Pritchard Family Farm Houses

A few years ago, I noticed a gorgeous house for sale in Waterbury's Hopeville neighborhood and wondered about its age and history. I have finally gotten around to researching its history and discovered that it was part of the Pritchard family's farm two hundred years ago. A second old house, about a block away, was built for the same family.

Pritchard Family house on Piedmont Street, built in 1815
Photograph from Realtor.com in 2019

 

The houses were built for Isaiah Pritchard (1755-1833), a Revolutionary War veteran. Pritchard was married twice. His first wife, Olive Upson, died sometime after 1792. Pritchard then married Sylvia Scovill (1773-1838). Isaiah Pritchard had a total of six children.

The original Isaiah Pritchard homestead is on Piedmont Street, where Pritchard owned farmland that included Pritchard's Pond. The family's total real estate holdings included close to two hundred acres of land near Smug Brook (now Hopeville Pond Brook) and on East Mountain.

The Pritchard House on Piedmont Street is actually two houses. The original house is in the back and was built during the 1700s in what we now call the Cape Cod style. The house in front, which you see from the street, was built in 1815.

 

Rear building of the Pritchard House on Piedmont Street, built during the 1700s
Photograph from Realtor.com in 2019

 

When Isaiah Pritchard died in 1834, his widow inherited the "new part" of their house, as well as two small bedrooms in the "old house" adjoining the new house. Their son Spencer inherited the rest of the old house. When Sylvia died in 1838, Spencer inherited the entire house, old and new.

The Pritchard family owned another house, on Pearl Lake Road, built in 1815. That house was home to Isaiah and Sylvia's other two sons, Bennett and Sherman. Bennett inherited the house when Isaiah died. Sherman never married and lived with Bennett and Bennett's family his whole life, dying in 1867.

 

Pritchard Family house on Pearl Lake Road, built in 1814
Photo taken in 2012

Patton Map of Waterbury, 1909, with the Pritchard family houses highlighted
Original map is on view in the Town Clerk's Office

 

During the first half of the 1800s, the Pritchards supported themselves primarily as farmers. With the growth of Waterbury's industries, some members of the family began working in local factories.

When Spencer Pritchard died in 1879, ownership of the family home on Piedmont Street was distributed to his son-in-law, Reuben G. Snagg, a merchant tailor with a shop downtown on Bank Street. His brother was Samuel C. Snagg, Waterbury’s Fire Chief from 1882 to 1914. Reuben Snagg’s wife, Frances Pritchard, was born in the Piedmont Street house, lived in it her entire life, and died in the house in 1908. 

Reuben and Frances' son, George R. Snagg, lived in the Piedmont Street house for many years with his wife, Minnie, and their daughter Hazel. When Hazel married, she and her husband, Howard Dee, lived in the house with Minnie's now-widowed mother. The house was eventually sold after Howard Dee's death in 1952.

The Pearl Lake Road house was inherited by Bennett Pritchard's grandson, Willard B. Pritchard, in 1881. The property contained twenty-five acres and two barns. Willard was a toolmaker at Plume & Atwood for most of his life. He married Julia Holden in 1882, and their daughter Jessie was born in 1896. Willard outlived both his wife and his daughter. He lived in the house on Pearl Lake Road until his death in 1938. The house was sold soon after.

 

Sources:

City of Waterbury Assessor Records 

Realtor.com Property Listing, 2019

Waterbury Probate Records, Vol. 8, pp. 249-253, 444-446

Waterbury Probate Records, Vol. 35, p. 532

Waterbury Probate Records, Vol. 38a, pp. 33-35, 71-72

U.S. Census Records

Waterbury City Directories

"Capt. Henry G. Snagg," Waterbury Democrat, 13 May 1901, p. 5

"Mrs. Reuben G. Snagg," Waterbury Evening Democrat, 9 March 1908, p. 5