The other day, alert and longtime “06880” reader Scott Smith tromped around one of Westport’s most historic sites: the “Meeting House” land, where the original Green’s Farms Congregational Church was located. It was there that the West Parish of Fairfield grew and flourished, on its own.
Today the site is off the Sherwood Island Connector, just beyond the I-95 commuter parking lot.
This 1933 map of Greens Farms by George Jennings shows the meeting house across from the burial ground near Greens Farms Road, West Parish Road and Center Street.
Digging into the subject, Scott found that — years ago — a plan was developed by Westport’s Historic District Commission to create an interpretive trail there.
“Like so many other well-intentioned local improvement schemes, it is just gathering dust in some Town Hall office,” Scott laments.
A vision of a possible “West Parish Meeting House” Historic Site, from the Historic District Commission brochure.
“But maybe 06880 readers will be as curious about the site’s potential as I am.”
Scott writes:
For all the chest-thumping we Westporters do about our rich history and vaunted sense of “place,” I find it odd that so little attention is paid to the earliest traces of our beginnings.
I’m talking about the West Parish Meeting House that was constructed in 1737 at what is now the corner of Greens Farms Road and the Sherwood Island Connector, opposite the Colonial Cemetery established even earlier.
Though it was erected nearly a century after the 5 Bankside Farmers and their families first settled on the fertile coastal upland between Sasco and New Creek in 1648, this ground and its forgotten structure seem to be regarded as the foundational heart of our community.
Some years ago, I tried to explore the setting with my then-young son. We parked in the commuter lot and hiked over to the field where I’d heard the Meeting House once stood, until it was burned by the retreating British in 1779.
I don’t know what I was thinking. Maybe I thought we’d stumble upon the charred remains of the foundation, or kick up an old glass bottle or shard of a clay jug.
We didn’t make it far, defeated by swampy marshland and thick brambles.
Which is why I was intrigued to see the other day that the overgrown field has been bushwhacked back to stubble.
The entrance to the Meeting House site …
I pulled my car off to the side of the road near a gate of the enclosing stone wall, and wandered across the 5.9-acre property. Squat concrete posts, 2 feet high and set about 30 paces apart, mark 4 corners, likely of the original structure.
… and one of the concrete posts. (Photos/Scott Smith)
What I also see in this empty lot is a blank slate to recreate something new. Perhaps it’s an interpretive trail that explains more of the history of these colonial settlers, ideally including stories of the native inhabitants they replaced (sometimes by force). Their absence from our collective memory is even more stark.
To quote the town of Westport website:
By the time of widespread European contact in the early 1600s, the Algonquian tradition characterized Fairfield County. The Westport area was further defined as the Paugussett/Pootatuck group, though there were many dialects and sub-groups …
The Uncowa occupied territory west of the Pequonnock to Southport. The Sasqua occupied lands about the Great Swamp and Sasco Creek. The Maxumux occupied the lands west of Sasco Creek to Compo, extending inland to the Aspetuck River. The Compaw occupied the lands between Compo and the Saugatuck River. West of the Saugatuck were the Norwalk people. North, along the Aspetuck River, were the Aspetuck.
One of the very few reminders of the first residents of this area is Machamux Park, on Greens Farms Road near I-95. (Photo/Fred Cantor)
That’s a lot of people, and a lot to unpack. Perhaps the Meeting House is the place to do it, paying appropriate homage to all who lived and met here long ago.
I’m a big fan of Westport’s open spaces and pocket parks. A model for a reimagined Meeting House Historic Site would be the Mill Pond Preserve, with its native plantings, benches, and signage displaying historic and wildlife information. It was designed and built by a volunteer committee that still actively maintains it.
Details of the proposed plan.
As it always comes down to parking, there would be plenty for school groups and others at the Meeting House if the state lends access to the commuter lot.
Wouldn’t that be a fitting future for one of Westport’s oldest past places?
(The Historic Site was designated as a State Archaeological Preserve in 2010. Details about the original building are found in this Westport Historic District Commission brochure. A fuller preservation and cultural landscape assessment plan may be found here.)
The Historic District Commission’s proposed “ghost structure.”
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But wait, there’s more!
Coming soon to the Jennings Trail….
Peter Jennings
Green’s Farms Church Historian
To extend Peter’s comment above, a group of Westport volunteers (including Peter) known as the Jennings Trail Committee, is working with the Westport Historic District Commission to raise the profile of this important archaeological site. With private donations, we are about to install a large, descriptive plaque at the entrance to the site. It’s our hope and aspiration to eventually develop an online version of the Jennings Trail (a collection of historic locations throughout Westport which are accompanied by markers ). The online version would include additional contextual information such as archival images, maps, links to suggested reading and maybe even drone video where appropriate. In the meantime, we are in the process of adding four new historic sites (including this one) to the Jennings Trail. Stay tuned for the other three; two are hiding in plain sight. One is hiding, period. All have a remarkable, uniquely Westport story to tell.
Also, a brief note of clarification: the footprint of the meeting house, which was constructed in 1738, is marked by vintage steam sawn granite (not concrete) posts which were carefully installed by volunteers a few years ago with the permission of the town and the State Archaeologist. The structure wasn’t burned by “retreating” British forces. It was intensionally targeted as part of a multi-town lighting strike intended to demoralize the Patriots. This was a highly controversial experiment in what was then known as desolation warfare – what we would now call terrorism. The man behind it all, Tory New York Governor, Major General William Tryon, remained under a cloud for the rest of his life and, as it relates to the burning of the West Parish Meeting House in particular, he expressed regret and tried to suggest that it was an accident.
Wasn’t this actually the site of the second, not the “original”, Greens Farms Meeting House? I thought the first was built in 1711 on the north side of Greens Farms Road between Morningside and Turkey Hill Road South.
True. I didn’t want to flyspeck the story to death but yes, it was the second meeting house. But really it’s the first in the sense that the earlier one was actually a tiny, crude hut and the second was a substantial, relatively sophisticated structure with imported glass and a bell.
There’s two acres of property on Greens Farms Road between South Morningside and Turkey Hill. Elmstead Lane also borders the two acres. My uncle, Adolph Backiel had a modest ranch home on the property in the 1960s. His driveway came out to South Morningside Drive. Is this the property you’re referring to?
Art, I think I know which piece of land you mean. At the end of South Morningside Dr. and across Greens Farms Road, there’s a small, grassy patch of land. I thought it was more between South Morningside and Beachside.
As I recall (from Woody Klein’s book on the history of Westport), the meeting house was on the north side of Greens Farms Road. On the south side is where the Machamux Boulder is. I need to go back and reread the chapter.
Thank you, Scott for this article and for all your preservation efforts. And Thank you, Morley and others for fighting so hard to preserve the history and open spaces in our town.
Thank you for capturing this history for us- I can’t wait to share with my daughter the significance of where we live!
Thanks, Anne — and continued thanks to Dan for lifting up these stories!
What an exciting piece of history we, the neighbors around the site, share with this historic place. It’s very interesting. And I’m grateful to all the people who work to preserve its history and significance. It takes one wrong decision for places like this to be wiped out. 🙏
Thanks, Scott and Dan, for shining a light on the West Parish Meeting House Historic Site. Thanks, Peter and Morley for your work to revive the Jennings Trail. Can’t wait!
Just caught up with this post and want to offer my thanks to the Jennings Trail Committee for focusing attention on this important piece of early Westport history. Kudos to Peter and Morley for leading the way!