Their home was the Holley House — today the Bush-Holley House — a colonial saltbox built around 1728 on a hill above Cos Cob Harbor where the Mianus River runs out to the Sound. Josephine and Edward Holley ran it as a boarding house, and the students who came to study with Twachtman took rooms there. In 1896 a young painter named Elmer MacRae arrived as one of those students, fell in love with the Holleys' daughter Constant, married her in 1900, and together they kept the boardinghouse going — and the colony alive — for two more decades.
The colony faded by the 1920s, but its home was saved. The Greenwich Historical Society bought the Bush-Holley House in 1957 and opened it as a museum the next year; in 1991 it was named a National Historic Landmark. It still tells two stories — the New Nation and the Art Colony — and hangs works by Twachtman, Hassam, Lawson, and MacRae in its galleries, so the painters who once boarded here are still on the walls.
Why People Visit Cos Cob
Cos Cob offers art heritage and green escapes in a small, walkable village. Visitors pair the Bush-Holley House and its Impressionist collection with river paths, harbor overlooks, and quiet historic streets. It is tranquil, residential, and close to the water, with year-round appeal in its parks, paths, and public spaces. History and everyday life sit side by side here, from the saltbox over the harbor to the trails along the Mianus.
