Westporters love Nyala Farm.
We admire its vast, open meadows. We marvel at its ever-changing beauty. We take almost as many photos of its iconic well as we do of the cannons at Compo.
We don’t even mind that the enormous expanse of land tucked between Greens Farms Road, the Sherwood Island Connector and I-95 is an office park — one of 2 Westport headquarters for hedge fund titan Bridgewater.
We don’t mind, because we don’t see it.
What many people may not know is that Nyala Farm is not a cute, throwback name. Back in the day, it was an actual, working dairy farm.
(Photo courtesy of Paul Ehrismann)
Generations of Westporters took field trips there. They learned that all 52 acres were bought in 1910 by E.T. Bedford.
His son, Frederick T. Bedford, named the farm in honor of the beautiful nyala (antelope) he’d seen on an African safari.
In 1970, Stauffer Chemical developed their world headquarters there. It was Westport’s first corporate office park.
That put an end to scenes like this:
(Robert Vickrey painting, courtesy of Paul Ehrismann)
The cows and sleds are gone. But the well — and the memories — remain.
