Historic Silvermine

by Anne Carbone, Leigh Grant and NASH

Silvermine, once called Silver Mine, may have been well settled by the late 1600’s and was populated by such notable Norwalk families as Buttery, Comstock, Hoyt, Gregory, St. John and Bartlett. At the time Silvermine was settled, the parishes of Wilton and New Canaan were part of the town of Norwalk.

Legend has it that the silver mine, dated circa 1690, lies in close proximity to Silvermine Brook on the east side of Comstock Hill Road near its intersection with what is now Silvermine Avenue. In the triangle of Norwalk land between Silvermine and River Road are eight houses marked, in an early map, as being “ancient” (meaning 18th century) and still standing. Many of these are plaqued today as being early 19th century, though they are probably earlier. Where Silvermine intersects with Perry Avenue, there are more houses from the period 1800-1900.

Mill History

Even before the Revolution, it was the river and the timber growing tall around it that brought settlers to Silvermine. A dam was made on the Silvermine River in 1709 near the site of the second Buttery Sawmill (1741). The first dated from 1688 and was a quarter mile farther north.

English-born Henry Guthrie owned a shipyard and three mills clustered around today’s Silvermine Tavern. Outside of the Silvermine mills was another mill, which is now a lovely residence, on Davis Pond on James Street. The miller’s house, also still standing, was built in 1748. The miller, who often returned home after a day’s work covered with flour, was known to the neighborhood as the “ghost of James Street.” In the 1860’s, there were “sixteen busy shops” along the Norwalk River. By 1923, the number had dwindled to four or five. By 1912, all the mills in Silvermine, except for the Buttery Sawmill, had closed. The Buttery Sawmill actually continued to operate until 1955 when it was undermined by the “hundred year flood“.

It was the slow demise of the mills and the subsequent poverty of the area that preserved Silvermine and it was the beauty of that 19th century landscape, and its affordability that attracted the artists. They, in turn, restored the old mills to residences and artists’ studios.

The Artists’ Colony – Early Twentieth Century

The original nucleus of the Artist’s Colony was formed around Solon Borglum, sculptor; Richard B. Gruelle, landscape artist; his son, Johnny Gruelle; Addison Millar and Carl Schmitt, both of whom were painters from Warren, Ohio and George Avison, a writer, illustrator and landscape painter.

Their friend, Clifton Meek, who had b een a cartoonist, bought an anvil for fifty cents at auction and went on to
found the Old Forge and establish a parallel profession as a metal crafter. His observations mirror those of the
other Silvermine artists and artisans in that the landscape reflected an almost forgotten, deeply New
England way of life. “I shall always be grateful for a kind destiny that directed us to this peaceful haven with
its rolling, haze-shrouded hills, its ever murmuring stream and silent millponds…”

Austin’s mill closed by 1912 and his home was sold to illustrator and cartoonist, John Cassell. The Blanchard Fur Factory was used as a studio by Richard Gruelle and his son, Justin, and also as temporary living quarters for Johnny Gruelle (who wrote Raggedy Anne) and his family until the latter could build a house at the upper end of the millpond. The painter, Bernard Gutmann, built a large white house on the hill by the Borglum Bridge (crosses Blanchard millpond), which later was the home of the writer Vance Packard. Carl Schmitt lived on the opposite bank of the river and Solon Borglum a little farther down the road. All of these homes are in the Wilton section of Silvermine today.

A separate building (by the Tavern) on the property of the Red Mill, standing between the mill proper and the bridge, was moved and converted into a home for the artist Frank Hutchins. Before that happened however, it
was used for many years as the Village Room, the scene of parties, dances, home talent plays and social gatherings of one kind or another. Across from the Tavern was a blacksmith shop. It became a dance hall on Saturday nights and an Episcopal “church” on Sundays.

There were stores along Silvermine Avenue: Frank Buttery’s Country Department Store; Hyatt Gregory’s store (the “Pink House”—which is now yellow!) selling meats, groceries, homemade root beer, and stronger
stuff in the cellar; a barber shop and Mrs. Lowden’s combined Post Office and grocery, which was blown up on the 4th of July by a keg of powder kept for shooting off the celebratory cannon.

Only Guthrie’s business still remains a shop (the Silvermine Market). The rest became houses or were carted away. As the century progressed, the original Art Colony went on to found the Silvermine Guild and the fine artists became different kinds of artists (like John Vassos (graphic designer), Armstrong Sperry (illustrator), Lily Pons (opera singer), Evan Hunter (writer).

The Theatre in the Woods became an attraction in the 1930’s and drew up to 2000 people to the terraced amphitheatre on Belden Hill from as far away as
Buffalo.

As you walk and enjoy our lovely hilly, curved country roads, please be aware of the traffic. While we love to walk and enjoy our Silvermine at a leisurely pace, many drivers don’t appreciate that country roads are not meant to be speedways. We have few sidewalks in Silvermine, with the exception of a stretch of Silvermine Avenue and a short stretch of Perry Avenue. We like it that way, as it is in keeping with the rural character of our
beautiful neighborhood, but do pay attention to traffic. Please enjoy our flora and fauna, the many antique homes and ancient stonewalls, our streams, ponds and waterfalls, a reminder of where we came from and who
we are. This is Silvermine. Welcome.