08/18/11 Byram Area History

Down on Weaver Street in Greenwich, there is a small stone house that looked to be a very old structure.

If you read Rachel Carley's "Building Greenwich," which states, the "Fieldstone Solomon Merritt house is the oldest known masonry structure in Greenwich. It was probably built soon after 1770, when Merritt purchased the site located on Weaver Street."

At that time Weaver Street was the primary road from the Post Road north to a mill owned by the Merritt family near the Byram River in the Glenville area.

Stratified granite was the preferred material, as the stone split easily, and could be broken up with a hammer. Quarrying was often done on the ledges and out croppings exposed by water on the outer curve of a river bend.

Often the stone was brought to the building site by raft, less difficult than hauling trees over land from the woods where they were felled.

According to the histories, there was little stone building in our town prior to the Solomon Merritt house at 137 Weaver Street, even though there was a goodly amount of granite in the area.

When one considers the amount of stone walls all over the place in Greenwich, and the many stone chimneys and lovely fireplaces, it is interesting that more stone houses were not built.

Think of all the Georgian houses of stone erected today.

The author mentions the chimney base in the 1750 Nathaniel Peck, Jr., house in Old Greenwich, which measures twelve by fourteen feet, and the fireplace opening in the parlor, which is six feet across.

By the late 1700s, brick became the masonry of choice, although for financial reasons stone was still used in cellars. Another fascinating historical house in our town.