By the 1890s, painters were boarding the train to Cos Cob and lodging at the Bush-Holley House, a circa-1730 colonial saltbox above the harbor. There John Henry Twachtman taught what are believed to be among the first American Impressionist painting classes in the country, and artists including J. Alden Weir, Theodore Robinson, and Childe Hassam gathered to paint the marshes, the harbor, and the light. Their Cos Cob Art Colony, Connecticut's first, ran into the 1920s and helped shape American art; the house is now a National Historic Landmark cared for by the Greenwich Historical Society. In the twentieth century Greenwich became the flagship town of Connecticut's Gold Coast — wooded estates above the Sound, a celebrated avenue of shops, and an elegance that has always preferred restraint to display.
The Siwanoy, a Munsee-Lenape people, lived along this shore long before the colonists, with a summer fishing camp out on the point that is now Greenwich Point. In 1640 English settlers established the town on land purchased from the Siwanoy, in the area first called Horseneck. Greenwich grew slowly through the colonial era as a farming and coastal-trade town until the Revolution put it on the map: on February 26, 1779, during the Battle of Horse Neck, General Israel Putnam was cut off from his men by British cavalry and — by the celebrated account still carried on the Town of Greenwich seal — escaped by riding his horse straight down the steep, rocky face of Put's Hill, where no dragoon dared follow. The railroad arrived in 1848 and changed everything, turning Greenwich into a wealthy New York summer retreat. It was that summer-resort era, and the luminous coastal landscape, that drew the artists.
Why People Visit Greenwich Connecticut
- Tour the Bush-Holley House and the Greenwich Historical Society to stand where Connecticut's first art colony painted American Impressionism into being.
- Visit Putnam Cottage (Knapp's Tavern) and the marker at Put's Hill, where General Putnam made his famous 1779 ride.
- See the Bruce Museum, Greenwich's museum of art and natural history near the downtown green.
- Walk the 2.2-mile loop at Greenwich Point (Tod's Point), a 147-acre peninsula with skyline views across Long Island Sound.
- Explore the trails and overlooks of the Greenwich Audubon Center and Mianus River Park.
- Stroll Greenwich Avenue, the downtown's celebrated hill of shops and galleries.
