Pemberwick Park
Pemberwick Road, Greenwich, Fairfield County, CT
44 acres
Directions:
I-287; Hutchinson Parkway to the Merritt Parkway; get off at the first exit on the Merritt Parkway, exit 27; set odometer to 0; turn/bear right onto Glen Ridge Road; follow it as it changes to Glenville Road; at 0.7 of a mile turn right onto Pemberwick Road; at 2.0 miles you come to the park sign. Park along the road where you can.
Description:
This is a narrow linear L-shaped park along Pemberwick Road.
Geology/Topography:
Lyons Brook flows diagonally across the western portion to the Byram River.
Description:
The park is divided into 3 sections:
1) 8-acre recreation area at the corner of Pemberwick Road and Moshier Street. Parking is available on both streets.
2) a natural area of 21-acres (along Pemberwick Road in the north);
3) 14 acre managed conservation area (access from Weaver Street, north of Moshier Street). Thee is a trail winding through fields and orchards in succession.
History:
1706 -- Samuel Lyon granted a parcel of land.
Midl-1600s Thomas Lyon, a son-in-law of Elizabeth Feake, purchased the land, and enlarged it over many generations.
1676 -- Thomas Lyon granted a parcel of land lying along the Byram River.
1686 -- Elizabeth Feake (1633-1676) married Captain John Underhill, famous for two Indian massacres.
1722 -- Thomas Lyon bought of Joseph Lyon all his right, title, and interest in the estate of Samuel Lyon, deceased.
1732 -- Thomas Lyon deeded the land to his sons, Joseph and Jonathan.
1733 -- Thomas Lyon deeded land to his son, Thomas Lyon.
1858-1889 -- the mysterious "Leatherman", so-named because he dressed in hand-sewn skins, roamed the woods and backroads of Westchester and Connecticut. One of the cliffs in the Park is a cave reputed to be a stopping place of Leatherman. He would sleep in caves and subsist on food given him by towns people along his route.
Mid-1880s a deep gorge was blasted from the bedrock for a railroad that never materialized.
1940 Mr. John Lyon gave 8 acres on Pemberwick Road to the Town for an active recreation park.
1968 death of descendent John M. Lyon, the last descendent to maintain the 200 acres as a farm.
1972 Greenwich acquired an additional 35 acres of land when the property was sold for the Lyon Farms subdivision development. The park was conveyed to the Town in this year.
1975 -- a land use plan was adopted by the Town. Approximately 15 acres of the park was set aside for active recreation. This acreage included 8-acres from the original Pemberwick Park, plus 7-acres along Pemberwick Road that was acquired in 1972. In addition, approximately 15 acres were declared a natural conservation area.
Source:
The USGenWeb Project,Fairfield County, Connecticut, Greenwich: LANDOWNERS FROM THE FIRST INDIAN DEED 1640 TO 1752, GALPIN TO YOUNG.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~ctfairfi/pages/greenwich/grnwich_landowners02.htm
Facilities:
Picnic Tables with grill, tennis courts, baseball field, basketball courts, bocci ball, and playgrounds, community building
Habitats:
two natural areas featuring meadows, cattail marshes, and woods
Wildlife:
Pheasants, Woodcocks, Hawks, Owls, and Woodpeckers, Warblers.
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