The house was old long before the painters found it. It began about 1728 as the home of the mercantile Bush family, a classic New England saltbox on the harbor, and it stood through the era of the New Nation in the years after the Revolution. The village around it grew as a working Mianus-River waterfront — wharves, a mill, a shipyard, and oyster boats on the Sound — generations before anyone set up an easel on the riverbank.
The colony mattered far beyond the village. Twachtman, Weir, and Hassam were among the founders of The Ten American Painters in 1897, the group that carried Impressionism and the new styles across the country, and writers like Willa Cather and Lincoln Steffens stayed at the Holley House as well. For a few remarkable decades, a tiny Connecticut waterfront village sat close to the center of American art. Historians still count Cos Cob among the most important of the early American art colonies, its story set down in Susan Larkin's study, 'The Cos Cob Art Colony: Impressionists on the Connecticut Shore.'
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.
