New Canaan Now & Then: Meadowridge Farm

‘New Canaan Now & Then’ is sponsored by Brown Harris Stevens Realtors Joanne Santulli, Karen Ceraso, Bettina Hegel and Schuyler Morris.

Meadowridge

Meadowridge Farm located on Ponus Ridge was not the first house built on this property, but rather was rebuilt in the 1930s because the original home was affected by the newly planned Merritt Parkway. 

Preliminary studies began in 1926, and the road was constructed in 1938. Located south of the Merritt, roughly across Ponus from Hawks Hill Road, the property, owned by Florence Lockwood Reid and her husband, William Henry Reid, was a massive parcel of land at the time. The original home is referenced in the 1923 Countryside Social List (the social register of people with summer homes) and was referred to as Henry Reid’s summer home at South Ponus Street (Ponus Ridge was also known as Ponus Street at the time). 

Mrs. Reid, born on September 20, 1872, was the daughter of Frederick W. Lockwood. Mr. Lockwood was a friend and business associate of John D. Rockefeller and is considered one of the first summer residents of New Canaan. He was one of the founders of the New Canaan Library and also of the Historical Society. See Sept. 7, 2023 “Now & Then Rose Hill” for more information about Frederick Weed Lockwood.

In 1912, Mrs. Reid purchased 57 acres of land from William P. Brown; another  parcel of 27 acres (in Stamford) on August 12, 1912;  a parcel of 28 acres of land in New Canaan from Flora Hawks that coincided with transferring 27 acres to Flora Hawks in Stamford and a 7 acre parcel of land from James Scofield in Stamford. At the time of her death in 1916, at the young age of 44, Ms. Reid owned property from Eden Road to present day Skyview.  After Florence’s death, Mr. Reid acquired 9 acres on January 1, 1917 from Louis and Victoria Hojas and 3 acres on August 21, 1917 from John H. Burke. The majority of the entire property was sold to Eleanor Dominick after Ms. Reid’s death in 1916. Ms. Dominick was the wife of Gayer G. Dominick, a senior partner in the investment firm Dominick & Dominick. He served three terms as a governor of the New York Stock Exchange and was a director of many corporations.

William Henry Reid was born in Mount Sterling Kentucky and was president of a railroad for ten years until 1928-1929. He was well known for breeding trotting horses. After Mrs. Reid’s death in 1916, he married Marguerite Amelia Lockwood on July 19, 1920 in New York City. The new Mrs. Reid was the orphaned niece of his first wife. Marguerite was the daughter of Robert Grumbrecht & Amelia Bowles Lockwood, who both drowned when the S.S. Mohegan was lost at sea in October 1898. In 1930 In June of 1932, Mr. Reid transferred the property deed to Marguerite. 

In 1941 Ms. Marguerite Reid sold the property to Albert Heinemannn, the chief executive officer of General Foods for $75,000, who in 1946 sold the house to Henry Goldman, Jr. of the investment banking firm of Goldman Sachs. The Goldmans sold the 19 acre property to Jean and Raymond Benedict in July of 1958. Mr. Benedict was a senior partner in the law firm Cummings and Lockwood. The property was described in the real estate listing as having a ten room colonial, a three car garage with a three room apartment, a gardener’s cottage, greenhouse, pottery building, and a stable. The listing also noted that half of the acreage was wooded and contained two brooks and a swimming pond. It was offered for sale at $110,000. In May of 1970 Mr. Benedict applied and lost for the third time his request to subdivide the property, referred to as “The Lost Colony.” The reason stated for the denial was that the four acres of land could not be accessed by town services (such as school buses) without traveling one mile worth of narrow roads in Stamford to reach the subdivision. 

In July 1975 the property was sold to Richard and Margaret Sherman for $145,000. Mr. Sherman sold the property to Peter Sacripanti in July 1997, who owns it to the present day.