WLIW Arts Beat

Greenwich Historical Society
The town of Greenwich Connecticut has something new to celebrate! An art colony that gave rise to the American Impressionist school has been preserved and is part of a new museum complex.
TRANSCRIPT
>> At 377 years old,
Greenwich is
one of the oldest communities
in the tri-state area.
It has something new
to celebrate.
[ Applause ]
The campus of the Greenwich
Historical Society
has just opened,
featuring the historic site
of the beginning
of American Impressionist art.
Debra Mecky is
executive director.
>> Bocelli House is a National
Historic Landmark.
It's opened as a museum,
but what's really unique
about it is,
it does not only showcase
its old 18th-century history
but also an era when it became
a boarding house
and became the seat
of the Cos Cob Art Colony.
The Cos Cob Art Colony
is the first art colony
in Connecticut.
It was founded 10 years
before there ever was
an art colony in Old Lyme.
So we call this the cradle
of American Impressionism.
The train comes to Greenwich
in 1848 and transforms
this little sleepy,
rural town into a commuter town
and resort for New Yorkers.
It also was what brought
the artists here to Cos Cob.
It was a 45-minute express ride
from Grand Central Station.
The artists could walk 3 minutes
to the Holley House, where they
could board in the community
and set up their easels
en plein air and paint some
of the beautiful landscapes,
colonial architecture
and coastal area.
>> Today, we're also sharing
our joy and excitement
at completing
both the reimagined campus
and the Reimagine the Campus
Capital Campaign.
>> The reimagining
of the Greenwich
Historical Society campus
is the result of planning
that started about 6 years ago,
and what made this all possible
was that anonymous donors
stepped in
and said that they would match,
dollar for dollar, every dollar
that was raised by the campaign
up to the goal of $13.5 million,
and so the anonymous donor
has matched $6,750,000,
and the campaign committee,
of which I am chair,
raised the other $6,750,000.
The construction
was not supposed to start
until a very substantial portion
of the money had been raised.
I urged, and the board agreed
to let the construction
start a year earlier
while we were raising the money,
and in fact, the project
has been completed approximately
a year ahead of schedule
and slightly under budget.
>> One of the great ladies
of Greenwich, Claire Vanderbilt,
without her, we wouldn't be here
because I-95
was originally to go right
through the Bush-Holley House.
Claire Vanderbilt was the force
behind the Greenwich
Historical Society.
She was a very good friend
of John Davis Lodge,
who happened
to be governor of Connecticut.
The official title of I-95
is the John Davis Lodge Highway,
and I-95 has a gentle curve
so that it goes around this site
instead of right over it.
♪♪
>> The building in which
we are now sitting,
Toby's Tavern,
in the 1850s and '60s
became the Railroad Hotel,
and then David Scott Parker,
the architect
for the reimagined campus,
he found a Childe Hassam
painting of Toby's Tavern
with an organ grinder
and a monkey outside and the
artists sitting around drinking,
and he found paintings
and photographs of the exterior
of what had been
the Railroad Hotel,
and based on that,
we realized that this building
could be stripped down,
restored and re-created.
>> With the acquisition
of Toby's Tavern,
the Greenwich Historical Society
now has an impressive row
of two 18th-century buildings
and one from the early
19th century.
>> On a street that is
an historic street
with all of the properties
on it historic buildings.
>> The jury is out.
This new Historical Society
is an absolute home run.
>> This is a dream come true.
On the major new building
here on the ground level,
you have the entrance atrium.
On your left are the archive
and the reading room.
Directly above them
are two art galleries.
The first one has an exhibition
about the history of Greenwich.
The second is called
the permanent gallery,
and in that is a major part
of the Impressionist
painting collection,
paintings that were painted
here, paintings
of the Bush-Holley house,
paintings of the Holley family,
paintings that's done in the
interior and on the exterior.
>> Please feel free to come
on in and enjoy the galleries
on the second floor, the library
and archives on the first floor,
the museum store, the cafe,
and the wonderful gardens.
>> We believe that this facility
now is perhaps the finest house
museum facility not only
of the town of Greenwich
but of the state of Connecticut
and even the nation.
♪♪
>> In today's digital age,
computer screens and devices
are reducing our interaction
with physical surroundings
and fast becoming the landscape
we're most accustomed to,
often at the expense
of how we view ourselves
and our place in history.
Through its newly
reimagined campus,
the Greenwich Historical Society
is making sure its illustrious
past as home of
one of America's earliest
Impressionist art colonies
is preserved for generations
of Americans to come.
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