Now & Then: The Pink House

1057 Silvermine Road

There is some debate as to who built the original dwelling on 1057 Silvermine Road, known as “The Pink House” in 1709.

Some believe it was Jacob St. John, who was a  wealthy landowner in Silvermine who helped found the city of Norwalk. However, it is more widely believed that another settler from Norwalk, John Kellogg and his family, built the home and settled in it. These historical claims date back over 300 years and are almost impossible to prove now, but the main structure that stands today was probably built by Stephan Gregory in the mid-19th century.

The transfer of property was as follows: A legal dispute between Jacob St. John and John Kellog over the ownership of the land caused Kellogg to petition the newly formed Canaan Parish to allow his land to remain in Norwalk. The petition was denied, but the parties reached an agreement that Kellogg’s heirs would sell the property back to St. John upon Kellogg’s death, which happened in 1761. Jacob St. John then resold the property to a farmer, Nathaniel Lockwood, in 1773. Lockwood then resold the property back to the St. John family in 1781, who kept it until 1834, when Stephen Gregory bought it. Gregory, with the help of a contractor, Thaddeus Bett, built the framework of the house that is there today.

The records around this time are somewhat unclear, in part because the 1860 New Canaan census was notoriously inaccurate. But it is clear that Gregory built the house, and lived in it with his wife, Cynthia (Hoyt) Hyatt. When he died in 1862, the property passed to Cynthia, who lived in the house until her death in 1892. However, in 1876, she gave the property to her son, Hyatt Gregory.

During this century of continual swapping, the area of Silvermine developed and industrialized; houses and farms were more densely located. One of the new businesses to spring up was a small general store that Hyatt Gregory ran out of his home cellar. He sold meats, tobacco, and produce. The store was especially known for the root beer Hyatt produced from local ingredients found near the Silvermine River. Through the World Wars and Great Depression, the property changed hands a couple of times with the most notable owner being artist and author Agnes Foster Wright who briefly lived there in 1923. After WWII, Robert L. Polk and his family bought the dilapidated house for $36,000 and immediately began extensive renovations. First, they ripped up the floorboards and increased the square footage. They then removed the woodfire heating stove and replaced it with a gas heating system throughout the home. They also completely redid the interior and exterior of the house by replacing most of the 19th-century furniture and fixtures with contemporary ones. They also replaced the old outdoor wood planks that made up the exterior walls with a colonial wood stacked design, and added the signature pink paint which makes the Kellogg-Hyatt-Polk historical house so distinct.

“New Canaan Now & Then” is presented in partnership with the New Canaan Museum & Historical Society.