The Gilbert Family, Margaret Ross, and Secondo Servadio

Residents from 1907-1957

Cass Gilbert (left) and Julia Gilbert (right)

Cass Gilbert was born in Ohio in 1860, and Julia Finch was born in Wisconsin in 1862. They met through mutual friends, married in 1887, and had four children together. By the time Cass and Julia discovered the Ridgefield property, Cass was a well-known architect and Julia was a prominent socialite and budding philanthropist.

The couple purchased the tavern, along with many of its original furnishings, as a summer home: they kept their primary residence in New York City but spent April to November in Ridgefield. In correspondance, they fondly referred to their new home as “The Cannonball House.”

The Gilberts modernizing the home, installing new bathrooms, central heating, and electricity. They erected a large wing over the 19th-century basement and added a new kitchen, pantry, and large dining room with French doors that opened out to a patio covered in grapevines on the ground floor. On the second floor, they built three new bedrooms and two new bathrooms, and in the basement, a laundry room complete with wash tubs.

Cass also designed the Carriage Barn, which was built in 1907, the Garden House and Walled Garden, built in 1914, and moved a mid-19th-century cottage from its original site (in Ridgefield) to the property – adding a wing for guests.

Julia Gilbert and her children Emily and Julia in the garden, 1912

The Gilberts resided in the house alongside at least six staff, including Margaret Ross, who cooked for the family, and Secondo Servadio, the gardener. Margaret traveled back and forth to New York City with the family, while Secondo stayed at the Cannonball House year round.

Margaret and Secondo were both recent immigrants to the United States. Margaret was born in Greenock, Scotland and arrived at Ellis Island in 1904 at age 23; by 1910, she had been hired as the Gilberts’ cook, and she became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1924. Secondo, born in 1897 in the Ancona region of Italy, arrived in America at age 17 in 1914 and moved directly to Ridgefield, where a thriving community of Italian immigrants had already established neighborhoods, stores, social clubs, and schools. In 1924, he married and moved to Greenwich, CT, where he purchased a home, raised a son, and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1936. He died in Greenwich in 1987.

Margaret Ross in 1924 and Secondo Servadio in 1936.

Cass died suddenly in 1934 while traveling abroad, and the Gilbert family maintained residence in the Cannonball House until Julia’s death in 1952. Margaret stayed with the family until at least 1950; her exact date of death is unknown. The Gilberts’ eldest daughter, Emily, sold the property to a preservation-minded couple in 1957, and they, in turn, assisted in its 1966 acquisition by the Keeler Tavern Preservation Society, which has protected and communicated its rich and storied history on behalf of the Town of Ridgefield.

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