Silver Sands Road Mixes Historic and Modern

Long before Silver Sands Road got its romantic-sounding name, early settlers named Smith, Thompson and Townsend, had taken up residence near the shore.

Lorraine King has lived in one of their homes, built by Samuel Smith in 1750, for the past 50 years. It is located at 710 Silver Sands Road.

“I’ve always loved this house,” King said. “I was looking for a place to rent that would take children; back in the 1960s that was hard to find. One day, I drove by this house. It was in pretty bad shape, but I contacted the owner."

The owner turned out to be Phyllis Schulman, who also owned the Colony Beach Club. Her parents, the Alexanders, had lived in the house for years.

“She said if my husband, who was a carpenter, would work on fixing it up, she’d give us a good deal on the rent,” King said. “So every day for years he’d have a list of things that needed doing. We eventually bought it and it was a great place to raise the kids.”

King’s two sons, William and David, still live in East Haven, and daughter Caroline lives in North Branford.

“There were a lot of nooks and crannies that were fun to explore, and there was a legend about a tunnel that went from our cellar to the water’s edge that was used by smuggler’s looking to move contraband.”

Two years ago a fire, started by a dryer, damaged half the house and firefighters opened up some of the long-closed nooks as they worked to save the house. It has since been repaired and restored to its previous appearance.

The house was built before 1750, although that’s the date on the plaque on the front of the house that was presented by the East Haven Historical Society in the 1970s.

However, 1750 is actually the date that Samuel Smith deeded the “house where I now live in and ye orchard and barns” to his son, Daniel, in his will. Samuel was the son of Thomas Smith, who came in the ship "Hector," from London, in 1637, with the founders of the New Haven colony. Thomas was the youngest person on the ship, not quite 4 years old.

He later married Elizabeth Patterson, a daughter of East Haven, who no doubt accounted for his decision to bring his gunsmith’s trade from Fairfield to East Haven. They had a number of offspring who formed the basis for the many Smiths who would populate the area.

Samuel married Anna Morris, of the Morris Cove family, so she must have felt right at home in the house he built near the water. He was known as Captain Smith when he left the house to his son, whom he called Ensign Daniel, so they both must have been seafarers at some point.

Most of the 50 years Lorraine King lived in her home, the surrounding area was grassy, open land. She also recalls an egg farm further east on Silver Sands and vistas of the water, which are now blocked by the homes that have been built along the water.

“Mr. Rose lived in a lovely old home across from us, up on a hill. He spent part of each day keeping up the lawn that swept down the hill,” King said.

The Rose family inherited their property from Nathaniel S. Quick, who emigrated from Germany. He and his son, Nathaniel Junior, both had market gardens where they raised fruits and vegetables during the 1920s and 30s.

After the death of both parents, daughter Julia Quick Rose, wife of Robert I Rose, inherited the property in 1949. It has since been sold by the Rose family to Frank Frumento who developed the land. He built a rotary of new homes on what is now Roses Farm Circle, off Silver Sands Road.

However, historic homes still flourish on Silver Sands, especially the home of Doug Hopkins, a transplant to East Haven who lived in Madison for 30 years. His home at 735 Silver Sands Road was built in 1835, in the Greek Revival or Federalist style.

“I saw this house one day with my realtor. I liked it because it had great bones, but I was still working on another house I owned,” Hopkins said. “Finally, when I was ready to make an offer, it took months of negotiating.”

The previous owners, Frank and Joan Gardener, had lived there for 40 years. Both artists, they were growing infirm, and had moved to the main floor.

“The house was badly in need of work,” Hopkins said. “Since it sits on a double lot, I thought someone might buy it, tear it down, and put up two new houses. I love to resurrect and save beautiful old things, and have done that to other houses. I knew how much work was involved here. For instance, they had been using 275 gallons of heating oil every two weeks and still couldn’t keep the downstairs warm.”

Hopkins accepted the challenge and spent a year completely rebuilding and redecorating. As a professional home stager, he knew what was going to be involved. He was aware that the less glamorous aspects of the work would take the most time and money.

“The foundation needed to be completely redone to provide stability to walls of the house,” Hopkins said. "I got rid of all the squirrels that had lived in the walls for years. The roof was dipping and needed shoring up. But the house had the space I needed for both a home and an office; it had good storage for all the things I need for my staging work; and it's only 900 feet from the water."   

Hopkins added central gas heating, air conditioning, on-demand hot water, a security system and foam insulation. He also added new window frames, keeping the old panes, and soundproofing measures since the house is in the flight path to the airport.

He was pleasantly surprised to find that the airport was a helpful neighbor. Many tall, decaying trees overhung the home’s roofline, and the airport was willing to pay for removal of all these as a safety measure for descending planes.

“I know that this isn’t the first house on this spot,” he said. “I’m told that this was originally owned by a member of the Townsend family. We found a huge chimney base in the basement from the first house, but there wasn’t a single fireplace in the place when I bought it.”

The improvements he's added have made it reasonable to run, as energy efficient as possible. For a place of its age, it's as 'green' as it can possibly be.

He also spruced up the garage, which he was told was a former boat house for one of the beach hotels. It was moved to the site in the 1940s. He’s added a spire to the roof, as well as a window over the doors with stained glass inserts.

When told about the history of Silver Sands Road, both King and Hopkins were intrigued by the way it got its name.

Apparently, in 1891, a reporter from an out-of-town newspaper came to interview a well-known actor named Edward J. Hassan at his summer home near the beach. The reporter waxed on that the sands on the shore were “fine, light and glistening” – hence silver-like.

Since Hassan was an Irishman from Londonderry, (where the name is a Anglization of the Irish name O’hosáin) and an actor to boot, it’s not too hard to picture him seizing on that reporter’s description of the location of his home.

A short time after the reporter’s visit, Marion Hassan, Edward’s wife, laid out the road and named it. Silver Sands Road was one of the original 13 streets named by the Town Council in 1903 when they put up street signs.

According to town tax records, Marion owned 44 acres of land around the beach, including the Silver Sands Beach Hotel that the family operated. In fact, Edward apparently used the boat house at the hotel to rehearse his acting troupe before a new play. He was buried in East Haven when he died in 1930.

Knowing all this, when we saw the boat house at Doug Hopkins’ home, it was natural to speculate that, just possibly, this might be the Silver Sands Hotel structure Hassan once used. We've discovered that coincidences like that happen a lot in East Haven.