The Bush-Holley House in Cos Cob is a wonderful place for families to explore Connecticut history, art, and the stories of remarkable women.
This circa-1730 home is a National Historic Landmark and the centerpiece of the Greenwich Historical Society’s campus. Its preserved rooms bring visitors into two distinct eras: the Revolutionary War years of the Bush family and the turn-of-the-century Cos Cob Art Colony.During the Revolutionary War, Sarah Bush and her husband, David Bush, lived in the home with their large blended family.
Their story offers a window into the difficult choices, divided loyalties, and daily realities faced by Connecticut families living near the frontier between Patriot Connecticut and Loyalist New York. The household also included enslaved people, whose experiences are part of the site’s interpretation of this period.
More than a century later, Josephine Holley and her husband Edward operated the house as a boarding house for artists and writers beginning in 1882. Their daughter, Constant Holley MacRae, later became its proprietress and a central figure in the Cos Cob Art Colony, Connecticut’s first Impressionist art colony. Artists including John Henry Twachtman, Theodore Robinson, Childe Hassam, J. Alden Weir, and Ernest Lawson gathered there to work, study, and exchange ideas.
A docent-led visit lets families see period rooms, learn about the Bush and Holley families, and view the museum’s American Impressionist art collection. It is an engaging outing for anyone interested in women’s history, Revolutionary-era life, and the artists who helped shape American Impressionism.