USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > New Canaan > Landmarks of New Canaan > Part 60
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61
Samuel Andros Weed, born in 1799, five gen- erations removed from the older Abraham, prospered in the mercantile business in New York where he acquired substantial real estate holdings and later, in partnership with Ben- jamin Hoyt, started a store in New Canaan and organized the Savings Bank of which he was the first president.
Miss Amanda P. Weed, the last surviving member of the family, was the granddaughter of Samuel, and her father was Seth Chauncey, Samuel's only son. Seth carried on the family business, the general store known as Weed & Hoyt located on Main Street. He was the father of a large family, seven children of which were alive at the time of his death in 1896. His estate was divided cvenly between the children, Sam- uel, William, Jenny, Hanford, Naomi, Sherman and Amanda who finally inherited the Home- stcad as each child passed his interest, by deed, devise or inheritance.
The Wecd family, particularly the last gen- eration of seven unmarried children, all living their entire lives at the Homestead, would pro- vide a basis for a novel. They lived modestly, carefully conserving the small fortune earned by their forebears in real estate and from the store. They owned a number of flats in lower New York and some houses in New Canaan, all frugally maintained and largely devoid of mod- ern conveniences. Of the four unmarried sons,
only Hanford, a Yale graduate, achieved prom- inence in his chosen field, the law. At first he maintained offices in New York City, then later became a local lawyer, at one time a Demo- cratic member of the state Senate, with a local reputation of being quite successful in keeping property taxes at a minimum for his clients who owned summer homes in town. He had courage and strong convictions and was well known for his vigorous defense of his party's position in town meetings, particularly when it involved expenditures of town funds.
Miss Amanda Weed contributed much to the community through her interest in civic affairs such as the old Civic League which she led for many years and from which evolved the Visit- ing Nurse Association. Miss Armanda's charita- ble ideas were not hers alone but developed by the whole family and passed on to her-she was really acting out an accumulated trust to be executed by the last survivor. Before her death she had long been interested in the His- torical Association and its activities and had disclosed to the society her wishes and plans for maintaining the homestead as it was when she died. As the last survivor of this family she had made her will about a year before her death on June 22, 1944. It appointed the Mer- chants Bank & Trust Company of Norwalk as executor and trustee under a trust created for the following use and purpose among others.
"To permit the New Canaan Historical So- ciety ... to occupy for its own use and as its sole headquarters . . . the Weed Homestead . . . for the use and purposes of the said Society . . . and to apply the net income to maintain build- ings and fences on said real estate and other such incidental expenses which may arise in the proper care of said real estate . . . de- vised ... for the benefit of the New Canaan Historical Society shall not be sold or otherwise be disposed of while being used by said bene- ficiary for at least 50 years from the date of my death. ... "
Because of the many ambiguities in the will, at the request of the Historical Society, the Executor instituted an action to have the will construed by the court.
While the society was successful in obtain-
4.90
ing a favorable construction on various other points, the decision of the Superior Court held that it was not entitled to the property in per- petuity and that the trustee would pay only necessary charges for maintenance for the land and building, and not for necessary alterations or additions to the Weed Homestead or the operating expenses of the building. On appeal, the Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut (133 Con. 706) affirmed the decision of the lower court.
In view of this decision and since the His- torical society did not have sufficient funds of its own to maintain the homestead, it termin- ated its right to such use and sold most of the contents. The Historical Society thus waged a long fight to carry out the hopes and intention of Miss Weed, as it felt bound to do. However, viewed in retrospect, the outcome was prob- ably in the best interest of the Society itself, since maintenance would have been expensive and administration problems burdensome. This long court case was handled for the society by S. Pearce Browning, jr., a partner of the New York law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell and by Cummings & Lockwood of Stamford. The out- come served an unquestioned humanitarian purpose in supporting the hospitals, the residu- ary legatees, on which New Canaan depends. The law firm of Morse and Marvin represented the interests of the Library. Many friends, how- ever, were saddened by the court decision, as they knew Amanda Weed had died firmly be- lieving that the family dream of the homestead as a memorial, and the acreage as public play- ground in perpetuity, would come true. She had never realized the unfortunate ambiguities in her will.
Turning to the house, its architecture is clear- ly identified with the Federal Period, more popularly known as the Greek Revival. Howard Major in his book, "The Domestic Architecture of the Early American Republic; the Greek Revival" (J. P. Lippincott Company, 1926) ex- plains the development of this architectural form as the prevailing attitude of independence following the War of 1812 and the desire to develop our own literature and art forms rather than relying on the Mother Country. The War
of Greek Independence in the early 1820s gave final impetus to the Hellenic movement. Al- though there are isolated instances of the Greek influence on architecture in the country in the last few years of the 18th century, Major states that the period of approximately 30 years between 1820 and 1850 is too clearly defined to make absolute dates of the buildings in this style necessary, since the vogue came to an abrupt end about 1850.
This thumbnail sketch of the Federal or Greek Revival period probably best serves to date the building of this house, namely circa 1830. It is interesting to note that the Drum- mond-Hoyt house on Carter Street, which is very similar in architecture, is dated circa 1830 (New Canaan Advertiser of February 23, 1950). If this date is correct, the house was built by Samuel Andros Weed in about the middle of his life span, at the time when his only son, Seth Chauncey, was about eight years old.
While the architecture is too well identified with the period to admit assignment of an earlier date, there are some evidences that an earlier house may have stood on this same site. The fireplace in the kitchen with its dome- shape bake oven is more generally associated with the period of 1775. Perhaps this fireplace was retained and a new house built around it. It is possible that the front fence is older than the house. It is built in a unique fashion on boulders embedded in the earth at irregular intervals into which holes were drilled into which iron bars were cemented with molten sulphur, the fence being mounted on the bars.
The original house consisted of a full base- ment and four rooms, two on each floor with a fireplace in each room and the kitchen. The land slopes away to the rear so that the house was three stories in the rear and two in front. It was added on to at least five times, probably to accomodate Seth Chauncey's large family- all living at home. The first addition was an cx- tension of the basement floor and the first floor while the third floor was not extended until ap- preciably later as indicated by the character of the wood used and by the varied details of the windows. The principal addition was the south-
491
west wing of three stories, at which time a porch on the front and side of the main house was probably added. The white marble Vic- torian fireplace dates this addition as in the latter part of the Victorian era and the "ginger- bread" on the front porch was also character- istic of this period.
Other buildings include a well house close by the kitchen with a chimney suggesting that it was a milk house, a large two story carriage house, set well to the side and rear of the residence, with its elaborate red and white dec- orations admired by all who pass along Weed Street. Also there were two red barns, one of which is still standing since this was a working farm as late as 1943 when described by Mr.
Hoyt in his article. Many handmade tools still hang on the barn wall in silent testimony to the era in which they served.
The property was acquired by Mergaretta Leland Chapman in March 1948 and extensive- ly remodeled throughout which restored the dignified Federalist lines on the exterior.
The metamorphosis over a period of years during which a working farm changed into a town residence was culminated by advice from the postoffice recently that no longer would postal delivery be on a rural route, but that the homestead tract of Abraham Weed has been absorbed into growing New Canaan as 76 Weed Street.
THE RICHARDSON WRIGHT-BOOTH HOUSE
STEPHEN B. HOYT, Author
EVERETT HENRY, Artist
[September 13, 1951]
"Sun House," the home of the Richardson Wrights on Buttery Road, Silver Mine is be- lieved to have been built by John Rider in 1840, from "a plan mom found in a book and she liked it."
Mr. Wright classifies it as "a combination of Greek revival and country carpenter." The Wrights have made important changes both in- side and out which have given it a decided charm and character as one would quite expect from the editor of "House and Garden," who made it his home for many years.
This house more than any other rivals even the Methodist Parsonage in the number of families it has sheltered. An abstract of title from the land records reveals the following chain: 1830, Abner St. John sold the land to Thaddeus Betts; 1834, Thaddeus Betts sold it to Stephen Gregory; 1841, Stephen Gregory sold it to John Rider who built the house.
There followed these owners: Andrew Clen- denning, James and Ellen O'Brien, Daniel Deering, Rafael Mancini, Frank B. Austin, Frederick Hutwelter, B. Frank Pollard, Austin W. Lord, William A. Boring, Hamilton Hamil- ton who, in 1918, sold it to Richardson Wright.
What an accumulation of human associations is stored up in these old walls! The task of presenting them is far beyond the scope of this brief story. Of the ancient names of the Silver Mine Valley, those of St. John, Betts and Greg- ory have been told elsewhere.
Of the long list which followed these, we have but scant record, although the older gene- ration of today recall the Riders and Deerings vividly. As to the last four or five, which might almost be called current, their descendants and neighbors still live here. The house and the Deering family are mentioned in that amusing recent book "The Broom Behind the Door.'
492
THE RICHARDSON WRIGHT HOUSE
The Richardson Wrights, have woven sub- stantial values into the Silver Mine Valley fabric. Mr. Wright, editor of "House and Gar- den," author, critic and horticultural authority, is nationally known for his leadership in flower gardening lore and for his pungent book re- views appearing frequently in the New York "Sunday Supplements."
A popular lecturer and wit, his talents have not been confined to the printed word, for he has made a garden of the land where students of the art have flocked to see his large collection of roses and the endless varieties of spring bulbs. On many occasions the Wright's fields of daffodils have been used as an inducement to benefit teas for worthy causes, and offered freely and generously in their customary fashion.
Mrs. Wright has been an active leader in many local enterprises and is greatly missed in New Canaan since Mr. Wright's health took them to Cape Cod, where they are now living. "Sun House" took its name from a carved sign representing the rising sun which they
found in the barn and have learned that it was from an old English inn. It seemed espe- cially fitting since they had named their town house "Star House."
"Sun House" looks out upon the home of Lily Pons, where her marriage to Andre Kos- talanetz was celebrated some years ago. North of the house is a natural amphitheatre where the most outstanding musical enterprise ever held in New Canaan took place. Adjoining this is the Silvermine Guild, now so richly rewarded by the dreams and labors of the sponsors, among whom Richardson Wright has always been a leading patron.
The author is indebted for his notes to Mr. Richardson Wright's own research on this sub- ject;in fact his own language has been quoted in several instances.
The present owners, Mr. and Mrs. James Scrip Booth from Grosse Pointe, Michigan, arc enthusiastically gardening and remodeling. Mr. Booth, artist and engineer, has converted the barn into a studio.
493
ISPARTA
THE GRUPE-NICHOLS-BROWNE HOUSE
ROBERT C. BARR, Author
ROBERT C. BARR, Artist
[September 20, 1951]
The house pictured herewith, standing at the junction of Valley Road and Benedict Hill Road, and owned by the Misses Norvelle and Frances Browne, has two histories. The old part or eastern half was built in the 1700's, while the western half was added later.
During the middle 1800's the house was bought and occupied by a cobbler farmer, one Charles Grupe, lately come from Hanover, Germany. Almost every one in those days was at least partly a farmer and for cobbling done the occupant was paid "in kind." It was prob-
ably a good location for a cobbler, for in those days Benedict Hill Road continued up over the ridge and down by the Cheese Spring Road into North Wilton, while Valley Road (then Silver Mine Road) did about what it does to- day, provided a route to Ridgefield and so on to Danbury, and the cobbler doubtles got much business from the people traveling both roads.
The Grupe family held the property until the early 1900's. It comprised upwards of two hundred acres, stretching from the Silver Mine River on the south along the river plain almost
494
to the North Wilton Road. Eastward the boun- dary was the top of the ridge where Cheese Spring Road comes in; westward, almost to Laurel Road. Mrs. William Nichols of South Main Street, who was born in the house, says her father soon gave up cobbling for farming, which he really loved.
The original house was added to more than once as more Grupe children were born-nine in all. Two of the older brothers built the high stone wall which supports the terrace on which the newer part of the house stands. Mrs. Nichols recalls that in the old days people came as they do now to ask for water from the well, built into the corner of the porch, a well which never was known to go dry.
She has in her dining room a table which can seat twenty-four people. This she said her father bought at the time that the reservoir (called Grupe resevoir ) was built because the men working on the job were fed by Mrs. Grupe who wanted to seat them all at her table. In later years New Canaan has seen many evi- dences of the same generosity in the members of this public spirited family.
The original property has since been broken
up but, up to a few years ago, included the house now owned by E. J. Guengerich. Prior to Mr. Guengerich's purchase, this perfect ex- ample of the saltbox was rented by the Browne family to a tenant farmer, Joseph Miller.
Most of the children who have grown up in the neighborhood have happy recollections of visits to the cows in the great red barn and of the fun of "helping" Joe as he went about the business of farming.
Those of our readers who miss the red barn buildings as a landmark on that corner may be interested to know that a young soldier just back from the war, H. Bilbert Stender, took it down and used the lumber to build a delightful "old" house on Brookside Road in Darien.
The old house has been changed very little except for necessary upkeep and installation of modern equipment. But for minor additions here and there; one sees it almost as it stood one hundred years ago. It is well tenanted with ghosts who creep and creak about at night, particularly winter nights, but they are happy ghosts. It has been called a smiling house whose rooms have more often than not been full to overflowing through the years.
THE NASH-GRIEBEL-KAHN-FISHER HOUSE
JANICE ADERER, Author
MRS. VANCE PACKARD, Artist
[October 25, 1951]
Although there is no complete documentary proof to substantiate anyone's claim, the lovely old one and a half story dwelling, with its five acres, standing right on Bald Hill Road South, has every physical evidence of being one of the earliest houses in New Canaan. Situated on the rise of a rolling meadow, it still has the original Cheese Spring stream coursing down behind it, the woodlands, and the road, in front of it.
Just who the builder was is hard to deter- mine, as there is no mention of the house in
the most authentic document of the time-the "Reverend Drummond's Visitation Book" of 1772; however, antiquarians who have exam- ined the house say that from the style of its architecture and its construction it could have been built as early as 1760.
In all probability its original date was 1796, as the evidence shows that, up until 1740, this was part of the "Common Land"; deeded to Nathan Nash and John Nash of Norwalk under "Commonage," for 233 shillings-land in the then-called Huckleberry Hills. Whether Nathan
495
The Nash-Griebel-Kahn-Fisher House
Nash, who married Susannah Hitchcock in 1767, built the house, or whether John Nash, or his son Noah, who married Anne Keeler in 1791, and who "in common and undivided with Isaac Nash and Aaron St. John" was deeded nine acres in the Huckleberry Hills by his father in 1796, was the builder, is hard to say.
However it is safe to say that one of the voung Nashes, whose cousins were to become New Canaan's leading silversmiths, built the house. It was still in Noah Nash's possession as late as 1811 when he sold it to Alfred Nash for $100 with "six acres more or less," in the now-called Whortleberry Hills section.
It was recorded then as "a certain piece of Woodland lying in New Canaan-bounded, Viz. Northerly by Seth Hickok, Easterly by Jonathan Middlebrook, Southerly by Hezekiah Hanford and Abijah St. John, and Westerly by Highway, with a small building standing thereon."
As can be seen from the picture above, the "small building" described, consisted of the main portion of the house, which has one of the simplest and loveliest roof lines in New Canaan, and which same feeling was carried out in the building of the north wing, added later. The original well on the right hand side was for the use of the house, while the second well in back of the brook was for cattle and both of these old wells are still useable.
As you entered the door you would have seen a low-beamed ceiling room, twenty-three feet long by fifteen feet wide, featuring on the north wall a beautiful field stone and mortar fireplace sloping down to the right, into which stairs were set, which led to two bedrooms above. The rafters of the bedrooms were of hand hewn logs, joined by large wooden pegs. Off from the living room facing the road, was a small bedroom, ten feet by ten feet, and in back of that, completing the original cube and adjacent to the central room, was the kitchen.
496
Alfred Nash proceeded to acquire large tracts of land from his neighbors, the DeFor- ests, Keelers, Middlebrooks, Hoyts, St. Johns and Hickoks, but it is interesting to note that the many different owners always reverted to the original six acres when buying the house. Although the land around about changed hands many times, until very early in the 1930s, this was the only house on the road, although in the old days the road was a well travelled highway, linking New Canaan and Wilton.
Even now, one can tramp back into the woods for several miles before coming to any habitation. Nevertheless, along the North Wil- ton Road, three-quarters of a mile up the high- way there was a thriving community, the center of which was the intersection, where stood the old Moses Hoyt homestead.
The last Nash to live in the house was Aaron, who sold, in 1833 for $180, "a tract of land with buildings on six acres more or less" to Arza Raymond, a descendant of Comfort Ray- mond. The second building was a barn, the foundation of which is now a wall of the upper garden.
The Raymond family farmed this tract for twenty years until Arza died, and his widow, Maria Burchard, and two children, Elizabeth and Lewis, sold it to a Mary and Benjamin Hanford of Norwalk for $150. They immedi- ately resold it to Henry Waterbury of New Canaan for $225. Elizabeth Raymond married Eleazer Lockwood Fancher of Lewisboro, a shoe manufacturer, who moved to New Canaan and became one of the large group who estab- lished New Canaan as a shoemaking center.
Most of the maps of the early 19th century neglected this little section completely. The first recognition of the house on any map was on a map made in 1856, which showed Henry Waterbury as owner. Waterbury proceeded to buy two adjoining tracts from Lydia Deforest and Adolphus P. Beers, to make his holding fifteen acres in all. Although he is not buried in the Waterbury cemetery on Jelliff Mill Road, Henry was undoubtedly a relation of the famous Deodate Waterbury, New Canaan's genius-who not only ran a mill but engaged
in woodworkings, looming and inventions of varied sorts.
However, ten years later the house was sold to Frederick Griebel, its best known owner, who was the great-uncle of Don Hersam, pub- lisher of the New Canaan Advertiser. Ever since then the place has been known as the old Griebel Farm and the road as Griebel Road, as Frederick Griebel, who also came down from Lewisboro, farmed intensively the four- teen acres, which he had bought for $767.50. This seems remarkable in view of the fact that he was working for Rogers and Comstock, manufacturers of custom clothes for men (whose establishment stood on the present site of Silliman's) and also had the handicap of having five daughters and only one son to help him.
According to the family Bible, Frederick Griebel was born in Baden Baden, Germany, in 1825, and came to settle next to another German family, the Joseph Schilchers, who were shoemakers and rented the present Guen- gerich salt box house on Benedict Hill from Charles Grupe a life long friend. The wonderful cooking of the five Grupe aunts, all of whom lived into their eighties, is still a legend in the family.
Perhaps because of the five daughters, but more likely because of the panic of 1893 and the resulting depression, the New Canaan Sav- ings Bank was forced to foreclose on the mort- gage in 1905. Subsequently the farm was bought and resold many times in the next fif- teen years, mostly by people who were living in and around White Plains, and who kept it for short periods.
Meanwhile the woodlands began to inch back, and the house to deteriorate to such an extent that at one point, when Farmer Murphy and Mr. Pike, who lived on North Wilton Road, went to visit it, the roof was practically gone and a family was living there in squalor.
When Walter B. Kahn of New York City bought the house and fourteen acres, as was the fashion of the era, for a weekend and sum- mer dwelling for himself, his wife and daughter Charlotte, it had been abandoned. He then proceeded to acquire, as had Alfred Nash
497
before him as much as was available of the surrounding land to the north, east and south on Cheese Spring Ridge to Benedict Hill Road, even as far as across the Wilton line; so that he eventually had a 167 acre tract.
Even at this time this was still the only house on the road, and the Kahns, liking the privacy of their little house "away-from-it-all," tell of going out on the road with pickaxe in hand to make the ruts (which still remain) even deeper, so as to discourage traffic. But soon more neighbors were to come, so that by 1944 there were five other houses on the road.
The house was completely rehabilitated in 1927 with central heating installed and a bath put where the original kitchen had been. Wooden stairs, which still remain a feature of the pine panelled room, were set by the side of the fireplace, and it was at this time that the north wing containing a kitchen, back porch and separate bedroom and bath were added, as was a large screened porch off the east side of the central room, overlooking the stream.
The exterior was stained dark brown with green trim and shutters, and the effect of the mammoth pine trees gave it the appearance of the "gingerbread cottage" in the story of Hansel and Gretel. Much care and attention were put into the grounds; a concrete pool was built in the woods several hundred yards to the south of the house, and an orchard was planted in the meadow.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.