Oreo’s origins may be on Mayo (Ave.)
Belle Haven house reported first home of Nabisco
GREENWICH — Set atop one of the highest hills in the Belle Haven neighborhood of Greenwich is a 125-year-old Queen Anne Victorian home with a turret, an expansive front porch and sweeping lawns. But that is not all this property holds on its grounds.
On the market for $15.9 million, the home at 78 Mayo Ave. is more than
just its six bedrooms or seven full bathrooms. It is a piece of Greenwich — and American — history. Or so it seems.
John McAtee, managing partner of the New England Land Company and listing agent on the property, has reason to believe its historic origins, thanks to the 2018 book “Victorian Summer: The Historic Houses of Belle Haven Park.” Featuring some of the original properties built in the area between the late 1800s and early 1900s, the home is profiled as the “Hutchins Cottage.”
The chronology outlined in the book is, for McAtee, enough to suggest that this Belle Haven home was the birthplace of at least one of two now-famed products: Barnum’s Animal Crackers and Oreo cookies.
“There’s a little lore that this is where that genesis and the creativity has come from: living in that house,” McAtee said.
Completed in 1888, the home was first owned by Horace A. Hutchins, an Ohio oil tycoon who sold his company to Standard Oil and became “executive in charge of domestic business” at the oil conglomerate, according to a photo copy of “Victorian Summer” provided to Hearst Connecticut Media. With a new fortune in tow, Hutchins purchased the home at 78 Mayo Ave. in 1889, and it was subsequently rented to Adolphus W. Green for several seasons before Green purchased the property in 1905.
While Green’s name might not be the most familiar, his company and its products have a place in grocery stores across the country and around the world: the National Biscuit Company, better known today as Nabisco. According to “Victorian Summer,” Green launched Barnum’s Animal Crackers in 1902, and “the Oreo
Bisquit” in 1912.
McAtee said that while the chronology of the Oreo’s creation certainly falls within the period of Green’s formal ownership of the house, the exact inspiration for the Oreo is not quite known. But that doesn’t stop the enjoyment that comes with guessing.
“One could have some creative liberty and maybe look at the architecture and the open turrets which are round and make a little sandwich and maybe say that was kind of the idea of where a cookie sandwich came from,” McAtee offered. “You could really have some fun with it.”
The other thing that McAtee finds fun to note about the property? Its massive three-year construction project that brought the Belle Haven home into modernity. The current owner of the home, who wishes to retain anonymity, took one year to plan a new design and another two years to execute the project, McAtee said.
Working with David Scott Parker Architects
and Tallman Building Company, the work began with a “site optimization” that upgraded the acre of land to play up its view of Long Island Sound, according to the home’s website.
“They moved it all of five feet to the south and one foot to the east to get it perfectly situated on the rectangular lot facing exactly due south,” McAtee said of the site optimization process.
Next, the home was temporarily lifted so its previous foundation could
be removed before a new cast concrete one was poured, allowing the builders to raise the ceiling heights in the ground floor of the house. Other changes, such as a Geothermal system added to its mechanical room and a “snow melt” system for front and rear walkways, upgraded the technical details of the home, as well.
But for McAtee, what is equally impressive about the reconstruction process is the way the current owner maintained the home’s original flair while also updating its interior design through all four stories of the house.
“It’s the full package, but from the front, it looks as it did 125 years ago,” he said. “It’s just extraordinary that you even have someone that has the wherewithal and the financial means, but then the ability to execute a three-year project with that level of detail and sense of responsibility.”
For starters, this interior reconstruction included the addition of “custom copper-lined, weight and chain, double-paned true divided light windows and screens,” according to the home’s website, which were created as exact replicas of the original design. A semi-circular window archway that sits atop the front façade features over 150 panes of glass, the home description states, while the kitchen has custom cabinets and Carrara marble counters.
One of the features McAtee finds most noteworthy? A “crow’s nest.”
“On the top of the house, which has this beautiful staircase that goes up to this large — you can call it a roof deck, a widow’s walk, a crow’s nest — functional, usable deck with 360-degree views,” he said. “It’s the highest vantage point in the neighborhood, bar none, and you have these endless views that look out south across Long Island Sound and Long Island, and you can actually see the New York City skyline.”
With every feature and finish completed with an attention to detail McAtee called “the highest that one can do in a very tasteful manner,” he said the new life given to this historic home will help ensure it remains in the community for many years to come.
“What’s really amazing is that this is a mainstay of the Belle Haven community,” he said. “The responsibility of making sure it will withstand the next 125 years … somebody will really benefit from this.”