| The 23-year war |
|
The land
that forms today's 234-acre state park was acquired
in bits and pieces. The first bits were purchased in
1914, but it was not until 1937 that the key parcels
were acquired and public access was assured. During
these years, Westport's William
H. Burr acquired land for the state and led the
battle against the influential landowners who did
not want a park in their backyards. Most of the story below has been pieced
together from newspaper clippings and other
documents in a collection of Burr papers recently
donated to the Fairfield Historical
Society. |
|
| 1914- Connecticut State
Park Commission selects Sherwood Island as park
site |
“So long as man is born
with eyes and ears and arms and legs, he will
continue to use them in various ways, and it turns
out that some of those ways are impossible to him in
the city.
"At
the end of a week, or a month, or a year, or in some
cases, possibly a lifetime, the city sights and
sounds and pavements become unbearable and a rest
and contrast become as necessary as sleep at night.
"To the
fortunate few who may have a country house or a
shore cottage with an automobile or so, the problem
is easy. What
for the
rest? The
dry highway and the ‘no trespass’ sign.”
|
|
Albert Milford Turner, 1917
[Pugsley
Award recipient]
|
|
| The
Connecticut State Park Commission (SPC) was
authorized in 1909. Later it was renamed the
Connecticut State Park and Forest Commission
(SPFC). In 1971, it was succeeded by the
newly formed Department of Environmental
Protection (DEP). |
One
of the SPC's main tasks was
to find and develop shore
parks along Connecticut's coastline. Hired as Field Secretary in 1914,
engineer Albert Turner went out and walked the shore
line from New York to Rhode Island seeking
suitable sites.
A suitable site would have several hundred acres of undeveloped land
with natural scenic beauty, fronting on a good beach, and
be far enough from cities to ensure freedom from sewage
pollution and lack of interference with industrial
development.
His recommendations were Hammonasset
Beach, Rocky Neck, Bluff Point, and Sherwood Island
in Westport, the
only suitable site in Fairfield County. |
| Sherwood
Island is called Connecticut's oldest state park, because
the first acquisitions were made in 1914. (Purchases at Hammonasset State Park didn't
begin until 1919.) But according to Turner, "a park
isn't a park until it is used and enjoyed." By
that criteria, it took over two decades to make Sherwood
Island a park. |
|
| 1914-1923: the first
acquisitions |
| Acquisitions by
the State |
| Year |
|
Seller |
Acres |
| 1914 |
1
2 |
Ball
Miller & Jordan |
5
4 |
| 1915 |
3
4 |
Rollin G. Sherwood
Kendall |
1
4 |
| 1916 |
5 |
Foster & Bulkley |
0.75 |
| 1917 |
6
7
8 |
Gorham &
Mandeville
Gorham & Mandeville Jennings |
2.25
0.75
2.5 |
| 1918 |
9 |
Newkirk et al |
2.5 |
|
| 1923 |
10
11
12 |
Wesley Sherwood
& Eliza F. Sherwood & Anna T. Dunnebacke |
4.5
11.5
2.5 |
| Total by deeds |
41.25 |
| Total by survey |
48 |
|
Bits and pieces
In 1914, five acres (Ball) were
acquired, west of Burial Hill Creek, and
then another four acres west of the Ball
property. In 1915, an acre was picked up off
to the west, as well as four (Kendall) acres
along the beach, but not connected to the
other properties. The next three purchases
were small ones to fill in the spaces. That
much added up to about 24 acres by deed, 30
acres by state survey.
In 1923, about 18
acres of upland and salt marsh, adjacent to
the railroad tracks, were acquired. This land could potentially
be used for parking, but the salt marsh
(which had many owners) lay between the
18-acre tract and the 30-acre tract. The
beach area was somewhat accessible via
Burial Hill (a Westport
town park.) The 48 acres were purchased for
less than $18,000. That included 2,350 feet
of shoreline, at $4.17/front foot. |
| In
its 1917 report, the SPC said: "The
name of William H. Burr of Westport will
remain inseparably linked with the first
purchases of Sherwood Island as they passed
to the state through his local knowledge and
good offices, and he is thus the grantor of
record." |
| The
trouble was that the purchased land would be
useless without funds for additional
purchases and development. After 1923, the
money dried up. |
|
|
|
| 1924: the troubles
begin |
| Westport
Town Meeting #1 |
| On
10/27/24, a Westport Town Meeting approved
the following resolutions: |
| Resolved:
That the town of Westport does not desire
the state of CT to acquire additional land
at Sherwood Island for park purposes.
Resolved further that the town of Westport
does not desire a state park at Sherwood
Island. Resolved, that the representatives
from this town to the next General Assembly
do their best to prevent an appropriation
for any such purpose. Resolved, that the
town clerk send to the clerk of the next
General Assembly, a copy of these
resolutions. |
|
Westport to
Hartford: don't provide the money
In October 1924, Westport decided to
instruct its legislators to "do their
best to prevent an appropriation for any
such purpose."
By 1924, some of the wealthy Westport landowners
with properties adjoining the proposed park had
launched a campaign against it. The leader of the
opposition was George W. Gair, who's estate lay to
the east of Sherwood Island Lane, on the Mill Pond. Gair and 21 others proposed the
resolutions that were approved by the 10/27/24 Town
Meeting.
In 1925 the legislature defeated
a bill proposed by SPFC that would have allocated
$500,000 for Sherwood Island State Park
acquisitions. |
| Note:
The State did not need Westport's approval,
but the legislature was apparently reluctant
to move without it. |
|
| Reference
maps |
For a
clearer picture of the situation in the
1920s, see two maps drawn in the early 1930s, when
not much had changed.
The
1932 map commissioned by the Sherwood Island
Park Association shows the two pieces of land
owned by the State of Connecticut, separated from
each other by the salt marsh, and without access
roads.
The 1931
map that appeared in the Bridgeport Herald
marked the properties of some of the
influential landowners. E.T. Bedford owned
land in the area including the dairy farm
marked #3. The home of Erwin M. Jennings is
at #2. The spot marked #8 is the lot
purchased by Louis Stone from Sherwood
Island Co. Inc. with the intention of
building a house there. |
|
Ominous land
transfers
Bedford to Gair.
In October 1924, after first indicating
willingness to sell to the state, E.T.
Bedford changed his mind and sold two key
parcels of upland to Helen Gair: eight acres
on the railroad tracks, and 16 acres
adjacent to the 18 acres that the state had
acquired in 1923 from the Sherwoods. On the
1931 map, the 16-acre parcel is marked #17.
On the 1932 map, it is marked
"Fitzmaurice."
Sherwood Island Co.
Inc. was incorporated in November 1924
to sell small lots for residential
construction on and east of the Point. The
plan is shown on map #331
registered in the Westport Town
Hall.
Sherwood Point Realty
Co. bought land to the west of the Point
in September 1924 and filed
map #336
in the Westport Town Hall.
Pinehurst Realty Co. bought
just under 10 acres in December 1924 that
included five acres of what was called
Little Island. (Today that area is called
the western woods or the oak forest.) |
|
|
| 1924: A plea from the
State Park and Forest Commission |
| The
State's claim |
| Excerpts from the
1924 SPFC report were printed in a long
article in the Waterbury Republican
(June 7, 1931). The paper said that the
commission had never since then spoken out
so forcefully, presumably because of
political pressure. |
About the
state's claim, the paper said:
"That the state staked its claim first there is no question.
That the intention of a state park there was known to property buyers who bought in the vicinity,
some of them upon the very land which the state might be expect of desiring later to acquire are facts
not disputed." |
|
|
|
A critical stage
In it's 1924 report, the SPFC said that the situation at Sherwood Island had reached a critical stage. Recounting what had happened by then, it said that in 1914, “About 300 acres of upland and salt meadow, with a mile of shore front, seemed available if prompt action was taken." The state had been making purchases when opportunities arose.
“Since 1917 the commission has earnestly advocated before each Assembly the appropriation of sufficient funds for purchase of adjoining upland and such development as would properly open this beach to public use, but without avail."
About the developers: “Lying directly west of Alvord beach are two parcels of upland amounting to some 37 acres, with one farm house and outbuildings, and about 2,000 feet of shore front. Titles to these parcels have recently been secured by two corporations with the purpose of immediate subdivision, and they have been plotted into some 140 lots, which are now either sold or being offered to private purchasers."
This upland would be essential for "such public park purposes as the commission was established to
provide. The proposed development will either defeat this purpose or render its accomplishment immeasurably more expensive to the state."
|
|
|
. |
| 1925: A plea from State
and County associations |
| Access
to the shore |
| "Although
Connecticut possesses some of the most
beautiful shore line on the Atlantic coast,
the public is being rapidly excluded from
all but an insignificant portion of it. To
remedy this, the State Park Commission
desired to create several great shore parks
which shall preserve for the perpetual use
of all the people outstanding examples of
this their rightful inheritance. Certainly
Fairfield County is entitled to at least one
such place." |
|
1925 booklet, CFA and FCPA |
|
In
a booklet published in February 1925, the
Connecticut Forestry Association and the
Fairfield County Planning Association set
forth all the reasons why Sherwood Island
was desirable as a state park, and other
sites not, and refuted claims that public
parks lower land values. Pleading for
support of a funding bill pending in the
General Assembly, they said, "The
present State holdings are nearly all beach
and marsh land and cannot be properly
developed until the State owns enough high
land to provide proper service
facilities."
Click
here to see
the booklet's back page, which has a small
map. |
| Note:
the Connecticut Forestry Association was
later renamed Connecticut Forest and Park
Association (CFPA). |
|
|
1929:
another Westport vote against the park
|
| Talk
of a class war |
|
Battle
Looms Between Vested Wealth and Public
Rights at Sherwood Island
|
|
Headline,
Bridgeport Post, 3/3/29
|
| "Sherwood
Island has not yet come into its own. It is
isolated, undeveloped and almost
unknown." |
|
Petitioner
Harrison Streeter in an article in the Bridgeport Post before the meeting. |
| The people of
Westport have made a terrible mistake with
this blind and stupid vote. The area belongs
to the people of Connecticut [but] because
of unreasonable opposition to the
development of the property, the place has
lain idle for many years and is inhabited
only by crows. |
|
Paraphrased
quote from William H. Burr in the Bridgeport
Sunday Post, after the meeting. |
|
Westport
Town Meeting #2 votes against the park
On March 4, 1929 a town meeting was held in
Westport at the request of 108 residents who
had petitioned for it. The petitioners
wanted the meeting to rescind all action
taken at the October 1924 meeting and
resolve to cooperate with the State Park
Commission in securing a sufficient
appropriation to develop the Park and
improve the condition of the creeks at
Green's Farms. The resolution was voted
down. |
|
The pro-park petitioners included William H. Burr, George
P. Jennings, and Harrison Streeter. Before the meeting both sides
lobbied. George Gair wrote an open letter
to the people of Westport, and met with the real
estate board. |
Referring to Gair's open letter, petitioner
Harrison Streeter wrote in the Bridgeport
Post, "The burden of it's plaint is
the possible damage to property interests
and values by reason of an influx of
undesirable pleasure
seekers."
After noting Westport's
interest in the outcome of the upcoming
meeting, he said that "the people of
the remaining towns of the county are
vitally interested [as well] ... We are a
seaboard county without an available and
accessible strip of shore line to call our
own. We secure our outlet to the beach by
journeying the many miles to Hammonasset or
by crowding into spots which are more or
less reserved for local residents along the
coast. This is not as it should be. As
free-born American citizens, we resent the
implication that we are interlopers within
our own county." |
|
|
|
|
Summer
1929: Gair's ditch and Elsie Hill's picnic
|
| Gair's ditch project |
The State parklands
were virtually inaccessible to the public,
but people could go to Burial Hill and go
across New Creek when it was dry or almost
dry.
In the
summer of 1929, at the direction of George
Gair (who was also Chairman of Westport's
Board of Finance), the ditch was deepened
several feet and widened to 30 feet. Gair
said this was necessary for mosquito
control.
Most
park supporters saw this as a means to keep
people out of the park, and Gair's move
aroused outrage. |
| Note:
George Jennings,
a park supporter, argued that the dredging was
justified because New Creek had been a deep
creek in the past. [See The controversial creeks." |
|
|
|
Elsie Hill's
picnic
Elsie Hill, of Redding, activist and wife of
Professor Albert Levitt, organized a picnic on the park land on
August 31 for residents of Westport,
Redding, Ridgefield, New Canaan and
Bridgeport. A resolution was passed that
demanded that any barriers, real or
imaginary, to the state property at Sherwood
Island should be lifted, allowing the island
to again be made accessible to the public.
The resolution was to be presented at the
State Park Commission meeting in Danbury on
October 9. |
The Hill-Bedford letters
Before that, Miss Hill wrote to E.T. Bedford, and asked for
his position on the park. Her letter and his
reply appeared in the 2/8/31 Bridgeport
Herald.
She
said that three prominent men of Fairfield
County, all republicans, had said that
"it's pretty hard for the republicans
to move with Bedford against it." She
said she was told that he had threatened to
stop political contributions and public
gifts to Westport and Norwalk if the state
goes ahead with plans for Sherwood Island.
She was told that State Controller Salmon
could be influenced by Bedford.
On 10/10
Bedford's reply said in part, "If, as I
have said to Mr. Burr, a state park is
wanted, there is only one place that could
be had with ample ground and beach, with
roads already made, and that is Calf Pasture
at Norwalk." |
|
|
|
|
February 1931: an
especially chilly Town Meeting
|
|
Rich man - Poor Man's
Fight at Sherwood Isle
The
Herald is on the side of the poor man
|
|
Bridgeport
Herald, 3/8/31 |
| February
9, 1931: Park advocates introduced the
following resolutions. |
| Resolved:
That whereas the State Park on Sherwood
Island would render greater service to the
public by the acquisition of more land, the
erection of pavilions, the introduction of
water and the other necessities and
conveniences found at our other state Parks:
Therefore, Resolved: that we do
hereby petition the State Park Commission to
seek an adequate appropriation to acquire
the land and to make the improvements that
the times and place demand. |
| Cinderella |
| "For 16 years,
the Cinderella of our state park system,
alone and forlorn, has listened to the moan
of the sad sea waves and waited for the
fairy godmother to life her from her humble
state. By fairy godmother, I mean an
appropriation in the Legislature. Four bills
asking for an appropriation for Sherwood
Island are before the present
Legislature." |
|
Daniel S.
Sanford, president of the Fairfield County
Planning Association, at the annual meeting
of the State Park and Forest
Association, 2/7/31. |
|
Hundreds braved the
weather
On a cold and snowy evening, over 800 people came out for a Town Meeting
at Bedford Junior High to vote on a pro-park
resolution
proposed by George L. Rippe. Before a vote
was taken, the turbulent
and acrimonious meeting came to a bizarre
end. When an argument broke out about the
method of voting, the chair of the meeting
decided that voting by ballot would be
impossible. A proposal was made to postpone
the vote until the next town election, when
the matter could be decided with voting
machines. In the confusion, it was not clear
whether everyone present realized that the
next (biennial) election would not take
place until October
1932. |
Gair's cartoon
Before
the meeting, George Gair created a cartoon
that was mailed to several hundred
residents. It showed "Billy B."
[Burr] displaying a script reading
"A Park on Sherwood's Island, for the
benefit of non-residents, - cost to state,
$250,000; cost to Westport, lowered value
Greens Farms taxable property, over
$1,000,000." It also showed the average
Westporter bewildered with rent, grocery and
other bills. [Gair also put a full page
ad in a local newspaper denouncing the plan.] |
Burr: a moral
victory
After the
meeting, Burr said the park advocates had
won a moral victory for two reasons:
"first, the previous votes were passed
at small gatherings and we certainly got out
the people last night. If it came to a vote
we would have easily won; second, we were
refused a vote by secret ballot for they
knew we would have won." Bridgeport
Telegram, 2/11/31 |
|
|
| February 1931: a
Legislative Committee came to visit |
| They
couldn't get into the park lands |
| "High tide,
filling the creek on the east boundary, kept
the committee off the park property there.
Private property to the west made it a
matter of trespass to set foot on the
State's land from that side. A three-panel
fence on the northern tip of land that
touches highway discouraged the committee,
including women legislators, from an attack
at that quarter. Lack of a boat kept them
from invading the tract from the Sound, or
southward side. Thus they were contented
with views from three sides." |
|
Bridgeport
Telegram |
|
A
few days before the Westport town meeting,
with funding bills pending in Hartford, members of
the Fairfield County Legislative Committee had also braved
cold and wind to visit the park. They could
not get onto the park lands, but they viewed
them from the periphery and warmed up at the
Gair lodge. Gair and Burr spoke to the group, which
been sent to the site by the county meeting of the
seven senators and 37 representatives elected from
the 23 towns, to find reasons for the State Park
Commission's inaction on the park.
Roton
Point? The group reported back with a
recommendation that Roton Point (Rowayton) would be
a good substitute for Sherwood Island as a state
park. It would cost $600,000 to buy it, and another
$100,000 to develop it. At a hearing in Hartford,
Daniel Sanford, president of the Fairfield County
Planning Association, said "I submit that this
committee has shirked its duty. Appointed three
months ago and then to come back with such a flabby
and amorphous report recommending the purchase of
Roton Point -- I doubt the sincerity of it." |
|
|
| Anywhere but here |
|
During all
these years, opponents of park at Sherwood's Island
suggested other alternatives.
In 1925, the booklet
published by the Connecticut Forestry Association and the
Fairfield County Planning Association set
forth the arguments against two of them: Great Marsh
(Westport) and Stratford Point.
"Great Marsh Offers a
beach somewhat inferior to Sherwood Island bordering
salt marshes a mile wide. To provide necessary land,
these marshes would have to be filled in at enormous
expense. What natural beauty the site possesses is
due to these very marshes. Furthermore the site is
much less accessible than Sherwood Island.
"Stratford Point is a
bluff commanding a fine view of the Sound. Beaches
exist on both sides of it but are shallow at low
tide and are endangered by sewage pollution from
Bridgeport Harbor and the Housatonic River. This
site is not conveniently located with respect to
most of Fairfield County and must generally be
approached through the crowded streets of
Bridgeport. Furthermore, development of cottage
sites and commercial beaches has already
started."
Nevertheless, proposals
involving Great Marsh and Cockenoe Island kept
surfacing again and again. As noted above, E.T.
Bedford was suggesting in 1929 that Calf Pasture
(Norwalk) would be a fine site. In 1931, Legislative
Committee came up with a new idea -- Roton
Point (Rowayton).
There were intimations that
the wealthy citizens who opposed the park at
Sherwood Island would contribute to the purchase of
sites elsewhere. |
|
. |
| Early 1932: with
time was running out, important progress |
|
Republican support. At a
March 1932 meeting, of the
Fairfield County Republican Organization in
Bridgeport adopted recommendations that the
acquisition of all of Sherwood's Island proper be
sought in the next General Assembly and that in the
meantime the state park commission be requested to
make the beach which the state now owns available
for public use during the coming summer. Fairfield News,
3/12/32. |
|
The Sherwood
Island Park Association was formed and had a
map drawn up that showed all of the
properties that would have to be acquired to
bring the vision to fruition, including some
that were already in the hands of real
estate companies. [See
the map.] |
|
Elwood properties leased.
In time for summer 1932, Elwood Farm and Elwood Beach
were leased by the State (with a 5-year
option to buy), temporary
bath houses were built, and 1,000 visitors
came. In a long article in June 1931, the
Waterbury
Republican included photos of the Elwood
properties: shown here, the
farm and the
beach. The Elwood property was
owned by John H. Elwood and his wife Fannie, who was
a daughter of Franklin Sherwood. |
| April 29, 1937: Saved in
the nick of time |
|
After rushing them through the House and
Senate, Governor Wilbur L. Cross signed two bills making a
total of $485,000 available for the purchase of land
and development of Sherwood Island State Park. The
bill made $350,000 available immediately to take up
the State's option on the Elwood property before it
expired and remove the threat that the park would
have to be closed. An additional $135,000 was appropriated for the
acquisition of the holdings of the Sherwood Island
Co. and Sherwood Point Realty Co. [Newspaper
article.]
After that, the rest of the
pieces began to fall into place. |
| Page last updated:
04/19/07
|
|
|
