Dear Sentinel Editor,
Your report about the new Arch Street Task Force says that the former Arch Street Teen Center “originally served as a horse barn for the Bruce estate.”
In fact, the former teen center was built in 1912, four years after Robert M. Bruce died and left his 100acre estate to the Town of Greenwich for a park and a museum. The Bruce estate stretched from Steamboat Road to Indian Field Road; it did not include the peninsula on Arch Street where the former teen center is located. The Town purchased that peninsula in the 1940’s; it was not a gift. In 1912, Arch Street ended at the former teen center. Arch Street did not continue across Rocky Neck Creek to Steamboat Road. So the former teen center was not a horse barn for the Bruce estate.
Furthermore, the former teen center is not special. It was built as a lumber mill in a lumberyard. By 1930 it was a factory producing airplane fuselages. The building is not protected by the Historic District Commission. There are better examples of historic mills in Greenwich.
Best regards,
Peter Berg
(The writer was chair of the RTM Land Use Committee for 10 years. He served on the task force that considered the sale of Town air rights at Greenwich Plaza. He is a former trustee of Greenwich Library, board member of the Greenwich Land Trust, and member of the BET.)
