Time to Preserve Character that Made Greenwich Great (Founders Day, 1985)

by Jeffrey Bingham Mead
Greenwich Time: July 18, 1985

The front porch of the Bush Holley House, Cos Cob. August, 2014.

Today, Greenwich is celebrating its 345th birthday, and occasion popularly known called Founders' Day. Founders' Day marks the commemoration of one of our most vigorous but some traditions, namely, to hold in highest esteem and honor our ancestors who first settled this town.

America as a whole, and New England towns such as ours in particular, are very fortunate in that our beginning was distinct and authenticated. In looking over the history of our town, we find a community which constitutes those qualities, shared values and principles that helped make the Town of Greenwich unique in the likely spectrum of old New England towns.

While Founders' Day is not a legal holiday, it is a day that has been and still is loved and honored, an event commemorated by our local media, public meetings, churches, and other functions both private and public. The town in the past has held large parades featuring floats, and marching bands. Retailers have been known to dress in period costume, and indeed let us not forget the bargains galore during the annual Greenwich Sidewalk Sales Days.

Putnam Hill, as viewed from the steeple of the Second Congregational Church looking eastward. Circa 1913. 

But Founders' Day, especially for me, has a broader and deeper significance. This occasion calls upon our citizens to honor the early settlers of this town who came at great risks and noble motives, namely, the love of freedom and the hatred of oppression. In its broadest sense we on Founders' Day glorify these hard-working people who abandoned their native lands and devoted their lives to the founding and continuance of values and principles that would help this nation become the greatest home of political and religious history in the world.

Selleck Grist Mill, Old Mill Road in Round Hill. November 11, 2014. 

The modernization of Greenwich has hastened the vanishing phenomenon of a small-town life, yet I assert that are small-town values are part of a continuing heritage and must be preserved as much as any historic building or landmark. Such an endeavor at traditional preservation entails responsibility and common concern.

Thorton Wilder and our own Anya Seton, to name two, immortalized in literature that sort of idealization of the Elm tree-lined village and enlisted the reader to the passionate sense and subtle qualities of the small town soul. The phenomenon of the small town past feature chapters in innovative thinking and action that met the needs of its inhabitants, and such patterns in our small town heritage are very much worth commemorating and saving.

Stanwich Chapel (former the Stanwich Congregational Church). November, 2014. 

What I protest on this occasion is a cry heard many times before, in particular, an appeal for our citizens to again cherish our countryside and our shared values now blighted by excessive commercial development and local exploitation. Our Yankee traditions, unique cultural phenomenons, I think are worth preserving and recalling on occasions such as Founders' Day.

A vigorous and growing town such as ours must preserve its historic heritage and pass it on to succeeding generations. Our local history tells the story of Greenwich's growth, its trials, accomplishments, failures and goals. How well we safeguard and interpret this priceless legacy will determine the kind of town we shall be tomorrow.

Old barn off Stanwich Road. November, 2014.

Indifference to overdevelopment is the greatest enemy and threat to our uniqueness and values. Political leadership and consensus is what we need in substance, not politically expedient management which only leaves us rudderless and disheartened. 

When the Greenwich Historical Society took over the Bush-Holley House in 1957, Richard Howland, then president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, urged the society to "preserve the soul as well as the body" of the Bush-Holley House itself. 

Interior of the Round Hill Store. July, 2014. 

In the great spirit of Mr. Howland's wise words, I believe it is now time to preserve the foundations, shared values, our vital open spaces, indeed very body and soul of the Town of Greenwich. There is no substitute for the virtue of Yankee ingenuity. We must take ourselves to task in the same spirit of hard work, faith, perseverance and reverence of our heritage that helps found this town. I call upon those on this Founders' Day who, like me, love this town for its Yankee heritage and not for its empty, purported snob appeal to come together and rebuild. The time for such a vision to prosper is now.