from The Bulletin, Oct. 13, 1976
For more than 100 years, the area of Silvermine was an industrial district, with mills turning out everything from wooden knobs to great timbers for fishing vessels. In more modern times, it became a quiet haven for artists and writers, rich in architecture that dates to the 18th, and, in at least one instance, the 17th century.

The tales and drawings of Raggedy Ann that have charmed generations of children were inspired by a girl who played with her dolls along the Silvermine River.

The Silvermine area is comprised of sections of Wilton, New Canaan and Norwalk, and 25 years ago the Silvermine Community Association organized a bicentennial walking tour that would give residents an "opportunity to explore the history and lore of this piece of geography.

Participants would start at the Silvermine Tavern on Silvermine Road, which in its earlier incarnation was a logging road known as Huckleberry Path. Walkers would tour an old post office, the Silvermine Guild of Artists and "River Road", where all the old mills used to be.

Mine or no mine?
The Silvermine area, which runs on both sides of the Silvermine River for about a mile and embraces sections of all three towns, was developed in the 17th century as an agricultural community. For many years it had its own post office. The name was originally written as two words: Silver Mine. There was debate over whether there was in fact a silver mine in the area. Historians had made a case for both sides.

It was said that, about 75 year after the community's founding, there was a silver mine in a hillside behind the guild. On one occasion it was the scene of a cave-in, and the next day two local residents began digging furiously in the rubble. When some neighbors gathered and chided them about groveling in a mine whose silver was known to be long since depleted, one of the workers replied, "Silver, hell! We had a whole keg of whiskey sittin' in this mine."

Frank Whitman Jr., son of the proprietor of the Silvermine Tavern, would tell tour participants how the tavern developed out of a cluster of mills. The tavern also had its days as a speakeasy. Claude Guthrie's old blacksmith shop became an antiques gallery.
One of the early mills was called the Buttery Mill, built in 1709, near the private bridge north of the tavern. It survived until the flood of 1955. This mill was one of the most painted, drawn and lithographed scenes in the country and it had the distinction of having been one of the oldest operating mills in the nation.

At the Borglum Bridge, walkers would hear about Solon Borglum of Wilton, the prominent sculptor, and the other artists who first formed a group known as the "Knockers Club." This group evolved into the present Silvermine Guild of Artists.

It was also in the Wilton section of Silvermine that Johnny Gruelle, inspired by the imagination of his daughter, Marcella, who knew of an elf that lived in a gnarled apple tree, created the adventures of Twee Deedle and later, Raggedy Ann that had delighted children for many years.