Old Houses at Bucks Hill, Part Two

Here are a few of the great houses in the Bucks Hill neighborhood. To see more, visit Old Houses at Bucks Hill, Part One.


Feodore Liebreich House
2658 North Main Street

Feodore Liebreich was a German immigrant who lived in Waterbury at Bucks Hill from about 1873 until his death in 1897. Liebreich was a successful farmer who slowly acquired several parcels of land to expand his farm.

Built in 1900 on the site of an early 1700s house, this house may retain some of the original colonial-era structure. It is now a two-family house with vinyl siding and fake shutters hiding the original wood siding.

2658 North Main Street

Naugatuck River Greenway and Park

I finally made time to visit the new park and greenway in the South End. The park is small, but delightful. The greenway is a work in progress, a 2.2 mile stretch of roadway now marked for bicycles which will eventually become part of a 44 mile greenway trail running from Derby to Litchfield. The new greenway in Waterbury runs from Bristol Street on Platts Mill Road, then up South Main Street to Eagle Street.

 

Camp or Platt Park

While some information about the park during its development referred to it as Camp Park, and the trail map at the park refers to it as Camp Park, it looks like the City has decided to name it Platt Park. The land for the park was donated by Miriam Camp Niederman. The Camp family married into the Platt family during the late 1800s. The Platt Brothers and Company, which has been in operation since 1797, is just down the road from the park.

The seven-acre park is designed for a variety of uses. There are picnic tables, bike racks, a mini outdoor theater, a short nature trail, and a spot to put your canoe in the river.

 

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.