Now & Then

New Canaan Now & Then: The Bliss Estate [Part 1 of 2]

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‘New Canaan Now & Then’ is sponsored by Brown Harris Stevens Realtors Joanne Santulli, Karen Ceraso, Bettina Hegel and Schuyler Morris. The Nature Center on Oenoke Ridge occupies the former Bliss Estate, or “Lindenfield” (because the driveway was lined with Linden trees). 

In 1875 Osborn E. Bright, an attorney from Brooklyn, bought eight acres of land on Oenoke Ridge from Joseph Fitch Silliman and built his summer residence. When finished, the new house stood very close to the neighbor’s cow barn, so close in fact that Bright’s wife, Maria, offered to build the neighbors a new barn if they would tear down the existing one.  A new barn could also not be built within 100 feet of the Brights’ land.  At the same time, the Brights also bought a piece of land from the same neighbor for $200. 

In 1899, the property was sold to Ms. Catherine A. Bliss from New York City for $22,500.  Over the next thirteen years, Ms. Bliss expanded the house and improved the grounds, adding specimen trees such as purple beech and Asia oaks. A full wing was added along with a large living room and a porch. The living room was so large that it was able to fit a thirty six foot rug, which was said to have been the second largest rug ever woven in America at the time. 

The house built by the Brights would eventually become a hall and a dining room with bedrooms on the second floor.

News

New Canaan Now & Then: 233 Weed St.

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‘New Canaan Now & Then’ is sponsored by Brown Harris Stevens Realtors Joanne Santulli, Karen Ceraso, Bettina Hegel and Schuyler Morris. The home in 1899 had an assessed value of $1,300 and the two acres of land were valued at $150, according to the land records. On April 13, 1899 Amanda Whitney sold the land to Julia Miller for $200. A year later, Ms. Miller sold the property for $250 to Henry E. Waterbury. Mr. Waterbury’s ancestor, Charles Waterbury, had owned the land at an earlier date.

News

New Canaan Now & Then: Stevens-Verleger-Deerson-Saxon House

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‘New Canaan Now & Then’ is sponsored by Brown Harris Stevens Realtors Joanne Santulli, Karen Ceraso, Bettina Hegel and Schuyler Morris. The property at 228 Weed Street has a unique history as its “built” date is unclear. 

The Stevens-Verleger-Deerson-Saxon House was apparently built prior to 1750 (although the land records date it to 1771). The property, located on the west side of Weed Street, just north of Knapp Lane, was owned by the Stevens family in the early 1700s. Among the first recorded transactions in the area were 21 acres to Obadiah Stevens in 1700 and 10 acres to Ephraim Stevens in 1790 – the combined parcels account for the land from what is now Old Stamford Road and Weed Street to the Noroton River. In 1946 Mrs. Robert D. Dumm reported in the New Canaan Historical Annual that the Stevens family could be traced in the 1640s to Stamford and through seven generations to Ann Stevens who married Ever Brown and lived in the house on Weed Street around 1840. 

Ann’s grandfather, Joseph, was the son of Obadiah Stevens.

Now & Then

New Canaan Now & Then: The Crofoot Ireland House

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‘New Canaan Now & Then’ is sponsored by Brown Harris Stevens Realtors Joanne Santulli, Karen Ceraso, Bettina Hegel and Schuyler Morris. The Crofoot Ireland House located at 634 Silvermine Road has a rich history and dates back to 1800 (the New Canaan Landmarks dates it at 1796). 

Silvermine in the early days was owned almost entirely by the St. John Family. In 1717, Ebenezer St. John deeded 20 acres on the east side of Canoe Hill to his son, Daniel.

Now & Then

New Canaan Now & Then: Charles Edwin Thomas Fairty ‘CET’ House

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‘New Canaan Now & Then’ is sponsored by Brown Harris Stevens Realtors Joanne Santulli, Karen Ceraso, Bettina Hegel and Schuyler Morris. The house located at 107 Old Stamford Road was built for Charles Edwin Thomas Fairty (aka CET or Ned). 

CET was born on March 26, 1887 to Charles Henry Fairty and Sophie Catherine Rover. Mr. Fairty married Lura Hoyt Raymond on June 2, 1909. Lura was born on October 14, 1886 to Walker Samuel Raymond and Annie Shaw Hoyt. An interesting aside is that she is reported to have worn her own wedding dress to the wedding of Lucy A. Scoville where she was the maid of honor, which seems odd in today’s world but was apparently common practice months after her own wedding.