Greenwich, Connecticut

Interesting articles

30 Things to love about Greenwich
‘Living in Cos Cob, CT’ NY Times article
‘Living in Riverside, CT’ NYTimes article
‘Living in Back-Country Greenwich’ NYTimes article

Helpful Links

Greenwich Schools
GreatSchools.org
City data — Greenwich
Niche — Greenwich
Greenwich Recreation
Metro North train information
Town of Greenwich

Greenwich Town Profile

Greenwich encompasses 67 square miles, of which nearly a third is water. It is bordered by Westchester County, NY to the north and west, Stamford to the east and Long Island Sound to the south. In July 2005, CNN/Money and Money magazine ranked Greenwich 12th on its list of the 100 Best Places to Live in the United States. Greenwich is easily accessed by car via Interstate-95, the Merritt Parkway or Route 1. The town is also served by Metro-North Railroad’s New Haven Line, with four stations: Greenwich, Cos Cob, Riverside and Old Greenwich. It’s just 40 minutes to Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan on the express train, and a 50-minute ride on the local. Amtrak stops in the adjacent city of Stamford.

Lifestyle

The town is well-loved and well-managed. It has worked to preserve its precious wetlands and open spaces, and offers its residents many top-tier recreational facilities. There are four beaches on the Long Island Sound: Greenwich Point, Byram Beach, Island Beach (Little Captain’s Island) and Great Captain Island. Old Greenwich’s Point Park hosts a community sailing center and rental area. The town owns the 18-hole Griffith E. Harris golf course, named after “Griff” Harris, First Selectman from 1952 to 1958. There are also eight private country clubs in town with golf courses.

There is plenty of shopping in Greenwich, highlighted by the famed Greenwich Avenue, a dream shopping destination for residents and tourists alike. The Avenue offers selections from Madison Avenue giants like Saks Fifth Avenue and Ralph Lauren, upscale chains like Gap and J. Crew and locally owned boutiques that offer one-of-a-kind handmade clothing and decorative items.

Greenwich restaurants offer a cosmopolitan mix of award-winning European and British fare, urban nouveau cuisine, Asian delicacies, international pubs, four-star hotel restaurants and family-run bakeries and bistros.

Real Estate and Neighborhoods

The town of Greenwich is large enough to have many distinct neighborhoods and villages. These include Byram, Downtown Greenwich, Cos Cob, Riverside, Old Greenwich and Back-Country Greenwich.

Cos Cob, Riverside and Old Greenwich are situated on the Long Island Sound. With their own train stations and zip codes, they each feel like towns unto themselves.

Home styles include chic brick luxury townhouses, sprawling estates, historic homes, centuries-old farms and modern loft condominiums. Due to its affluence and proximity to New York City, Greenwich has long been associated with celebrities and business tycoons.

A Brief History of Greenwich, CT

The Native Americans used Greenwich as a summer camp of sorts, where they could linger in the woodlands, then feast on the bounty of Long Island Sound. The coastline was dominated by rocky hills that had been carved out by glaciers more 15,000 years prior, with resulting ridges and rivers that ran to the seacoast.

In the early 17th century, Europeans set up trade routes between Boston and New Amsterdam (which would become New York), and in 1640 a group of British settlers bought land from the native inhabitants along the coast. The long thin stretch of beach was called “Elizabeth’s Neck” in honor of founder Elizabeth Fones Withrop, a member of Massachusetts governor Winthrop’s family. Adjacent to this stretch of coastland, the Dutch claimed land under the authority of the colony of New Netherland, so part of Greenwich was actually a Dutch colony until 1650. In 1672 another stretch of land, a horse pasture along the “Myanos” (Mianus) River, was purchased from the natives and named Horseneck. Relations between immigrants and Natives were not always peaceful, however, and coastal Connecticut saw its share of local battles for land.

In 1779, during the American Revolution, Greenwich son General Israel Putnam made a daring escape from the British, riding his horse down breakneck cliffs. His ride is memorialized in the Town Seal, and the name of coastal Route 1, Putnam Avenue. Greenwich also celebrates the famous maritime town of Greenwich, England, home of the Greenwich meridian of Zero degrees longitude and the world-recognized Greenwich Mean Time — hence the image of a clock as a symbol for Greenwich.