A History of the Miller & Peck Buildings

Two of the oldest buildings in downtown Waterbury are about to be demolished. Previous owners allowed the buildings to decay so badly that they can't be saved and are no longer safe to enter. The buildings have long been called Miller & Peck, since they were home to the Miller & Peck store for decades. I was recently asked about the history of the buildings and found far more than I expected.

The Miller & Peck buildings in 2023: north on the left, south on the right

 

The Miller & Peck buildings stand side-by-side on South Main Street. The building to the north (on the left when facing them) is white, with ornate Greek Revival columns flanking two-story windows. The building to the south (on the right when facing them) is blue and resembles a typical New England Greek Revival house, only bigger, with three floors under the pediment. (For ease of reference, I will call them "north" and "south" in the rest of this article.)

Both buildings were constructed out of wood almost two hundred years ago, with several additions built behind them over the course of a century. The National Historic Register nomination form for the Downtown Historic District lists the two buildings as having been constructed sometime around 1830.

I've spent the past few weeks poring through the Waterbury Land Records and various other sources tracing the history of the two buildings. A precise date of construction for either building has proven to be elusive, but what I have found is fascinating. There is undoubtedly more to find: this is merely a starting point.

My research here is focused on the history of the buildings. The history of Miller & Peck as a business is a story for another day.

George Washington Ate Here

During the Revolutionary War, Waterbury was far removed from any battles, but still saw hundreds of soldiers as they marched through Connecticut. Long before the construction of I-84, West Main Street and East Main Street served as major thoroughfares for travelers passing through town on their way to or from Hartford. In September, 1780, General George Washington was one of those travelers. He stopped in Waterbury to dine with a friend, Joseph Hopkins, on his way to Hartford.

George Washington, 1780-82, by Charles Willson Peale
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Mapping Inequality

I haven't been posting here as often as usual, partly because I've been working on several writing projects for publication elsewhere. The first of those projects is completed: a short essay about Waterbury for the University of Richmond's website, Mapping Inequality: Redlining in New Deal America.

 

"Redlining" is the term used to describe the work of the federal Home Owners' Loan Corporation which, during the 1930s, rated residential neighborhoods in cities throughout the country based on their opinion of whether or not they were good investment areas for banks. A home in a green-rated neighborhood was considered low risk for mortgages. Red-rated neighborhoods were considered high risk, discouraging banks from issuing mortgages in those neighborhoods. Residents of green neighborhoods were white; residents of red neighborhoods were Black or "a low class of foreigners."

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.

Election Guide 2022

It's that time again! Election Day is Tuesday, November 8. On the local level, this has been an unusually quiet election cycle, possibly because many of our elected officials are running unopposed for re-election.

 

Democratic Get Out the Vote Rally in Waterbury, October 2, 2022

 

There are three ballot measures this year, and some potentially confusing changes to two polling locations. I've put together the information that I have, to hopefully increase voter education and voter turnout.

 

Bleeding Kansas, Part Two

For the first part of this story, read Bleeding Kansas, Part One

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On March 28, 1856, William Chestnut wrote a letter to the Waterbury American "to apprise your numerous readers of the progress of events in this part of the world." Winter was over, and most of his neighbors had recovered from the "chill and fever" that ran through their community. Plowing the fields and planting the crops had begun, "and we will soon make the wilderness blossom like the rose." ("From Our Kansas Correspondent," Waterbury American, 18 April 1856, p. 1)

Chestnut assured his readers that "the actual settlers" would never be driven out by the Border Ruffians and were willing to die rather than back out. He spoke only generally about ruffian activities: they "have already desecrated our lovely plain with their drunken, ribald orgies; our virgin soil has already been stained with the blood of American citizens for the crime of attempting to exercise their rights as freemen--the right of self-government."

Chestnut was nearing the end of his willingness to peacefully endure the harassment and violence of the Border Ruffians, saying "there is a point beyond which endurance becomes a crime--we have hitherto acted on the defensive only, but when our present arrangements are completed we may be prepared to carry the war into Africa, should it be forced on us."

He gave an example of the sort of thing which the Free Staters had to endure, highlighting the level of distrust and disrespect between the two factions:

The ruffians have an organization at Lexington [Missouri], on the river, where they board every boat coming up and forcibly detain them until they examine their freight list. One of our townsmen, a few days ago, had a very fine piano come up, and as it was boxed up very strong, it at once excited the suspicions of the ruffian horde--it was "Sharp's rifles," said they, "and no mistake," though they were shown the invoice and were assured it was only a piano--but all to no purpose. They dispatched a deputation to go up to Kansas City and watch the debarkation of the object of their suspicion, and as soon as it was put ashore, they insisted on having it opened. The person having it in charge accordingly took out all the screws and undid all the fastenings, until he came to the last screw, when he invited the ruffians to finish the job and raise the lid themselves--but they shrank back and refused to touch it, swearing that it was a Yankee trick to blow them up; that it was full of torpedoes, they knew, and proposed throwing the box into the river, saying it would serve the d---d Yankees right. This was as far as it would do to carry the joke, and the lid was accordingly raised amidst a general laugh of a large crowd who had collected on the occasion.

Lexington Landing, Missouri, 1861
Retrieved from House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College

Bleeding Kansas, Part One

Every high school U.S. history class includes at least a mention of “Bleeding Kansas,” the conflict between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces that took place during the 1850s. The legendary John Brown established his reputation for violence during the conflict and is closely associated with the bloodshed that happened there. It turns out there were a number of Waterbury people in Kansas at this time, including some who were directly involved in the conflict. Two of those Waterburians, William Chestnut and Henry Barlow, sent a series of letters to the Waterbury American newspaper, giving first-hand accounts of what was happening in Kansas. Their letters give a perspective on the conflict that is missing from the textbook accounts of what happened, and they give us a sense of how the conflict was viewed in Waterbury.

A symbolic image of John Brown and Bleeding Kansas
"The Tragic Prelude" mural at the Kansas State House, painted by John Steuart Curry in 1942.

 

History in a Jug

A few years ago, I purchased a Waterbury whiskey jug at a local auction. The jug was originally used by The T. H. Hayes Company, a Waterbury business from over a century ago. Hayes is a familiar name to anyone who knows their Waterbury history -- T. Frank Hayes was the Mayor of Waterbury and Lt. Governor of Connecticut until he was convicted of conspiracy, corruption, fraud, and stealing more than a million dollars from the city. His father was Thomas Hogan Hayes, founder of The T. H. Hayes Company.

Historic Building to be Demolished

Four years ago, the City of Waterbury adopted a Demolition Delay Ordinance designed to help prevent the destruction of historic buildings in the city. The first test of the ordinance arrived last month, when the owner of 30 Central Avenue, Building 2 (formerly 38-40 Central Avenue) filed paperwork to demolish the building. The owner's only stated goal is to make space for the church next door.

The house is a contributing building to the Hillside Historic District, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.  

A petition to save the building has been started on Change.org.

30 Central Ave, Building 2 (38-40 Central Avenue)

Chauncey Judd, or The Dayton Robbery of 1780

The story of Chauncey Judd is one of the core histories of the Naugatuck Valley, from Waterbury down to Derby, a patriotic tale of a young man kidnapped by Tories during the Revolutionary War. The story is retold from time to time in local newspapers and by various historical societies, although the facts of the story are sometimes muddled. The retellings are generally based on a novel by Israel P. Warren published nearly a century after the events took place. Although Warren’s novel was rooted in fact, he distorted and embellished historical information in order to create a compelling narrative. I have been unable to find any source that separates the book’s facts from fiction, so I spent a little time digging into the historical documents to get a better understanding of what really happened in 1780. Here’s what I found.

 

Queen Anne's War and the Scott Family

The story of the Scott family during the early 1700s has been told many times over the centuries as a tale of abduction, torture, death, and “savages,” a tale of life on the frontier for “heroic, rugged and long-suffering pioneers” who settled Waterbury and Watertown. Thanks to the magic of the internet and archivists who have worked to digitize historical documents, a more thorough and balanced account of story can now be told.

Essential to the story is Queen Anne’s War and colonial Connecticut’s interactions with neighboring colonies and with New France. This historical period doesn’t get as much attention as it should, so I have included a fair amount of detail to help explain the context of the Scott family story.

Depiction of a colonial farm being cleared
This engraving appears on numerous commercial websites, but none of them give the original source.

Traditional Telling of the Story

A very short summary of the Scott family story is this: sometime around 1709, Joseph Scott was abducted, tortured, and murdered by Indians. His body was found by his neighbors on a hillside not far from the Naugatuck River, somewhere near what we now call the Leatherman’s Cave. Scott was buried where he was found, the grave covered in rocks. A year or two later, Joseph’s brother Jonathan Scott was picnicking under a tree with two of his sons when they were captured by Indians. Jonathan’s right thumb was cut off to prevent him from resisting. The three Scotts were taken to Canada. Eventually, Jonathan Scott and one of his sons returned to Waterbury; the other son remained in Canada with the Indians, despite Jonathan’s efforts to free him. Jonathan Scott’s wife, Hannah Hawks Scott, had previously lost most of her family during the 1704 Indian raid on Deerfield, Massachusetts, leading one historian to dub her “the most afflicted woman in New England.” (Anderson, ed., The Town and City of Waterbury, Vol. 1: 257)

The Weston House

Tucked away in the middle of a large block on West Side Hill is a house built in the middle of the 19th century for Catharine Weston and her family. The early history of the house's ownership is one of female empowerment and of Black entrepreneurship.

1048 West Main Street (1050 West Main can be seen behind to the left)

Architectural Style

The house was built using wood frame construction in a simplified version of the Greek Revival style. It is a common house style that can be seen throughout western Connecticut. The house is relatively small and modest, designed as a cozy private home rather than a showy display of wealth. The siding would originally have been wood clapboards (it now has asphalt siding).