Greenwich Connecticut Vintage Retro Back Printed Art Series Cotton Tee - Black Logo

What's with Putnam's Ride? Look closely at the seal of the Town of Greenwich and you'll find a man on horseback plunging down a cliff. That is "Old Put" — General Israel Putnam, the sixty-one-year-old Revolutionary War general — on the morning of February 26, 1779. By the local account, Putnam was at Knapp's Tavern (today's Putnam Cottage) when British cavalry under General Tryon surprised the town. Cut off from his outnumbered men, Putnam spurred his horse to the brow of a steep rocky slope above the old Post Road — Put's Hill — and rode straight down it, threading the stone face while the dragoons reined up at the top, unwilling to follow. He escaped to raise the alarm. Historians have long debated the exact details, but Greenwich never doubted the spirit of it: the ride is on the town seal, the police patch, and the name of half the landmarks in town. It is the moment Greenwich chose to define itself by — daring to go where no one dared follow.

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.