By Bill Drake
The Bruce Museum was built as a private home in 1853. Robert Moffat Bruce bought the house and property in 1858. He was a wealthy textile merchant and member of the New York Cotton Exchange.
In 1908 he deeded the house and park to the town of Greenwich, stipulating that they be used as “a natural history, historical, and art museum for the use and benefit of the public.”
The generous Mr. Bruce also gave Greenwich a town hall (today’s Senior Center on Greenwich Avenue) and a hospital (today’s Nathaniel Witherell home on Parsonage Road).
Bruce Park is Greenwich’s oldest public park. Mr. Bruce’s gift included his house (today’s Museum) and about 100 acres of land along the south side of the railroad. Originally, Bruce Park was a wild marsh. Mr. Bruce improved the land, employing a landscape architect and hundreds of workers to create ponds, raise the surrounding land, fill in ravines and plant diverse shrubbery and specimen trees. By the end of the 1930s, the recreational opportunities in Bruce Park included a golf driving range, swings, horseshoes, handball, lawn bowling, basketball, skating, archery, handball, paddle tennis, ping pong, and volleyball, as well as picnicking.
In 1958, a portion of the park was taken by the State of Connecticut for the construction of I-95, in return for $650,000. First Selectman Griffith E. Harris suggested that the money be used to purchase land in northern Greenwich on King Street for a golf course, so Mr. Bruce is partly to thank for the Griffith Harris Golf Course, too.
Byram Park was the second public park developed in Greenwich. In 1918, Silas D. and Willis M. Ritch sold their family’s stone quarry to the town. With this purchase, the town intended to create a park that would provide a bathing beach. The 20-acre wedge-shaped Ritch parcel was situated between Byram Shore Road and Long Island Sound.
In 1975, the Town added 10 acres to Byram Park by acquiring the adjacent waterfront property to the east from William Rosenwald, an executive at SearsRoebuck. The Rosenwald property included a mansion (now vanished) and the Rosenwald family’s pool. Generations of residents have enjoyed this small pool. At several spots within the park, remnants of the original quarry can be seen in the form of sheered vertical granite walls. These look down on the town’s Teufel ball field and the location of the beautiful new pool complex presently being constructed. Located in the southwestern-most part of town at the edge of the Byram residential neighborhood, Byram Park stretches across 30 acres directly on Long Island Sound. The park has facilities for boating, picnicking, tennis and baseball, and offers great views of the Sound.
John Kennedy Tod was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1852 and emigrated to New York in 1879. He prospered as a merchant banker and after his marriage in 1882 he commenced to purchase land at Greenwich Point from the Ferris family who had owned it for over 200 years. In Tod’s day, Greenwich Point was a series of low-lying islands reachable only at high tide, surrounded by marshes and a creek.
By 1887, Mr. Tod had acquired the entire peninsula, where he built causeways, gardens, roads, a gatehouse, several beach cottages, a nine-hole golf course, and a large mansion. He invited local visitors to dig clams and oysters from his property and to enjoy his golf course called Innis Arden. He also invited the nurses of the Presbyterian Hospital to enjoy the large beach cottage on weekends. He died childless in 1925, and ultimately his heirs bequeathed the estate to the Presbyterian Hospital.
The town leased the sandy beach for bathing in 1942 and purchased the whole 148 acres of the Point in 1945 for $550,000. This large sum was appropriated over five years. Generations of Greenwich residents have enjoyed this beautiful park, thanks to the generosity of Mr. Tod and the foresight of Town leaders such as Eugene Loughlin and Wilbur Peck, who were first selectmen at the time.
A sunny spring day would be a great time to visit Bruce Park, Byram Park or Greenwich Point. These beautiful parks are among the best aspects of our town. Not to mention the Pinetum, the new Cos Cob Park, Island Beach, Mianus River Park, the Babcock Preserve, Great Captain’s Island, Binney Park….
Bill Drake, a member of the Board of Estimate and Taxation, has enjoyed Greenwich’s lovely parks for many years.
