About

Overlooking Rowayton Avenue, this spacious house was built by Frank and Carrie Hyatt McKendrie on land purchased from Franklyn Lynch. Mr. McKendrie worked in the insurance business as well as being a real estate appraiser. In 1917, the McKendries sold the house and moved to McKendrie Court, which was presumably named for them as its first residents.

 

In 1925, the house was sold to Silvermine Guild (later renamed the Silvermine Art Guild) artist Leo Dorn, a New England Impressionist painter and lithographer. Dorn was a member of the so-called "Knockers" group of artists and craftsmen in Norwalk. It was later renamed the Silvermine Art Guild. He had also been a foreman of Norwalk Tire and Ribbon Company taught at the Thomas School from1927 until1949. Dorn’s wife Sarah was the daughter of Charles J. Gebest, long-time musical director and composer in Manhattan for George M. Cohan.

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