New construction has sold on Pecksland (UPDATED)

161 Pecksland Road, $6.3 million. I could be wrong, but I think that this lot on the corner of Pecksland and Riversville, was once the site of a hunting/shooting club; true or not, any woodchuck hunters that might once have been found in its woods went missing years and years ago.

The sale of the lot itself went slowly at first, then quickly. An owner listed it for $2.250 million in 2014, and had it on and off the market at steadily decreasing prices thereafter before finally selling it for $950,000 in August 2020. That buyer had it newly surveyed, including a perc test for septic and delineation of wetlands, and then listed it with Steve Archino in February 2022 for $1.2 million.

Throwing caution to the wind and tossing a fig at superstition, Steve added a boastful warning to the listing description: “With the current demand for the new construction being built, especially in great locations, this one will not last”. Mirabile dictu, for the first time ever in real estate history, “this one won’t last” did not doom the property to languish forever on the unsold rolls; instead, a (modest) bidding war erupted and it sold quickly for $1.3.

Even at that price, I’m surprised that a 2-acre lot here could sell for so little; I don’t think it would today.

UPDATE:

Old pal GPDFolks confirmed my dim memory that this was a hunting club of sorts, and added the information that Lucy and Desi Arnez were married at the clubhouse. Indeed they were, in 1940.

The couple met on the RKO Pictures lot in 1939 when they co-starred in the Rodgers-Hart musical "Too Many Girls."

Arnaz, a Cuban-born bandleader, was playing the Roxy in New York City in November 1940 when the couple decided to get married. Greenwich was a logical option for a quick wedding for the New York-based couple. Connecticut had a shorter waiting period than New York, and Greenwich is the first town over the line.

According to the Stamford Advocate's Dec. 2 edition, the normal five-day waiting period was waived by a judge and they were married Nov. 30, at the Byram River Beagle Club by Justice of the Peace John J. O'Brien. Ball was 29 and Arnaz 23.

On Dec. 2, the couple smiled on page one of Greenwich Time beneath the headline, "Twas Love At First Sight for Lucille and Desi, Who Were Wed In Greenwich." With many stores closed, the couple reportedly bought a cheap ring at Woolworth's.

…Recalling it later, Ball said, "Maybe it doesn't sound romantic, but actually it was. The judge took us there because he said all young people who are going to spend a lifetime together should start off in as romantic a setting as possible."

The pair divorced in 1960. The Byram River Beagle Club at Glenville and Riversville roads, where Babe Ruth reportedly enjoyed meals with New York Yankees teammates, closed decades ago.