Life Along Kirby Mill Pond

The Rye Historical Society took us back through nearly 350 years of history of the Kirby Mill Pond area in a matter of hours on its annual historic walking tour October 20.

The Rye Historical Society took us back through nearly 350 years of history of the Kirby Mill Pond area in a matter of hours on its annual historic walking tour October 20.

Visitors started at the Kirby Mill and wended their way up Kirby Lane, stopping to hear how the area developed from Native American footpath to mill, early settlement, gentleman’s farms, and Gilded Age summer community, to name a few.

During the Civil War, nearby Sackett Landing may have been a stop on the Underground Railroad. Many well-to-do Kirby Lane families were actively engaged in the women’s suffrage movement. While the U.S. Constitution didn’t grant women the vote until 1920, the Village of Rye permitted women to vote in some local elections as early as 1910 and founded the Equal Franchise League of Rye in 1913.

Many of the big estates were demolished decades ago, but the spirit of the neighborhood and the families who left their mark in the community is very much alive thanks to yet another fact-filled walking tour from the Rye Historical Society.