Delamar Magazine | by Georgette Gouveia | Spring 2025 Issue
Greenwich Historical Society is one organization that grasps the import of the Roman philosopher and historian Seneca’s advice to “combine all times.” Its library and archives – containing more than 40,000 items, including personal papers, manuscripts, genealogies and maps- are a rich repository of Greenwich’s past that also helps today’s homeowners connect to property records. Its exhibits and events like its Juneteenth celebration focus visitors on the past and present. And its eye is ever on the future through its support of Greenwich’s business community and newcomers to the town.
Or as the historical society’s website says: “We preserve and interpret Greenwich history to strengthen the community’s connection co our past, to each other, and to our future.”
Founded in 1931 on two acres overlooking the Mianus River in the Cos Cob section of Greenwich, the historical society has four key structures – the Bush-Holley House, the 1732 saltbox-style residence of the mercantile Bush family that in the late-19th and early- 20th centuries became the summer home of a group of American Impressionist painters known as the Cos Cob Art Colony; the Bush Storehouse (1805), now the historical society’s offices; the Barn, now the Vanderbilt Education Center; and a 10,000-square-foot, state-of-the- art Museum & Library Building (2018), whose store and cafe lie in the connected former Toby’s Tavern, a 19th-century railroad hotel, said Debra L. Mecky, the historical society’s CEO and executive director.
Colorful, informally arranged flower, herb and vegetable gardens recreate those planted by Constant Holley MacRae and her artist-husband, Elmer Livingston MacRae, who ultimately ran the summer boardinghouse for the art colony, which included Childe Hassam, Ernest Lawson, Theodore Robinson, J. Alden Weir and John Henry Twatchman. (The Twatchman catalog raisonne of more than 750 works began debuting on the historical society’s website in 2021, with his “Front Porch,” an 1896-99 oil on canvas of the front porch of the artist’s Greenwich home being a recent acquisition.)
In keeping with the historical society’s mission to tell the fuller story of Greenwich for a broader audience, Bush-Holley House tours also include the chamber where some of the Bush family’s 16 enslaved servants may have slept, with a record of their names – a departure from many of the slave records kept in the South. (Emancipation laws in Connecticut required the recording of all enslaved children born after 1784, Mecky said.)
That colonial period comes alive with the exhibit Greenwich During the Revolutionary War: A Frontier Town on the Front Lines.
“We were on the New York/Connecticut border,” she said of Greenwich’s strategic role in the American Revolution. “The exhibit considers the complexities of that time, the pressure to announce your loyalties and what that meant.”
The exhibit accompanied by a talk by Joseph Ellis, author of “‘The Cause: The American Revolution and its Discontents,” and related TimeTravelers KidStudio programs.
But the historical society – which has a full-time staff of 24 and an operating budget of $2 million funded by members, its board, and the larger community – is also very much focused on the present and the future. Its Oct. 24th gala at the Round Hill Club honored Scott Mitchell, who with Tyler Mitchell leads the luxury Mitchell Stores, a multigenerational family business that includes Richards on Greenwich Avenue in Greenwich.
“Honoring Scott and the Mitchell family at this year’s ‘History in the Making’ event triggered an idea to promote Greenwich Avenue,” a spokeswoman said. “While details are not finalized, the historical society in 2025 is planning to offer various tours, possibly guided and self guided, that will provide context on the history of the avenue’s dynamic and evolving retail sector and the structures housing it. This initiative will be an extension of the ‘Discover Greenwich’ series of interactive programs that promotes a sense of place and belonging, sparks dialogue and inspires meaningful connections across our diverse community.”
It’s one more way, added Dianne Niklaus, the historical society’s director of marketing and communications, in which the society explores “how the past informs the present and the future.”
For more, visit greenwichhiscory.org.
