Tod's Point
The Shining Sands
The Siwanoy Indians used it as a fishing camp and called it Monakewego –" shining sands". Purchased by Daniel Patrick and Robert and Elizabeth Feake in 1640 (along with the rest of what is now Old Greenwich), it became known as Elizabeth’s Neck. A member of the Ferris family bought the land in 1730, where it remained for more than 150 years.
Until 1860, Greenwich Point was an island at high tide, and very sparsely settled. There are remains of a few pre-Revolutionary cellar holes along the ridge north of the clambake area, and in 1800's there were some squatters and fishermen, who were finally bought out by the last pirate owner of the Point- J.Kennedy Tod, in 1889.
Tod’s vision for the waterfront estate he called Innis Arden was bold. Joining two small islands with fill, he built a tide-control gate and created a lake from a tidal marsh. Next came a road around the lake and a causeway to provide access to the mainland. A stone mansion, boat house, guest cottage and other buildings were erected; a barn housed cows and sheep grazed on the nine-hole golf course. The mansion had 37 rooms, and sat upon a lagoon, where he kept a yacht. They entertained many famous people, including President Theodore Roosevelt. The Tod's had no children of their own, so they left the whole estate to The Presbyterian Hospital i New York, who used it as a vacation spot for their nurses, until the last Great War.
In 1946 the township of Greenwich bought the Point for the pleasure and recreation of all Greenwich inhabitants. The great Tod's Masion was turned in to 13 apartments for Housing veterans and continued to do so until 1961, when the mason was torn down.
What remained until today is the "castle - like" ruin and the stables, where Precious 7 shot this week's story " Into The Dark".