Greenwich Country Day School wants to turn the former St. Agnes Church at 247 Stanwich Road into a six-court squash center for its student athletes.
The private school filed a pre-application with the Greenwich Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) to renovate the 16,253-square-foot building, as first reported by Greenwich Time. The proposal would also rebuild a deteriorating caretaker's cottage on the property as a single-family home for a school administrator.
A pre-application review lets commissioners give initial feedback before a formal application is filed.
Squash program needs a home
About 42 middle and upper school students play squash across four teams at GCDS, according to submitted planning documents cited by Patch. Those students practice and play home matches at leased courts in Port Chester, N.Y. The proposed facility would eliminate that cross-state commute.
Michele Cronin, co-founder of 41° North Land Use Advisors and the school's planning consultant, said in submitted documents that the project would create "a permanent on-campus home for its interscholastic squash program."
The building's large interior and multilevel layout would house six squash courts, a double-height lobby, locker rooms, restrooms, storage and a trainer's office with a first-aid station, according to the planning documents. A new accessible entrance and accessible restrooms are also part of the plan.
Cronin said the renovation "has been designed to preserve the building's traditional overall form and recognizable historic character." She described the project as a chance to reuse a historic structure rather than build an entirely new athletic facility elsewhere on campus.
Spectator attendance is "generally anticipated to be approximately 10 to 20 spectators," Cronin said, according to Greenwich Time.
Site improvements would include walkways, ramps, landscaped terraces, retaining walls, outdoor seating and a synthetic-turf putting green.
A cottage for an administrator
GCDS also proposes rebuilding the former caretaker's cottage near the intersection of Cat Rock Road and Stanwich Road. The 1,785-square-foot building, once used as school administrative offices and called the "Business Cottage," sits vacant because of deteriorating conditions.
Preliminary plans call for a full-height second floor, three bathrooms, a home office and living spaces. The school would house its Head of Upper School or another administrator there, Cronin said.
From estate to church to school
The property was part of the Dommerich Estate, known as Wildwood Farm, acquired by Alexander and Clara Dommerich around 1915. The estate included a 50-room mansion, landscaped grounds and several outbuildings.
According to Cronin's submitted documents, the largest outbuilding was known as the "Carriage House." The St. Agnes parish history describes the building as a six-car garage with chauffeur and supervisor's quarters at either end.
After the Dommeriches died in the early 1960s, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport acquired most of the estate, according to the submitted documents. The Carriage House was converted into a 150-seat chapel and expanded in 1969 to seat 350 people.
St. Agnes merged with the Parish of St. Catherine of Siena in Riverside in 2019, and the Stanwich Road church later closed.
GCDS bought the former church property in 2024 and combined it with a parcel at 235 Stanwich Road and its upper campus at 257 Stanwich Road, creating a 42.7-acre tract. That campus already includes a main academic building, two turf athletic fields, a six-lane running track and a performing arts center under construction.
What's next
The P&Z Commission has not yet scheduled a hearing on the proposal. Residents can check for scheduling updates through the town's Planning and Zoning office.
