1930. The Civic League, the Lions Club, the Garden Club and others con- tributed enthusiasm and money. By the time Federal funds entered the picture, late in 1933, a great deal had been done. The ball field got its final grading, center field was drained, and water pipes were laid. The pumping station was built and landscaped so skillfully that most people still have never scen it. Sidewalks werc built along Park Street and Richmond Hill Road.

The original tennis court was made over and a second one added by the Civic League on whose behalf Mrs. Claflin made the formal presentation. The Lions Club contributed to- ward seeding the ball ficld, sponsored a peti-

111

Edwin Eberman 2/47

The Skating Pond in the Park

tion which brought a $10,000 Town appropria- tion in 1932, and, with John Karl as spokesman, asked for more problems to solve. The Lions supplied the money for several years to pay Riley Hogan, who began his services in July of 1931 and has been superintendent ever since.

Abraham Hatfield gave the children's wad- ing pool and the pergola of marble columns that surround it. Raymond H. Putnam, who later served a term on the Commission, raised money in 1932 to start a cinder track around the athletic field. Henry Kelley, whose gifts of

trees and shrubs to this town are never end- ing, gave the shrubs which border the steps and walks leading to the tennis courts and the wading pool, and the road from Richmond Hill to the Sanctuary, and also the evergreens around the pool and the field house. Judge John D. Fearhake, H. B. Thayer and Samuel Watts gave the evergreens on the large island in the lake. The American Legion gave a poppy bed, Mrs. Hatfield 10,000 bulbs, Mrs. Carey a drink- ing fountain, the Sons of Italy two big concrete benches, Judge Mead an additional half acre of land.

For several summers a power shovel worked on the old stagnant pond digging out the bot- tom and building up the banks. The two islands there today are entirely artificial and date from this work. There were plans to build bridges to them, but this is still to be done.

By the summer of 1933 the Park was so transformed that it had begun to be attractive just to look at. In recognition of this the Garden Club chose to hold its annual flower show there, the first of a long list of public and semi- public gatherings to be held in the park. The State Tercentenary celebration in 1935 was a gala affair and the combination band stand and speakers' platform erected then is still intact.

Thanks to the effort of Frederick T. Fisher in securing a favorable option, the Standard Oil buildings in Richmond Hill Road were bought in 1933 for $2,000. This was a fortu- nate solution of what might have become a serious problem, for the property belonged with the park and the building and garages were badly needed. The American Legion held meetings in the building for years, as did a number of other civic organizations.

The Bird Protective Society, headed by Stephen B. Hoyt, gave the Sanctuary to the Commission in March 1934. This added eight- een contiguous acres, but the Sanctuary has been continued on a separate basis and its his- tory is another story. This brought Clinton Bar- tow, the first and only caretaker, to the park payroll and thereafter his efforts have been shared with the park proper.

The memorial arch, which stands at the Park Street entrance, was made by Harold Mead in

his own shop. It was presented on behalf of the Mead family by him and Miss Florence Mead and was gratefully received at formal dedica- tion ceremonies in the Summer of 1935.

George T. Smith, notable first selectman for seventeen years, was deeply interested in the park and it was during his incumbency that the vision of the earlier planners became real- ity. After 1933, when Federal funds were avail- able for relief projects meeting certain require- ments, Mr. Smith was eminently successful in fitting park objectives to Federal specifications.

The Federal contribution was confined largely to labor but the park needed a lot of that, for labor is the biggest part of landscap- ing. There is no record of the amount of Fed- eral money spent but estimates by several of- ficials in touch with the work average about one hundred thousand dollars.

The bulk of this expenditure went into grad- ing, fill, drainage, clearing and planting. One and a half feet of fill was spread over the low ground extending from right field westward and all this area was underlaid with drainage tile. Dredging the lake was finished and the fine stone wall at its south end was constructed. Roads and paths were built and surfaced and more tennis courts added. A beautiful and ex- pensive bowling green was completed whereon masculine waist-lines were to be reduced-but, alas, it languishes unused. The impressive stone field house and lockerroom were built and fur- nished in 1934.

The WPA did a great deal of planting. The commission bought some trees and shrubs but most were gifts from a large list of donors on which appears Henry Kelley, Hoyt's Nursery, Miss Myra Valentine, the Garden Club, Mrs. Charles, Mr. Hatfield, John Garibaldi, Ameri- can Legion, Knights of Columbus, Eastern Star, Italian American Republican Club and a host of others. A recent inventory in the park, excluding the Sanctuary, shows 943 shrubs and 1,488 trees of which 458 are native varieties.

In 1944 the Garden Club began planting the Gold Star Walk which borders the lake on the east. There is to be a flowering memorial tree for each boy from New Canaan lost in the war. Thirty-four are already planted and there will

be three more when the last low ground has been filled in.

In the thirty-two years of Mead Park's exist- ence there have only been twenty-four mem- bers of the six-man commission and eight first selectmen as ex-officio chairmen. This is a re- markable record and the Town owes deep grat- itude to these people. George T. Smith was a powerful influence during his seventeen years as first selectmen and Clarence Costales, in- cumbent since 1942, is especially interested in improving our parks ("parks" is plural now, but that is another story, too). The commission members (whose only compensation is achievement) are now Henry Kelley, who has served the full thirty-two years, Walter K. Goodhue eighteen years; Miss Myra Valentine, eight years; Percy W. Hoyt and Miss Florence

L. Mead, five years each, and Mrs. Frank By- num, secretary for the last three years. There has always been a Mead on the commission; Judge Stanley P. Mead from 1915 to 1934, then his brother, Harold, to 1942, and their sister since then. Of the original 1915 commission, Judge Frothingham continued for ten years and Dr. Thomas Tunney twenty years, acting as secretary all that time and missing hardly a half dozen meetings. M. G. Gregory served nine years to 1933, William Lahey, eight years to 1941, and the late Rodney Light as select- man back in 1915-17 and again as an appointed member for 1933-37.

The Park isn't finished-let's hope it never will be. But we proudly claim it to be the finest park of any community of our size in the country.

THE SMITH-WILCOX HOUSE

JOHN G. PENNYPACKER, Author

EDWIN EBERMAN, Artist

[March 20, 1947]

On Michigan Road, just west of Smith Ridge, stands the homestead of the family that gave the Ridge its name-and now the home of Mr. and Mrs. T. Ferdinand Wilcox. Tradition ascribes the building of the original house to the first Peter Smith, best known member of the clan and the man for whom Father Peter's Lane is named; Peter's father, Nehemiah, quite probably had an earlier house on or near this site. Numerous additions and alterations, the latter particularly by the Wilcoxes and their predecessors, the Bakers, have gone into mak- ing the house the attractive home it is today.

"Smith's Ridge," as it is called in the early records, got its name from the fact that in the 1690s and early 1700s Samuel Smith of Nor- walk, together with his son, Samuel, Jr., and his son-in-law, Thomas Benedict, obtained a

number of grants of land on both sides of the present Smith Ridge Road in the neighborhood of the Country Club-long known as "the lower end of the Ridge." Beyond giving the Ridge its name, these original grants play little fur- ther part in our present story. Samuel's second son, Nehemiah, however, was given fifteen acres of his father's land ( including part of Dr. Williams' present property ) and, apparently liking the sample, devoted the rest of his life to extending the Smith acres farther north along the Ridge. His first important acquisi- tion was a proprietor's grant of fifty-three acres in 1720, which included much of the present Wilcox property and land to the south of it down to and perhaps including part of the pres- ent Griffis land. In 1740 to '43 he made pur- chases totalling fifty-seven acres, part of it just

Edwin Elerman 1947

The Smith-Wilcox House

to the west of his first grant, from the heirs of Joseph Kellogg. This tract, which cost Nehe- miah £757 and had buildings and fruit trees at the north end, ran south from Michigan Road along the ridge just east of the present Father Peter's Lane; it included the Shepard and Hubby properties and the west end of the new addition to the golf course.

Nehemiah Smith was a weaver as well as a farmer and kept slaves. He had five sons and

three daughters, of whom his second son Peter, in addition to following his father's trade, must have helped him work his farm. In any event, it was to Peter that Nehemiah, by a will proved in 1767, left "all of my lands lying in Canaan Parish in Township of Norwalk ... upon con- dition that he shall pay or cause to be paid unto my executors, for paying my debts, charges and legacies, ye sum of thirty pounds lawful money."

The first of four Peter Smiths married Je- mima, the daughter of his first cousin and neighbor Samuel Benedict and, after she had borne him eight children, his second wife, Mary, had four more; of his children nine were sons, most of whom scattered early. Drum- mond, on his famous visit in 1772, listed, be- sides Peter, only "Mary, his wife; Peter, Sam- uel, David, Phineas, Daniel and Mary, chil- dren; Hannah Benedict, residenter." This Peter ruled over quite a domain and had a con- siderable, even if primitive, establishment. In addition to his other farming activities, he must have kept sheep, whose wool had to be carded, dyed, spun and woven, right on the place. To the land he had from his father, which included a substantial acreage north of Michigan Road, he made further additions. The inventory of his estate, in 1782, shows dwelling house, cider mill, barn and weaver's shop and almost three hundred acres of land-a really tremendous holding for this region. Most of the land was appraised at somewhat over £3 per acre; the dwelling, which must still have been on the simple side, was appraised at &15 and the barn at £18.

It frequently happened in this neighborhood that it was the youngest son who took over the farm of parents who lived long enough so that their older children had moved away and es- tablished homes of their own. So, in this case it was Phineas-the youngest, except for Daniel, who was studying for the ministry-who in- creasingly became the mainstay of the "Widow Mary" and later bought in shares in land, house, weaver's shop and other buildings that belonged to his brothers and to the other now widely scattered heirs.

Of Phineas' brothers, only Samuel seems to have stayed on his father's land, of which his share was apparently just north of Michigan Road. Samuel, who had fought in the Revolu- tion and was later known as Captain Sam, was not improbably the builder of the Pollett house or of an earlier house on about that site. David became a doctor. Far the best known and the really distinguished member of this genera- tion, however, was the youngest brother Dan- iel, who graduated from Yale in 1791 and stud-

ied theology with the Rev. Cotton Mather Smith, whose youngest daughter he married. In 1793 he was ordained Pastor of the First Congregational Church in Stamford, a position that he held for forty-six years. He taught a pri- vate school as well, until his death in 1846, aged eighty-two. It is said that he was a man of un- usual wisdom and that "few pastors ever en- deared themselves more to their people than he."

Phineas had a son, Peter, born in 1800, to whom the farm ultimately passed and who be- came the Colonel Peter Smith, farmer, mer- chant, executor of estates, school committee- man, selectman and Lieutenant Colonel of Horse Artillery, who is remembered by people still living. The will of Phineas, dated 1819, makes one wonder if his wife, Abiah, may not have been just a little difficult. It left her the east half of the house and her son, Peter, the west half, with the most explicit definitions of their respective right of passage to and from the different rooms, and similarly as to the rights of access to the watering place for cattle, and so forth. This sort of will not uncommon in that period but a copy of the will found by Mrs. Vernon P. Baker among papers in the at- tic, when she and her husband acquired and remodeled the house some twenty years ago, showed the evidence of much wear from the thumbing of its pages, suggesting that it had been referred to in the course of numerous ar- guments-something for which there was ample opportunity, since Abiah outlived her husband for about twenty years.

A ledger of Peter Smith, in the possession of the Historical Society, covering a period in the 1840s and '50s, sheds interesting light on the life of the time. In a small way, he was an active entrepreneur, as well as a farmer. He sold not only hay and great quantities of beef and other products of the farm but lumber, standing tim- ber and a wide variety of merchandise, some of which almost suggests that he kept a store. The accounts, however, were almost entirely with men who worked for him in various capacities from time to time, as farmhand, day laborer, carpenter, and so on. These men he would sup- ply with shoes, materials and findings for

clothes, and their children with school books and pencils, and he would pay their school and other taxes or store bills; altogether, very little cash passed. He hauled his neighbors' grain and timber to the mills. He would haul hay to the Norwalk or Five Mile River docks ( at $1.50 a load) or rent out a team of oxen at seventy- five cents a day. He built a bridge in Mt. Mis- ery for the town, for $10.00, and twelve rods of stone wall for Leander Hoyt, at $1 a rod, and he loaned out money on mortgages for estates he managed. Anson Benedict paid him, for various merchandise and services, in new shoes and boots and repairs. Stephen Seward, who had a house farther north on Smith Ridge, and who was an expert carpenter, helped him build a new barn (presumably the present Wilcox garage and chauffeur's house), at a rate that was expressed as eight shillings a day but en- tered in the dollar column as one dollar. In other words, the shilling still survived but had become "one bit," or twelve and a half cents. One laborer received 6/6 per day or eighty- one cents and another received sixty-six cents. Farmhands were employed for as little as six dollars a month and a teacher for two months at $8.50 per month, the school district paid the teachers' board at the rate of $1 per week. His one extravagance that we note is the purchase of a carriage from Quintard & Smith for $142.50; with harness, bought in Stamford, the outfit came to a total of $175. His agreements with the various men who were to work for him until his haying was finished, or whatever it was, were carefully set out and the accounts were meticulously signed from time to time by both parties.

Peter's first wife left him childless, which was apparently a matter of great grief to him. De- spite his being well along in the sixties he suc- ceeded in marrying a young wife; a son, Ed- ward, born just after the Civil War, arrived in due course. On the evening of their wedding Peter and his bride were subjected to a particu- larly severe form of the noisy serenade or "chi- varee" (a corruption of "chari vari") that was then a not uncommon custom on such occa- sions, in this and other rural communities; sometimes it was a really neighborly reception

but, with so few available outlets for excess an- imal spirits, it frequently went far beyond seemly bounds. The serenaders in this case may have taken their cue from Peter's long years of service as a militia artillery officer; in any event, they celebrated with the repeated firing of an old cannon so heavily loaded that it shattered windows in the house.

In the course of time, Colonel Peter became so portly that he never got out of his wagon when he went to town but sat in it while the blacksmith took the horses out and shod them. In his last years he typically spent his time sit- ting on the porch, day in and day out, too stout to move about. Thrifty and conscientious but apparently without much humor, the old gen- tleman lived to the age of seventy-five and died in 1875.

Edward apparently lived in the old house intermittently and, about 1890, took summer boarders and did some brief farming but much of the old farm had been sold in the meantime. The house passed into the hands of a Mr. McClennahan, a New York shoe merchant, who was one of our early commuters, driving a horse to and from the station regardless of weather, from about 1895 to 1905.

Then came Mr. Hoy, who later built and named Father Peter's Lane, after the first Peter Smith. In 1924 the house was bought by the Vernon P. Bakers and by them sold to Mr. and Mrs. Wilcox.

Addendum by MARION H. FULLER

The present house preserves the exterior out- lines of the original house, under the shade of its row of maples, without substantial change; otherwise it gives the immediate impression of being much larger than the simple colonial farmhouse that it once was. This is due in part to the wonderfully expansive feeling of thirty- two acres of lawns, gardens, trees and fields, but primarily to the delightful openness of the interior-the latter in undoubtedly sharp con-

trast to its original form. This happy change has been made possible by the fact that a see- ond farmhouse, a building of six rooms (re- putedly built some eighty-odd years ago, dur- ing the regime of Colonel Peter Smith) has since been attached as a wing to the rear of the original house.

Instead of one outstanding feature, this gra- cious home has several dominating qualities, including singular cordiality, gentle refinement and quiet self-assurance. The spirit of the house may be keynoted by the many fireplaces, each individual in paneling and size and all handsome. They are found in all eight of the major rooms and certainly offer a warm- hearted mellowness as they recall the early days when they were used steadily for heating.

When Mr. and Mrs. Wilcox came from New York City about 1934, they found some rooms 100 small and much wasted space. So, over the last sixteen years, changes have been made gradually, always with unfailing attention to authentic detail and always with impeccable taste. They enlarged the library considerably and today have one of the most handsome,

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Landmarks of New Canaan, Part 6

Author: Publication date: 1951 Publisher: New Canaan, Connecticut : The New Canaan Historical Society Number of Pages: 522

Author:
Publication date: 1951
Publisher: New Canaan, Connecticut : The New Canaan Historical Society
Number of Pages: 522