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.
Where American Impressionism found its light — a 1640 town on the Long Island Sound shore. Greenwich, Connecticut is the place where American Impressionism took root. From the 1890s into the 1920s, painters drawn to the harbors, tidal marshes, and winding rivers of the Greenwich shore gathered at the Bush-Holley House to form the first art colony in Connecticut, the Cos Cob Art Colony — a cradle of the American Impressionist movement. But the town's story runs much deeper than its painters: settled in 1640, Greenwich is among the oldest towns in Connecticut and the southwesternmost municipality in all of New England, and it carries a Revolutionary War legend on its very town seal.
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.
