The Romance of Norwalk

Norwalk can answer only that it “doesn’t know.” What would the city not give for that valuable site today? Yet now it is practically unpurchasable, not only because of the high price but because of the fact that the present owners do not wish to sell. Le Grand Lockwood came of distinguished family. He was born August 14, 1820, in Pudding Lane, Norwalk, and married Anna Louise Benedict by whom he had six sons and two daughters. Lockwood and Co. was a rich com¬ pany. Lockwood was instrumental in the purchase of the Danbury-Norwalk railroad; he floated a bond issue of $2,000,000 for the New York, New Haven and Hartford. He was a giant in Wall St. In November, 1863, the finan¬ cier commenced buying those tracts of land which now make up the Mathews’ estate, paying $48,410 for the first few tracts. There were ten in all, the last not being purchased until 1865. Lockwood did not wait that long to build, but commenced in the spring of 1864. He piped his water from the reser¬ voir back of the Norwalk hospital and that same water sup¬ ply is still being used. The house, which was a copy of a Scotch mansion, was constructed entirely of imported stone, mostly Italian marble, and cost approximately $1,200,000. Ox carts brought the cargoes from the Norwalk river up West ave. Outside spreads a lawn, flattened years ago by the bare feet of hundreds of workmen; tall, stately trees; an iron fence erected at a cost of $10,000. Inside there are 18 main rooms grouped around a large rotunda which ex¬ tends three stories high. On the ground floor is a library, a music room with a giant painting of the Yosemite valley, a drawing room, a theatre, and card room. On the upper floors are billiard rooms, guest chambers and seven bed¬ rooms. The home was completed in 1866 and in the June of the following year, the Lockwoods celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. For two more years they enjoyed their dreamland and then came “Black Friday.” When the financial panic hit Wall Street, September 24, PEACE AND PROGRESS 3i5 1869, Lockwood, as luck would have it, was away on a vaca¬ tion. When he returned the following day, he was a ruined man. Monday morning, September 27, 1869, found Lock- wood broken as to finance, but not as to spirit, and on his way back to work. He decided to pay his debts and ac¬ cordingly turned over the new home, which was his own, to the company to satisfy creditors. Lockwood was a genius and three months later, having partially regained his finan¬ cial feet, he was able to get title to his house again. Now he turned the estate into capital with which to work once more, and shortly mortgaged it. The place passed through several financial transactions. Life was unkind to Lockwood in his later years. No sooner had he begun to extricate himself from his tangle of affairs, than he suddenly died, 1872. Shortly after the burial of the Norwalker in February of that year, the estate went on the market. There were no buyers, no applicants, and for several years the place remained prominent on the real estate listings. It was not until May 19, 1876, that it was found possible to get rid of the property and it was then sold for the ridiculous sum of $90,000 to Charles D. Mathews of New York city. And this, in the face of the fact that it had cost Lockwood $1,200,000 alone to build the house, not to speak of $60,000 expended for the land! Several times previous to the sale of the Lockwood prop¬ erty, various citizens in town had urged Norwalk to buy it and under date of November 17, 1874, in The Sentinel appeared the following plea: “A movement is now on foot to purchase the Le Grand Lockwood mansion. This is now offered by Agent Mitchell at $110,000 while its cost, as is well known, was over a million. We wish the town of Nor¬ walk had the sagacity and enterprise to become its purchaser. The grounds could be and should be, thrown into a public park, while the mansion could easily and cheaply be con¬ verted into a public hall accommodating all our municipal wants and proving a lasting credit to the town.” Since our fair city had neither the “sagacity” nor the “enterprise” 3 16 ROMANCE OF NORWALK at the time to purchase the property it fell into the hands of Charles Delincourt Mathews. Mathews was a prominent New Yorker, who married Rebecca Mason Thompson. They had four children; Florence, who remained unmarried; Lillian, who married and has since died; Harry; and Charles. The latter is an internationally known architect. Miss Florence who is now 70 years old, is said to be very fond of the place. She comes to Norwalk every summer for a short time and it is under¬ stood that the property will not be sold during her lifetime. Long before Mathews became owner of the property, long before Le Grand Lockwood even thought of buying it, the place was occupied by several families, who had built small homes for themselves. The earliest known Norwalker who had any connection whatever with the property was David Martin, Indian fighter. His daughter married a Benedict and from this union was born Anna Louise Bene¬ dict, later the wife of LeGrand Lockwood. Before the lands were consolidated into the present estate, the property was owned by six families, it being recorded that in i860 houses thereon were occupied by “J. Benedict, Mrs. Seymour, Mrs. Hotchkiss, Mrs. Samis, J. Nash, O. Seymour.” A small section of property was owned by Charles Mallory. The house at the south end was known as the James Seymour First house and was a meeting place for the townspeople during Revolutionary times. When Tryon came to town, this building escaped the flames. Not so the Benedict home, which was burned to the ground. It was later rebuilt, and at the time Lockwood bought the property, stood on West ave., on the site of the present gatekeeper’s lodge. Many times after the property passed into the hands of the Mathews’ family, Norwalk tried to buy it for the city. In the town records under date of 1886 we find that Nor¬ walk planned to purchase the land for the erection of a county courthouse and jail. This proposition passed into oblivion when the county buildings went to Bridgeport. The more inaccessible the property became, the harder PEACE AND PROGRESS 3i7 Norwalk tried to buy it, and during the past few years ef- l forts have been made to purchase it for a civic center. WATER WORKS The year 1870 in Norwalk marked the beginning of an agitation for a water reservoir for the first district, and also the organization of South Norwalk, formerly called “Old Well,” as a city. It was early in the spring of 1870 when the people of Norwalk decided that the question of a water supply was the most important problem of the day. July 15, 1870, a charter for the purpose of providing Norwalk with a permanent water supply was procured and approved, being accepted at a special meeting of the electors, one month later. The building of the first reservoir known as Grupe’s and located in the town of New Canaan was started in 1871 and at the time of its completion in 1873, the people marked the event with a special celebration. Since that time, Brown’s and Scott’s reservoirs in Lewisboro, New York, and Spring Hill reservoir in Spring Hill, have been constructed to aug¬ ment the supply from Grupe’s reservoir. The total storage capacity is 425,000,000 gallons, supplying a population of about 12,000 persons. The daily consumption is about 2,- 000,000 gallons. The first district, part of the third district and the outlying districts including Winnipauk, Silvermine and other sections north of the first district use this water. In 1923, the commissioners had the dam at Brown’s res¬ ervoir raised six feet, increasing the capacity from 210,- 000,000 to 310,00,000 gallons. The first mains laid were a combination of cement and sheet iron, it being impossible in those days to lay iron pipes because of the prohibitive cost. These pipes, after being in the ground for 40 years, deteriorated, necessitating the substitution of iron pipes. This work has been done gradually and today none of the old mains are in use. The second district water department supplies the lower end of the city. July 22, 1874, the General Assembly ap- ROMANCE OF NORWALK 318 proved an act entitled “An Act To Provide A Supply of Pure And Wholesome Water To The City of South Nor¬ walk.” At that time an arrangement was made whereby Norwalk agreed to supply South Norwalk with water. There were a number of points in the agreement, one of which was to the effect that if the reservoir were low, the borough of Norwalk reserved the right to shut off the water from South Norwalk. The proposition was accepted by the water commissioners of South Norwalk, January 9, 1875. Immediately a special meeting of the voters in Nor¬ walk was called and the proposition rescinded. Four months later, South Norwalk decided to build a wTater system of its own. The system was completed in November 1875, four and 1-2 miles of main and four miles of distributing pipe being laid and 45 hydrants set.