Spotlight on Greenwich — ToC World | Squash Tournament of Champions

For centuries, Greenwich, Connecticut has been among our country’s most prominent and appealing towns.

It was in fact founded in 1640 and named after Greenwich, England, and according to most experts, the game of squash is said to have originated in England’s prisons in the 19th century.

Besides being a beautiful suburban community, Greenwich, just thirty miles from New York City, has had more than its share of notable accomplishments, indeed making the town special.

It’s a town rich in history when it comes to its people, places and events.

DID YOU KNOW?

The Feake-Ferris House in Greenwich is the 3rd oldest home in the state of Connecticut, dating back to 1645.

The American Broadcasting Company and the Life Savers Corporation were founded by Greenwich resident Edward J. Noble who lived on Round Hill Road between 1924 – 1958.

There are 11 elementary schools and 3 middle schools in Greenwich, 4 of which are magnet elementary schools and 1 is a magnet middle school.

There were 714 homes sold in Greenwich above $5,000,000 in the last 10 years. 102 were above $10,000,000 in the same period.

There are 35 properties located partially or entirely in Greenwich that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Abraham Pierson was a Congregational minister in Greenwich in the late 1690s for three years before he went on to become one of the founders of Yale University.

Copper Beech Farm was the highest-ever sale in Greenwich at $138,830,000, selling in August 2023. Over a hundred years ago, it was owned by the Lauder Greenway family. George Lauder was a co-founder with Andrew Carnegie of U.S. Steel.

At the first United States census in 1790, Greenwich’s population was 3,132. Today it stands at 63,500.

Robert Trent Jones designed Greenwich’s only public golf course known as “The Griff.” Named for former First Selectman Griff Harris, it opened in July 1965.

The Grand List, (which is the total assessed value of all the residential and commercial properties and motor vehicles in town), in 1922 came to a total net assessed value of $64 million, and in 2022 was $34 billion.

The Willowmere neighborhood was so named because it is where Amasa Marks, a New York businessman, planted groves of willow trees. Their wood being of lighter weight was used to make artificial limbs for wounded Civil War veterans from Greenwich.

The 3-acre island called Tweed Island was named for William “Boss” Tweed, notorious New York politician and criminal and Greenwich resident, who built his famous Americus Club as a summer retreat on what is now a point of land between Smith Cove and Indian Harbor.

Since its inception in 1987, the Greenwich Historical Society’s “Greenwich Landmarks” program has designated 322 homes town-wide. These are historically or architecturally significant structures unique to Greenwich, each receiving a specially designed plaque.

Bolling Air Force Base, near Washington, D.C., is named in honor of Raynal C. Bolling, a Greenwich resident who was the first American officer to die in France in World War I.

In January 1946, Greenwich had been chosen as the site for the soon-to-be-built United Nations Headquarters. By the fall of that year, the U.N gave up the idea after a town-wide referendum was held strongly opposing it.

“The Sugar King of America” once called Greenwich home. Henry O. Havemeyer founded the American Sugar Refining Company (today’s Domino Sugar). When his mansion, Hilltop, was torn down in the 1940s, Gene Tunney, world heavyweight champ from 1926-28, developed the 195 acres into an area of single-family homes for returning World War II veterans.