New Canaan Now & Then: The Mulliken Property [Part 1 of 2]

671 West Road

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

In the early part of the century, Alfred H. Mulliken, a millionaire summer resident from Chicago, started purchasing tracts of land in the Oenoke area with the long term goal of creating a gated enclave similar to Tuxedo Park. 

Mulliken was born in Augusta, Maine in 1854. At the age of 15, he went to Chicago to seek his fortune, beginning his career as an office boy and eventually being offered a partnership in a company that supplied railroad equipment. 

Mulliken started his own firm with a Chicago banker, Asa C. Pettibone. When the success of his company required him to open a New York office, Mulliken began summering in New Canaan with his invalid wife and 15-year-old son. The Mulliken family rented the John B. Gerrish house off of Oenoke until it caught fire and then rented a second house across the way owned by Dr. Lambert which also caught fire. The Mullikens returned to Chicago after this second mishap. 

Alfred H. Mulliken’s first land acquisition in 1906 was 14 plots of land totaling 213 acres. Mulliken’s purchase was done by a “straw woman” Mary Amelia Rohrer, who became his second wife in 1922. In 1908, the large acreage was deeded to him and became public knowledge. 

Not everyone in town was happy about Mulliken buying up farms and then immediately tearing them down and posting “no fishing or hunting” signs, but he did have some support because he was generous with a few public organizations. In particular, Mulliken was a supporter of the Fire Department, including his 1912 contribution of $6,000 to purchase the Locomobile fire truck to replace the horse drawn fire engine. This generous donation made him an honorary member, and he was given a key to the firehouse. Incidentally, an earlier donation of $200 to the fire department was used by the firemen to purchase a used piano for their quarters in the firehouse on Railroad Avenue (today known as Elm Street).

It was speculated that Mulliken planned to build a fireproof house and wanted to make Mud Pond (now known as Lake Siscowit) a private fishing pond, but that was not his intention. A fireproof house seemed appropriate given the fate of his earlier rentals, but his goal was always to develop a gated community.

It was reported in February 1911 in the New York World paper that he owned 25 farms “out in the Oenoke Avenue section of town and many other pieces of land that have cost him all told a half million dollars.” 

By 1912 Mulliken had acquired 491 acres. His plan to purchase William Selleck’s land “to complete the corner of his great baronial estate” was stymied by Selleck. Selleck claimed that “wolves in sheep’s clothing” paid him visits and offered him tempting prices of $25,000 and $35,000, but the old man recognized them as agents of the wealthy Chicagoan. Selleck refused the offer because he didn’t believe it was right for one man to own so much property. Another hold out was Rush Taggart and his sister, Alice, who owned a large estate south of Mullikens that they had purchased in 1905. 

The Town Tax List for 1913 indicates that the Mulliken property included two huge barns and a three story mansion—called Elm Side—that was built by William Stanley Lockwood in 1879. The mansion was valued at $17,000 and the two barns were valued at $4000. Mr. Mulliken purchased tracts of land each year from 1906-1931, except for 1907 and between 1919 and 1924. The result was his accumulation of 1100 acres. At the time of his death in 1931, he was the largest landowner in the town. 

[Part 2 of this installment will follow next week.]