Clark W. Wilcox 1853-1920

by Joseph B. Barnes, Esq.

 

A son of Capt. John W. Wilcox (b. 1832) and Anna M. Davidson Wilcox (b. 1836) of Milford, Clark Wilcox had roots here at least back to the revolutionary war. He removed to Brooklyn, NY in 1876. There he got involved in the hat industry. He developed a huge business in clothing Wilcox's Millinery, 109 - 111 Myrtle Ave and bridge street in Brooklyn, NY (roughly today's site of the NYU Polytechnic School of engineering) with a 20,000 square foot building for manufacturing, warehouse with 163 linear feet of retail space.

 

Clark ran Wilcox's Millinery House as president with two of his three surviving siblings (of 5), Lorren (VP) (b. 1859), and George (Sec./Treas.) (b. 1865). Boasting "the Best Hats in New York" his advertised prices ranged (in 1903) from School hats at 15 cents to fancy straw and chiffon hats priced at $2.98 to $4.98, marked down from the kingly sum of $7.98 to $9.98. Their ad in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle priced his goods two to five times higher than rival Milkman's Millinery of Fulton Street whose ad was often posted right next to his. Clearly Wilcox had cornered the "luxury hat" market in Brooklyn.

 

Wilcox's success was good news for Milford as Clark Wilcox, who summered at Walnut Beach, became a great benefactor of the Village of Milford. After 33 years building his fortune in New York, he decided to return to Milford. Actually, with some considerable thought toward finality, he had decided some time back to return here permanently as way back in 1894 he bought his burial plot in Milford Cemetery!

 

Wealthy Clark  Wilcox owned many properties by purchase or inheritance around town: 17 acres on the Housatonic; 38 lots in "Westfield"; land on the today's Harborside Drive facing Wilcox Park which he, and then his estate, sold off as residential lots; a large area of land between Old Field Lane and the Indian River "gulf" which he sold to George Wilcox in 1913 (some of it was a golf course until purchased for residential development in today's Wilcox Road area); and Land on High Street, corner of Broad, that eventually became Cody-White Funeral Home and northward across the railway tracks, the seed company headquarters of Everett Clark (MHOF Inductee: 2014) later 'Asgrow.'

 

Returning permanently to Milford, in July 1909 he purchased 10 acres to build a $30,000 "cottage" on Welch's Point Road. Today the "cottage," "Eveningside Mansion," (later owned by the Stuart family, saved by Joseph H. Blichfeldt and now occupied by sports radio personality Dan Patrick) is worth over $2.5 Millions and pays one of Milford's top ten highest property tax rates. In December '09 Wilcox added the waterside land west of the "new road on the bluff"  (Gulf Street extension from Old Field La. to the terminus of previously dead ending Welch's Point Road) from the Merwin and Gunn families to be kept forever without construction of house or barn under penalty of forfeiture. Use of this land would be a development controversy in the 1990s. Apparently a "bath house" was not a violation, so through the teens, twenties and thirties, parties were held there and on the lawns overlooking Charles island. Eventually the sound claimed the "lawns" leaving the party "Summer house" perched on the very edge of the cliff today.

 

Most significantly, in 1908 Wilcox also purchased property from Franklin H. Fowler, then of Manhattan, NY. This land was part of area granted to William Fowler (MHOF inductee: 2012) in early colonial days if he would build and run the nearby 'Fowler's Mill.' Fowler did, and he and his descendants continued to do so for about 270 years. Wilcox spent considerable effort cleaning up the neglected area then known "Harbor Woods."  He added many trails including some for automobiles (his big Pierce Arrow being one of the early cars in the village). For the 270th anniversary of Milford in 1909, Clark Wilcox announced his intention to donate this parcel to the community.

 

Clark Wilcox gave "Wilcox Park" (as the grateful Board of Selectman named it), a 12 acre parcel of land along the harbor, as a bird sanctuary in perpetuity to the city on August 28, 1909. The dedication ceremony was a who's who of 1900's Milford. Present was submarine inventor Simon Lake, dry goods dealer Eldridge Cornwall, Inventor and industrialist William B. McCarthy (Rostand Co.) who was then president of the Milford Improvement Association, Rev. Peter McClen, Pastor of St. Mary RC church, State Rep. G.F. Smith, First Selectman Frank T. Munson, the Milford Military Band, combined choirs of Milford Churches, a singing quartet, Clark's family and a large assemblage of citizens.

 

The map entitled: "Wilcox Park, as presented by Clark Wilcox to the Town of Milford, dated August 29, 1909" was duly filed in the Milford Land Records as Map E-299 along with the deed. Maintenance and use of the park is controlled by ordinance of the City of Milford (most recently Article VII Sec. 16-192, Ordinance of 4-5-1993).

 

The park has had a long history of alternating neglect and frenzied improvement. In the mid 1960's Milford boy scouts gathered to rake the woods clean of years of fallen leaves re-opening trails to hikers, bikers and drivers. In 1993 non-pedestrian access was severely restricted by ordinance so today "No person shall ride, walk or possess a bicycle, tricycle, motorbike, motorcycle or non-motorized wheeled vehicle within the park except upon the paved road or in areas specifically designated for such use by the Park, Beach and Recreation Commission"  exempting only wheelchairs operated by handicapped persons, baby carriages and strollers containing infants and [of course] City … vehicles.

 

The low-land north of the park's high ground was once part of the harbor. A severe storm washed silt down the flooded Wepawaug River in the 1880's ending the village's reign as a port and significant boat building center. Fly ash from Bridgeport's and neighboring power plants was dumped there as fill for decades until the mucky area was dressed up in the late 1950's to become Milford's important activity area, Fowler Field, as it is today.

 

Simon Lake's "Explorer" Submarine sat neglected in this area from 1950 to 1964 until it was moved to the Bridgeport Museum of Art and industry then loaned to the submarine museum at Groton in 1974 where it was beautifully restored. It was returned to Milford in the 1990's and now proudly rests near the landing on  Factory Lane.

 

Also   in the 1990's, with the creation of the public marina now known as Lisman Landing, the shoreline area of the park got an enlarged boat launch ramp, dockage and parking, a trail and gazebo along the marsh side the harbor with public and handicapped access.

 

By 2002 much of the park had again fallen into disrepair. The Environmental Concerns Coalition (ECC) with support of scouts, students and others worked to restore native species and weed out invasive flora following the guidelines of the National Wildlife Federation. In October 2003 the public and government officials gathered to celebrate the restoration.