MEADOWC R O FT LA N E
Henry Croft
off Grahampton — Named, along with Beechcroft and Pinecroft roads nearby, for Henry W. Croft (1865– 1947), one of nine children of a wholesale grocer. He rose to head the Harbison-Walker Refineries Company of Pittsburgh, manufacturer and worldwide distributor of bricks. An extremely wealthy man, Croft decided “out of the blue,” said a daughter, to build a mansion in Greenwich, where he would spend the summers while wintering in Pittsburgh. He would live MEADOWCROFT LANE
TOP RIGHT: BOB CAPAZZO; COURTESY HISTORICAL SOCIET Y OF GREENWICH
Road near the Round Hill Club became the colorful scene of the games held each year by the Round Hill Scottish Games Association. A member of the Campbell
here permanently following his retirement in 1938. In late 1915, Harry, as he was called, bought 300 acres of land in the Clapboard Ridge area—“one of the largest real estate deals ever made in Greenwich,” noted the Greenwich News and Graphic—and soon thereafter the deeds to five farms once owned by the Mead, De Kraft, Peck and Reynolds families. Later, Croft and his neighbors would successfully prevent the Merritt Parkway from cutting through that area. The handsome estate, named Grahampton after his wife, Mary Augusta Graham Croft, was finished in 1917 and boasted English tapestries, eleven fireplaces and in Harry’s office an innovative machine that amplified music so it could be heard throughout the house. Outside, Augusta created wonderful gardens while her husband, a member of the Blind Brook and Round Hill clubs, drove golf balls on the lawn and their four children rode around on their horses.
clan and proud of his Scottish ancestry, Moore had invited thirty Scottish friends to a picnic in 1923, but 300 showed up. The next year, he combined his picnic with a fundraiser for new uniforms for a bagpipe band and drew even more enthusiasts. The association was then formed to handle the festival, which was soon attracting a crowd of 5,000 to 8,000 to the event to cheer on the pipe-and-drum bands, highland dancers, mutton-pie eaters, sheepdog trainers and caber tossers. But at six-foot-three and 250 pounds, Moore himself might have been the most impressive Scot there as he awarded the coveted Charles A. Moore challenge shield to winning contestants.
Ashton Capazzo
ASHTON DRIVE, midcountry: named for the daughter of photographer Bob Capazzo and his wife, Georgine. LEWIS STREET, downtown:
named for the Reverend Dr. Isaac Lewis, esteemed pastor of the Second Congregational Church from 1786 to 1816. BENEDICT PLACE, downtown:
named for Commodore Elias Cornelius Benedict (1834–1920), sailor, financier and philanthropist, whose Italian Renaissance villa is still a lovely landmark on Indian Harbor. BOLLING PLACE
downtown: named for Colonel Raynal C. Bolling, the first high-ranking airman to be killed in World War I. DAVIS AVENUE,
western Greenwich: named for Thomas Davis of Elias Oyster Bay who Benedict bought the tide mill there in 1761. His son Elisha, a Tory, took over and secretly ground grain for the British fleet moored in the Sound during the Revolution. GROSSET ROAD, Riverside:
named for publisher Alexander Grosset, president of Grosset and Dunlap, who bought a large piece of land in Willowmere and built a mansion called Thrushwood on a cliff overlooking the Sound. The stone pillars at the entrance to the residence still remain on Indian Head Road. »
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