Even before there was a location called District No. 4 College Farms was a recognized locale. 300 acres was laid out in Norfolk, Canaan, Goshen, Cornwall and Kent whose rents would support the newly formed Chair of Ministry. Eleazer Curtiss, Jr.'s lease expire on 21 April 2756 and he was required to pay 16 oz of silver every 20th of April.
Thank you Rebecca Neary for a thought-provoking program on saving the legacy of the Brick School for future generations.
Please join us next Sunday, February 9 at 2 pm for a look at the Brick School both past and present.
One of the most significant events to affect Warren's Northeast District was the damming of the west branch of the Shepaug River. After Bantam refused water rights to the City of Waterbury, Robert A. Cairns [1859-1937], Waterbury's city engineer, turned to the Shepaug watershed in Woodville. He was granted permission by the CT State Legislature and in 1933 the dam was completed. Besides providing water for the City of Waterbury, the dammed river covered the Petersville section of Warren with its store, post office and houses and flooded homesteads along both sides of the river to the Cornwall line and beyond.
Cairns considered the development of the waterworks system in the Litchfield Hills his greatest accomplishment. The dam, accessible by Valley Rd. is named the Robert A. Cairns Reservoir Dam.
Cairns considered the development of the waterworks system in the Litchfield Hills his greatest accomplishment. The dam, accessible by Valley Rd. is named the Robert A. Cairns Reservoir Dam.
The Northeast District had a school from at least 1797, but school houses opened and closed as the student population warranted. In 1857 it was one of three school in town which was classified as "comfortable," and distinct in having a privy. In 1871 the Northeast School moved to its location just east of the bridge on Hardscrabble Road. It closed in the early 20th Century, but reopened for a short period from 1911 to 1916. Marion Stone who later married Charles Perkins taught from 1911 to 1912 and Evelyn Tanner thereafter.
The Northeast District is the location of the oldest stone house in Warren. Built in 1799 by Benjamin Sackett from granite quarried just north of the homestead, it was inherited by Sackett's granddaughter Emily Sackett and her husband, J.H. Comstock. It remained in the family for more than a century. In 1926 Ludlow Melius purchased it and called it Reverie Farm. Eventually it became the home and studio of artist, Cleve Grey and his father-in-law, Alexander Liberman.