Extremely alluring
No town is more westerly, more southerly, more exclusive, more bountiful
Second in an occasional series exploring the region's extreme geographic points.
"GHS, it's not real" reads a graffiti tag on a signpost on Route 1 outside of town. Greenwich High School is just across the road. But the slogan, perhaps some teenager's existential cry of despair, could pertain to all of Greenwich.
Situated in the corner of Connecticut that nuzzles New York state, Greenwich is home to New England's western- and southernmost points. Its history reaches to Revolutionary America. But gone are the days when this "gateway to New England" felt like a stereotypical Colonial village, let alone part of the six-state region.
"Those towns have steeples and town greens," said Thomas Gorin, president of Cleveland, Duble & Arnold, the town's oldest real estate company. "We've lost all that."
Rather than professing a flinty New England identity, Greenwich is more oriented toward New York City. "Hartford doesn't consider us to be part of Connecticut," Gorin said of the state capital. "They like our taxes."
The 50-year Greenwich resident explained that the old farms have disappeared, as has the town's manufacturing past. Even the era of 300-acre estates is largely over, the land long since carved into smaller lots. "It's all gone." And in its place is a high-end, well-heeled bubble on the shores of Long Island Sound.
Like many New England towns, Greenwich's history runs deep. In 1640, Siwanoy Indians got the short end of the stick when they traded the land that became Old Greenwich for 25 overcoats. One of the founding settlers named the area after his birthplace, Greenwich, England. The original hamlets of Old Greenwich, Cos Cob, Glenville, Riverside, Byram, and Banksville now make up the 50-square-mile town.
In early spring, Greenwich's 32-mile waterfront is dotted with still-shrink-wrapped yachts in boatyards. Once these docks transported goods to the city. This trade gave way in the 19th century to transporting summering Manhattanites, including pioneering painters of the American Impressionist movement.
At the art colony at The Holley House in Cos Cob (now the Bush-Holley Historic Site), Childe Hassam, John Henry Twachtman, Theodore Robinson, J. Alden Weir, Elmer MacRae, and others rented rooms, summered, taught and took classes, and painted.
Since then, and the advent of the commuter rail, the town has practiced living large - almost as large as the Big Apple just 45 minutes away.
"We are a Wall Street-driven town," Gorin said. "It's a hedge fund capital." Another key indicator of cultural identity: Residents tend to be Yankee, not Red Sox, fans.
Despite its big-city ties, Greenwich in some ways clings to its small-town past. It's still governed by three selectmen and a representative town meeting, this despite 61,000 residents, more than in many Connecticut cities.
The "unreality" of Greenwich begins as a visitor drives the meandering roads between Interstate 95 and the Merritt Parkway. Larger plots may have been carved into two- or four-acre lots, but these smaller parcels still sport some impressive houses.
"We have rich people and big homes," Gorin said. "There are great architects and great builders who can make you a dream house." Property typically sells for $2 million to $3 million, he said. "But it doesn't take too many $30 million homes to skew the average."
On Greenwich Avenue, the central commercial street, some storefronts resemble castles, adorned with turrets and crenellations; others have faux Edwardian or Tudor facades. The Whole Foods store is housed in a renovated Rockefeller estate building. The YMCA could be mistaken for a Greek temple.
On a street crammed with what Gorin called "high-powered shopping," pedestrians can window shop from Lacoste to
"We've become a destination for shopping," Gorin said. When asked what visitors do in town, Mary Ann Morrison, Chamber of Commerce president and CEO, said, "They gawk."
Marooned among shops named Splurge and Shabby Chic are a smattering of humbler barber shops, bars, and markets, throwbacks to the days when Greenwich had its Woolworth's and three mom-and-pop pharmacies, and the nearby Condé Nast printing plant employed 1,600 people. Now the plant is a Hyatt hotel.
Bestever Cleaners, whose building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, has been in business for 50 years. Bon Ton Fish Shop has hung on for 106 years in its downtown location. "We've been able to survive, I guess," said Tony Norado, who has owned the business for 22 years. "But I may not be able to survive with the rents."
North of town near the high school are the leading religious institutions: Christ Church Greenwich, looking like a Gothic college at Oxford; Temple Shalom, looming like a luxury office park; and the towering stone spire of Second Congregational Church, said to be the highest point on the coast between Boston and New York. George Washington stopped here in 1781, supposedly to admire the view.
If designer fashions are not your bag, the tree-lined town center is still lovely to behold. Cars putter down the main drag, slowed by four police officers who direct traffic by hand.
"I don't think there's any other place like that," said Philip Walkup, pausing on his bicycle to admire the traffic cop. "This gives it a small town feel."
Residents may need to drive to get here from more rural parts of town (sidewalks and bike paths are scarce), but once downtown, the vibe is pedestrian-focused and peaceful.
"People are friendly," said Officer Danielle Petruso, patrolling on foot the village of Old Greenwich, east of downtown and less colonized by chain shops. "You drive down the street, and people wave to you."
If it is the gateway to New England, Greenwich's door can sometimes feel closed. A visitor taking photos was questioned by police and asked to show identification. Sound Beach Avenue in Old Greenwich leads to the remote town beach at Greenwich Point Park, one of the few waterfront spots beyond the whine of I-95. Once closed to the public, a lawsuit forced the town to open the park to out-of-towners (who still need to obtain a day pass from Town Hall and pay for parking in high season).
New England's southernmost point, Great Captain's Island, lies about a mile and a quarter offshore. But to reach its beaches, bird sanctuary, and 1829 lighthouse, you either have to own your own boat or have connections. The town-run summertime ferry is for residents and their guests only, making the island effectively inaccessible to outsiders. "If it were open to the public, the town would have to provide more ferries," said Morrison.
As for Byram Point, the westernmost point of the region, the place is protected by Private Property and No Trespassing signs.
But the town is eager to dispel the myth that every resident is wealthy. "The hedge funds have not lined the streets in gold," said Morrison, who is quick to mention the generations of families from "what you would call the working class" and Greenwich's units of subsidized housing.
"It's great place to live," she said, "if you can afford the admission price."
Ethan Gilsdorf, a freelance writer in Somerville, can be reached at ethan@ethangilsdorf.com. 