Earthquake in Greenwich: 1935

by Jeffrey Bingham Mead
Greenwich Time. Looking Back: January 29, 1995

Like the rest of Greenwich, George E. Brush and his family in Cos Cob were sound asleep when, without warning, they received quite a surprise.

In the early morning hours of Nov. 1, 1935, the stillness of the night was broken by the rattling of windows and pictures on the walls. Awakening quickly, Brush thought that heavy winds shook his house, but as it turned out, there was no wind at all.

Brush and his family, along with the scores of others across Greenwich, shared something in common that morning with millions across 17 states and eastern Canada. An earthquake of at least two tremors shook a major portion of the continent, one of the few times such an event has ever taken place here. The first tremor reportedly lasted 15 seconds, followed by another one a half minute later.

Superintendent of Schools Edwin C. Andrews, a neighbor of Brush in Cos Cob, likewise was awakened by the shaking earth beneath his home. He recounted the experience to a local reporter in Greenwich, describing the arrival of the early morning jolt "as though someone were shaking me."

Communities across Connecticut and beyond were shaken awake; dishes and windows clattered and furniture slid across floors.

As you may expect, newspapers offices and police headquarters were inundated with more than their usual share the frenzied and frightened callers. Some people, alarmed by the unexpected rumbling of the earth bedrock, ran out of their homes into the cold autumn darkness clad only in their night apparel.

But what's more puzzling about this quake was that for some unknown reason, it did not register on equipment at Yale University's Peabody Museum in New Haven.

Jeffrey Bingham Mead is a freelance writer and direct descendant of one of the towns founding families. He grew up the backcountry Greenwich and is a member of the Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich.