The 45-year span began with Robert Law Olmsted's storied firm laying out Belle Haven's graceful, lamp-lit streets, and continued with the Gilded Age's most renowned architects designing masterpieces, in styles ranging from the whimsical Queen Anne to the ponderous Richardsonian Romanesque, for the illustrious movers and shakers of the day - men who raised up the Manhattan skyline, co-founded U.S. Successful American magazine described the Belle Haven of 1902 as "a nonpareil spot, surpassing in beauty, while equaling in elegance, the pet of the fashionable world, Newport, and outshining Tuxedo in brilliance and gaiety." The New York Times, meanwhile, called it "the flower garden of Greenwich, and, indeed, of the whole Connecticut shore."Victorian Summer: The Historic Houses of Belle Haven Park, Greenwich, Connecticut focuses on that great flowering of Belle Haven, from 1884 to 1929. Its development occurred rapidly, and between 18 Belle Haven Park was transformed from scenic pastureland set above the glistening ribbon of Long Island Sound into a bastion of Victorian luxury. In these idyllic locales they built luxurious summer "cottages" away from the grit and grime of New York or Boston or Philadelphia.The Belle Haven peninsula, in Greenwich, Connecticut, is home to one of the first and most spectacular residence parks in the country. (See map below.At the height of the Gilded Age, America's wealthiest families began to cluster in Newport, Southampton, Bar Harbor, and Tuxedo Park. The pedestrian entrance to the wetland is a dirt/gravel road called Haul Road on the right at the sign marked Dyke Marsh Wildlife Habitat. Cross the parkway and walk north about 1/3 of a mile to the Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve sign and turn right or east on the entrance road. Walk east on Belle View Boulevard about three blocks to the George Washington Memorial Parkway. Get off the bus at Belle View Boulevard and Wakefield Drive across from the Belle View Shopping Center. Go to the Fairfax Connector website for the schedule. Take the Fairfax Connector bus 101, 151 or 152. You can visit Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve without a vehicle by taking a 10-minute bus ride from Huntington Metro Station. How to Visit the Preserve without a Vehicle: Many other walks and activites meet at the Haul Road entrance. (See the yellow arrow in the map below.) The Haul Road is a dirt/gravel road or path, shown by a green dashed line on the map, which leads out into the marsh and river. (See the "P" in the map below.) Walks are led by experienced birders and all are welcome. in the south parking lot of the Belle Haven picnic area. After crossing the stone bridge at Hunting Creek (unmarked), take your next left at "Belle Haven Park & Marina/Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve." The trail out to the marsh is beyond the bike path, on the right, but be sure to scan the cove in front of the picnic area for waterfowl and eagles. Travel south from Old Town, Alexandria on the George Washington Memorial Parkway towards Mt. Map and Directions From Alexandria, Virginia
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