Cos Cob is a neighborhood and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, suc ...

in the town of

Greenwich, Connecticut Greenwich (, ) is a town in southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. At the 2020 census, the town had a total population of 63,518. The largest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast, Greenwich is home to many hedge funds and othe ...

. It is located on the Connecticut shoreline in southern

Fairfield County Fairfield County is the name of three counties in the United States: * Fairfield County, Connecticut * Fairfield County, Ohio Fairfield County is a county located in the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 158,921. ...

. It had a population of 6,770 at the 2010 census. Cos Cob is located on the western side of the mouth of the

Mianus River The Mianus River is a river in Westchester County, New York, and Fairfield County, Connecticut, in the United States. It begins in the town of North Castle, New York (east of Armonk) in a series of ponds at about altitude. Flowing northeast ...

. The

American Impressionist American Impressionism was a style of painting related to European Impressionism and practiced by American artists in the United States from the mid-nineteenth century through the beginning of the twentieth. The style is characterized by loose b ...

Cos Cob Art Colony flourished in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. An offshoot of the group, the

Greenwich Art Society Known originally as The Greenwich Society of Artists, the Greenwich Art Society is an organization dedicated to promoting arts education in the town of Greenwich, Connecticut. It was founded in 1912 by artists affiliated with the "Cos Cob School, ...

, continues to support local artists in town. The town of Greenwich is one political and taxing body, but consists of several distinct sections or neighborhoods, such as Banksville, Byram, Cos Cob, Glenville, Mianus,

Old Greenwich Old Greenwich is an affluent coastal village in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 6,611. The town of Greenwich is one political and taxing body, but consists of several distinct secti ...

, Riverside and

Greenwich Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...

(sometimes referred to as central, or downtown, Greenwich). Of these neighborhoods, three (Cos Cob, Old Greenwich, and Riverside) have separate postal names and ZIP codes. From 1883 to 1885, the official post office name of Cos Cob was Bayport. In 2015,

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

ranked Cos Cob the 287th wealthiest place in the US with a median house sale price of $1,329,107.

Community facilities

*The Cos Cob Library is a cultural center and community hub providing art gallery space, concert and lecture series, and free

WiFi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wa ...

access. Although of recent construction, the building evokes

Richardsonian Romanesque Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). The revival style incorporates 11th and 12th century southern French, Spanish, and Italian Romanes ...

design and is set in a pocket park landscaped by local volunteers. *The neighborhood's zip code is 06807. It has one post office. *There are two public schools in Cos Cob: Cos Cob Elementary School, 390 pupils, and Central Middle School, 710 pupils (both as of 2010),Web page titled "Greenwich Public School

on the web site of the Greenwich Public Schools. Accessed 7 September 2010. though school boundaries cut across zip code boundaries and many students who live in Cos Cob attend other public schools in town. *Cos Cob has a fire department staffed by both full-time salaried firefighters and volunteers. * Cos Cob station is served by the

New Haven Line The Metro-North Railroad New Haven Line is a commuter rail line running from New Haven, Connecticut to New York City. It joins the Harlem Line at Mount Vernon, New York and continues south to Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. The New Haven ...

of the

Metro-North Railroad Metro-North Railroad , trading as MTA Metro-North Railroad, is a suburban commuter rail service run by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a public authority of the U.S. state of New York and under contract with the Connectic ...

, a commuter rail service that runs between

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134 ...

and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

History

The community is situated on Cos Cob Harbor, a sheltered area on the north side of

Long Island Sound Long Island Sound is a marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York to the south. From west to east, the sound stretches from the Eas ...

. Cos Cob's role as a commercial shipping port, supplying potatoes and apples to

, disappeared with the appearance of the railroad and damming of the Mianus River. The river is now one source of the town's drinking water. From 1883 to 1885, the official post office name of Cos Cob was Bayport.

Cos Cob gets a train for Christmas

The Cos Cob train station and the

Railroad Bridge are listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. :"On Christmas Day, 1848, the last rails were laid over the Cos Cob Bridge, thereby supplying the last link needed to complete the railroad from New Haven to New York," according to the Stamford Historical Society Web site. "The first trial run was made on that day."Web page titled "Murals: Scenes from Yesteryea

on the web site of the Stamford Historical Society. Accessed 25 August 2006. Editors of two Stamford newspapers reported on the event. William H. Holly, Esq., founder of the ''Stamford Sentinel'' and a guest on the first trial run, wrote: "The train had to remain at Cos Cob Bridge some three hours for the last rails to be laid over it and the delay gave ample opportunity to the people to come and witness the wonderful feat. The general impression among them seemed to be, that the first train that attempted to cross this pass would also be the last." Edgar Hoyt, editor of the ''Stamford Advocate'', wrote: "The citizens of the village as well as the horses, cattle, etc., were nearly frightened out of their propriety ... by such a horrible scream as was never heard to issue from any other than a metallic throat. Animals of every description went careening round the fields, snuffling the air in their terror."

Twentieth and twenty-first centuries

The coal-fired steam turbine Cos Cob Power Plant built by Westinghouse in 1907 was a Mission Style structure. It was designated a Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark in 1982 by the

ASME The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is an American professional association that, in its own words, "promotes the art, science, and practice of multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences around the globe" via "continuing ...

and the

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operati ...

. Despite being listed on the

and local and national debate, the plant was decommissioned in 1987 and demolished in 2001.

Ernest Thompson Seton Ernest Thompson Seton (born Ernest Evan Thompson August 14, 1860 – October 23, 1946) was an English-born Canadian-American author, wildlife artist, founder of the Woodcraft Indians in 1902 (renamed Woodcraft League of America), and one of ...

lived in Cos Cob on an estate which is now a town park. Over 75 years ago what would eventually become the

Boy Scouts of America The Boy Scouts of America (BSA, colloquially the Boy Scouts) is one of the largest scouting organizations and one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with about 1.2 million youth participants. The BSA was founded in ...

was in part founded by him here. On June 28, 1983, a elevated portion of

Interstate 95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from US Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the Canadia ...

(the

Mianus River Bridge The Mianus River Bridge is a span that carries Interstate 95 ( Connecticut Turnpike) over the Mianus River, between Cos Cob and Riverside, Connecticut. It is the second bridge on the site. The original bridge collapsed in 1983, killing thre ...

) collapsed, killing and injuring several motorists. Interstate 95 is the principal highway between

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and nor ...

and

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

, and one of the most heavily traveled roads in the country. Because the road was not fully reopened for six months, it created a bottleneck which affected the New York to

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

transportation corridor. In 2006 NRG Energy Inc. of

La Jolla, California La Jolla ( , ) is a hilly, seaside neighborhood within the city of San Diego, California, United States, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the 2010 census was 46,781. La Jolla is surrounded on ...

, proposed adding additional capacity of 40 megawatts to the current 60 megawatt plant to supplement

Connecticut Light and Power Eversource Energy is a publicly traded, Fortune 500 energy company headquartered in Hartford, Connecticut, and Boston, Massachusetts, with several regulated subsidiaries offering retail electricity, natural gas service and water service to app ...

during peak periods in southwestern

. Two additional jet turbines would be added to the existing plant in 2008.

Notable people

Edwin Booth Edwin Thomas Booth (November 13, 1833 – June 7, 1893) was an American actor who toured throughout the United States and the major capitals of Europe, performing Shakespearean plays. In 1869, he founded Booth's Theatre in New York. Some theatric ...

, brother of

John Wilkes Booth John Wilkes Booth (May 10, 1838 – April 26, 1865) was an American stage actor who assassinated United States President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. A member of the prominent 19th-century Booth ...

and a famous actor of his day * Orestes H. Caldwell, one of the first members of the

Federal Radio Commission The Federal Radio Commission (FRC) was a government agency that regulated United States radio communication from its creation in 1927 until 1934, when it was succeeded by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FRC was established by t ...

Gary Dell'Abate Gary Patrick Angelo Dell'Abate (born March 14, 1961), also known by the nickname Baba Booey, is an American radio producer who has been the executive producer of ''The Howard Stern Show'' since 1984. His autobiography, '' They Call Me Baba Booey'' ...

, producer for ''

The Howard Stern Show ''The Howard Stern Show'' is an American radio show hosted by Howard Stern that gained wide recognition when it was nationally syndicated on terrestrial radio from WXRK in New York City, between 1986 and 2005. The show has aired on Howard 100 a ...

'' *

Jim Himes James Andrew Himes (born July 5, 1966) is an American businessman and politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, he chaired the New Democrat Coalition in the 115th Congress (2017–2019). H ...

, Democratic congressman from

Connecticut's 4th congressional district Connecticut's 4th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Located in the southwestern part of the state, the district is largely suburban and extends from Bridgeport, the largest city in the state, to ...

. *

Finn Murphy Finn Murphy (born May 22, 1958) is an American long haul trucker and author of ''The Long Haul: A Trucker's Tales of Life on the Road,'' published by W.W. Norton & Company. He was born in Greenwich, Connecticut the fifth child of illustrator and ...

, author of ''The Long Haul'' *

Barbara O'Neil Barbara O'Neil (July 17, 1910 – September 3, 1980) was an American film and stage actress. She appeared in the film ''Gone with the Wind'' (1939) and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in ' ...

, actress *

Anya Seton Anya Seton (January 23, 1904 – November 8, 1990), born Ann Seton, was an American author of historical fiction, or as she preferred they be called, "biographical novels". Career Seton published her first novel, ''My Theodosia'', in 1941. Seton ...

, author of historical romances *

Barbara Tuchman Barbara Wertheim Tuchman (; January 30, 1912 – February 6, 1989) was an American historian and author. She won the Pulitzer Prize twice, for ''The Guns of August'' (1962), a best-selling history of the prelude to and the first month of Worl ...

, historian *

Jerry Springer Gerald Norman Springer (born February 13, 1944) is a British-American broadcaster, journalist, actor, producer, former lawyer, and politician. He hosted the tabloid talk show '' Jerry Springer'' between September 30, 1991 and July 26, 2018, an ...

, TV Show Host, ''

The Jerry Springer Show ''Jerry Springer'' is an American scripted syndicated tabloid talk show that aired from September 30, 1991 to July 26, 2018. Produced and hosted by its namesake, Jerry Springer, it aired for 27 seasons and nearly 5,000 episodes. The television ...

'' *

Frederick M. Warburg Frederick Marcus Warburg (October 14, 1897 – July 10, 1973) was a Jewish-American banker from New York. Life Warburg was born on October 14, 1897, in New York City, the son of banker Felix M. Warburg and Frieda Schiff. A member of the Jewish ...

, investment banker

Places of interest

* Bush-Holley House, the only National Historic Landmark in Greenwich; built in about 1730; listed in 1988 *

House In addition to the Bush-Holley House, these sites in Cos Cob are listed by the National Register of Historic Places: *

Mianus River Railroad Bridge The Mianus River Railroad Bridge, also known as the Cos Cob Bridge, is a bascule bridge, bascule drawbridge built in 1904 over the Mianus River, in Greenwich, Connecticut. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987. The br ...

, built: 1904; listed: 1987 * Cos Cob Railroad Station, built: c. 1890; listed: 1989 * Strickland Road Historic District, Strickland Road; built: c. 1730-1938; listed: 1990 *

Cos Cob Power Station Cos Cob Power Station was a historic power station near the Metro-North Railroad tracks, the Mianus River and Sound Shore Drive in the Cos Cob area of Greenwich, Connecticut. The Spanish Revival style station building of 1907 was significant as ...

, Sound Shore Drive; built: 1907; listed: 1990; demolished, 2000

In popular culture

* In Season 5 of AMC's TV series ''

Mad Men ''Mad Men'' is an American period drama television series created by Matthew Weiner and produced by Lionsgate Television. It ran on the cable network AMC from July 19, 2007, to May 17, 2015, lasting for seven seasons and 92 episodes. Its f ...

'', Cos Cob became the home to character

Pete Campbell Peter Dyckman Campbell (born February 28, 1934) is a fictional character on AMC's television series '' Mad Men''. He is portrayed by Vincent Kartheiser. Kartheiser has won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensembl ...

and his family.''Mad Men'' ep. 5x05 "Signal 30" * Hollywood Golden Age film star Gene Marshall, a doll designed by artist Mel Odom, spent her formative years in Cos Cob

Library

Gallery

Image:PostcardCosCobStricklandsPond1911postmark.jpg, Stricklands Pond, ca. 1911 Image:StricklandsPondCosCobCT1910.jpg, Strickland's Pond, ca. 1910

Notes

References

* * * *

External links

Greenwich Historical SocietyGreenwich Art SocietyCos Cob Library
{{authority control Greenwich, Connecticut Neighborhoods in Connecticut Connecticut placenames of Native American origin Census-designated places in Fairfield County, Connecticut Census-designated places in Connecticut Populated coastal places in Connecticut