The Generous Gift of Mrs. Lapham Lloyd

History of Waveny Park

 

The property is comprised of five parcels totaling 295 acres. Parcels A, B, and C were a gift to the Town of New Canaan, by Mrs. Ruth Lapham Lloyd  and Parcels D and E were sold to the Town for $1.5 million at below market rate in 1967. 

 

Every parcel except Parcel A carries specific deed restrictions Parcels B, C, D, and E all contain the same restrictive language:

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The premises shall be held and used for purposes of recreation, health, horticulture, public park and gardens, including by way of illustration, but not of limitation, the preservation and conservation of open spaces, bird sanctuaries, arboretums, and nature and equitation trails.

 

In addition to this language, Parcel C contains additional use provisions permitting higher education and requiring the establishment of a committee to “explore and develop uses for

Parcel C,” including potential use as a site for public health, medical research, or hospital facilities.  This parcel today contains the Waveny Care Center and New Canaan High School.

 

Mrs. Lloyd was deliberate and specific in her intentions for Parcel C and clearly wished to designate that parcel for additional uses — a specificity that, by contrast, underscores the narrower purposes she intended for Parcels B, D, and E.

 

This drafting choice bears directly on the meaning of the word “health” as it appears in the restriction common to Parcels B, C, D, and E.

 

Where Mrs. Lloyd intended “health” to encompass medical, nursing, or hospital-type uses, she said so explicitly, authorizing a committee to explore and potentially designate Parcel C as a site for “public health, medical research, or hospital facilities.” No comparable provision exists for Parcel E.

 

The deliberate inclusion of that language for Parcel C, and its absence from Parcel E, indicates that Mrs. Lloyd did not intend the word “health” in Parcel E’s restriction to authorize a private, fee-based senior living or continuing-care facility; rather, the term was intended in the narrower, park-related sense reflected by the surrounding language — horticulture, open space, and outdoor recreation.

 

Read in context, Mrs. Lloyd’s use of “health” in Parcel E’s restriction reflects the health benefits of exercise, open space, and the enjoyment of nature and the park — not medical, nursing, or institutional or residential care.

 

It is clear Mrs. Lloyd’s intent was for this property to be held as public park land. She permitted additional, non-park uses only on Parcel C, evidencing that she intended the remaining parcels — including Parcel E — to be preserved as open public space consistent with the deed restrictions quoted above.