Old Greenwich waterfront

You certainly couldn’t do this fill job today

7 Meadow Place, asking $6.495 million, is reported as pending. I’m surprised that this land is going for so much, because, while Meadow Place is a fine street, and Old Greenwich Harbor is a very nice place to front on, the view from here is across the water to Willowmere Circle; pleasant, but hardly spectacular.

And the highest elevation here seems to be about 7 1/2 feet. The new house will have to be perched a long way into the air if it’s to meet FEMA and town codes, and I personally would find that off-putting. On the other hand, what do I know? My great-grandfather, a builder in the city back in the 19th Century, turned down an opportunity to buy a parcel of land in Manhattan because it was located across the street from a swamp, “and anything you build here will have a wet basement”. That swamp became Central Park Pond, and the spurned lot is now home to the Plaza Hotel which, I’m told, has pumps in its basement running 24-hours a day. Can’t fool a Fountain!