Bicentennial
Tree Planting
On The Town Green
Sunday September 9th, 2007, Noon till 2:00 PM
Town Historian Dr. Robert L. Rafford
Commemorates the
Tree Planting With a Brief History of the Town Green.
Photo courtesy Robin Fenn
Katie Stevens Sings the "Star Spangled Banner"
Photo courtesy Robin Fenn
Bicentennial Committee Members, Tree Planting Committee
Members, and Public Officials Pose for a Historic Picture.
Photo by David Marselinas
Bicentennial Memorabilia For Sale Under The
Tent
Photo by David Marselinas
Socializing on the Town Green
Photo by David Marselinas
The Public Park – The Middlebury Green
Dr. Robert L.
Rafford, Middlebury, Connecticut, Municipal Historian
Sunday, September 9, 2007 – 12:30
The Green today is owned by the members of the Congregational Church and
leased to the town of Middlebury. Years ago it was simply called the Public
Park. It has been called the most beautiful Green in New England.
The first Congregational Church building was erected in the center of the
west end of the present Green in 1793.[i]
Delia Bronson, one of our first town historians, wrote in 1967 that
“The bell had been made in New York State and brought by water down the
Hudson River and to New Haven, and finally hauled by ox team to Middlebury.
The large stone steps which are in front of this church were drawn from Mine
Hill, Roxbury…” In 1840 the last service was held in the old church and
material from the church was moved across to the new church, on the north
side of the Green.
One citizen of Middlebury, Artison S. Clark (his great-grandson,
Christopher Parker, lives on the Green in the Wheaton House with his
wife Molly), wrote that at the public park on 21 June 1861, the first
year of the Civil War, a 104-foot flagpole was erected and a flag, 16 x 24
feet, was flown from its peak. The pole was provided by Mr. Robert
Hotchkiss. Bronson, father of Eli Bronson. Eli, in turn,
was the father of Wheaton Andrews Bronson, the husband of Delia
(Driver) Bronson. The flag was the handiwork of the patriotic
ladies of the town.[ii]
At least 30 soldiers from Middlebury marched off to serve their country in
the Civil War. Artison Clark reported that in 1861 there “were only
four or five old maples at the west end” of the Green.
In “1870 the younger members of the community formed themselves into what
was called the Middlebury Improvement Society.” Old worn-down roadways were
filled and the road in front of the Congregational Church was constructed as
a bypass around the park to direct traffic around, rather than through, the
park.[iii]
Then, in 1872 “a very public spirited gentleman,” Roswell Bronson
Wheaton (1815-1892), and his wife, Levea Root Andrews
(1816-1886), purchased a home on the park and became interested in improving
it. They graded it and provided for drainage, defined the boundaries and
otherwise improved it.
Now Artison Skilton Clark, who was born in 1849, husband of
Lillian Augusta Chamberlain (1853-1931), states that in 1876[iv],
25 elm trees were planted on the Green by local citizens with names such as
Abbott, Blackman, Bronson, Clark, Chamberlain,
DeForest, Fenn, Osborn, Platt, Seeley,
Scott, Smith, Tuttle, Tyrell, Wheaton and
Wheeler.
The west side of the Green held three houses, according to an article in
the Waterbury American of August 20, 1913. On the east side of the
Green stood the Methodist Episcopal Church, built in the 1830s, discontinued
in 1921, and now owned by Westover School. The Union Academy was built in
1811 to replace the original Center School, which was a one-room schoolhouse
where the current Town Hall stands.[v]
The Union Academy building was bought by the town in 1859[vi]
and used as the Center School until 1897 when it was replaced by the Center
Schoolhouse, built by the town and John Howard Whittemore.
On the south side of the Green stood the Country Store and blacksmith
shop for over 100 years. The Store was not just a store; it was the center
of gossip, rumor and news for the town. Residents would gather there,
probably as they do today at Perrotti’s Restaurant, after an election
to weigh the results and ruminate about the future of the town, the state
and the country. The Store was also the location of the post office with
twice-weekly deliveries and it is where you went to take the stage coach
into Waterbury and beyond. And on the north side of the Green, as today,
there was a Congregational Church and the parsonage, was once a tavern owned
by John Bradley. Around the church there were the mews or sheds built
for horses, because for the first 100 years people traveled primarily by
horse.
In 1909 the world renowned Westover School opened its doors. It had
replaced the country store and blacksmith shop which were moved down West
Street to where Perrotti’s Restaurant is today. Westover has been a
wonderful addition to our Green and a generous neighbor to all Middleburians,
attracting people from around the world to our little town to teach us and
to learn from us.
In 1907 the cornerstone of the Roman Catholic church was laid, and it was
dedicated in 1914. The church, facing the Green, completes the circle in the
center of town.
On April 8, 1935, a fire broke out which destroyed the Congregational
Church and the Town Hall. Both buildings have been replaced; the
Congregational Church is a replica of the one built in the nineteenth
century.
People gathered on this Green in October, 1957, just 50 years ago, for a
two-day celebration of the 150th anniversary of the town’s
founding. New trees were planted by descendents of the original families who
planted the trees in 1876, including Ellen Fenn, Rob Fenn’s
sister. Descendants of the Clark, Abbott and Chapman
families were also present.
Today we gather as the 200th anniversary of our town
approaches. The tree which we dedicate symbolizes our re-dedication to the
ideals, the values and the hopes which Middleburians of the past expressed.
For thousands of years, the tree has symbolized Life – family trees in
genealogy are our personal families. Around the world, it is the family of
humankind.
May this tree remind us that we should live in peace with all the peoples
of the world, and may it also remind us of the pursuit of the beauty that we
find in Middlebury and in all of nature.
Commemorative speech Copyright (c) 2007 Dr.
Robert L. Rafford
All other material Copyright (c) 2007
Town of Middlebury Connecticut Bicentennial Committee
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