Watertown History Page by Charlie Crowell

03/12/2026

From my Waterbury page…

This was the Waterbury Rhythm Kings in 1956. The drummer was 13 years old Bob Pettinicchi. Bob went on to be a music teacher at Watertown High School as well as the long-time Watertown High School Band Director.

In Watertown, he became known as “Watertown’s Music Man.”

He was the Parade Chairman of the Watertown Bicentennial Parade in 1976.

Bob played in many Bands during his lifetime including the Mattatuck Drum Band and Connecticut Dance Bands, Jazz Bands and the Waterbury Symphony Orchestra.

Long since retired from teaching, Bob turned 83 back in October.

03/03/2026

The Watertown High School Class of 1964 in living color. This was the first class to graduate from the “new” high school on French Street.

The originally planned dedication of the school was delayed in November of 1963 due to the assassination of President Kennedy.

02/12/2026

Former Watertown teacher and school principal Raymond Cwick passed away on January 26, 2026 at his home. He was 81.

Ray taught at Judson School and was later appointed principal of Polk School. He was the varsity basketball coach at Watertown High in the 70s, and a lifelong sports enthusiast.

This game time photo is from the WHS 1974 yearbook.

See the comments for his obituary.

01/26/2026

This was the home and farm of Charles W. Bidwell c.1870s -1880s. This view was just off Thomaston Road as you're headed to toward Thomaston.

Bidwell was a longtime Watertown resident. His property had a pond and early on (1870's), a sawmill.

Later, around 1920, Bidwell was in the fire insurance business.

Bidwell Hill Road, which is off of, and runs parallel to Thomaston Road near Black Rock State Park is named after him.

This part of town was known as the Purgatory. The name shows up on early maps. Purgatory Brook still runs through the area.

The name was applied here because it was a dark, mysterious, foreboding, and largely uninhibited place. Mrs. Parke’s creepy museum was nearby as well as the Leatherman’s Cave. Ghost sightings (including a white horse) were not uncommon in and around the area and were often documented in the Waterbury newspapers.

The landscape here is largely rocky with outcroppings, ledges, and caves. It was relatively worthless as farmland but some hardy individuals gave it a shot anyway including a “Watertown giant” known for his “enormous proportions”.

Giant snakes, some as big as telephone poles, reportedly inhabited the area. Sightings of these massive reptiles spanned many decades before and after the turn of the last century and were noted in newspapers throughout the state.

This area was also heavily forested right up into the 1920s which added to the dark, mysterious vibe.

In Roman Catholic theology, “purgatory” is an intermediate place after death where souls undergo suffering to atone for their sins before entering heaven.

The wide Thomaston Road we know today wasn’t built until after WWII. The more winding Bidwell Hill Road was the original Thomaston Road.

01/25/2026

A picture I took in the aftermath of the Blizzard of ‘78. This was the corner of Linkfield Road and Smith Pond Road.

Snow fell mostly from Monday morning, February 6 to the evening of Tuesday, February 7.

At its peak, we were getting up to 4" of snow an hour with gusting winds. The storm would paralyze the region in a way we thought was no longer possible.

The snow fell too quickly for plow trucks to keep up. This particular spot wasn’t cleared for nearly a week. The town ended up bringing in a bucket loader for the job.

It seems everyone who lived through it, has a
"Blizzard of '78" story to tell.

01/20/2026

I did a post last week about local WWII hero Capt. Richard P. Pearson (1924-1982) and many asked about Mrs. Pearson. The sad news is she just past passed away on the 18th.

Many knew her as a friend, a neighbor, a local teacher and more. An absolutely delightful woman, both of my parents thought the world of her. As a substitute teacher, my father (principal of Judson School) said Mary Ann bailed him out many times.

My sincere condolences to the family. ❤️

AVON Mary Ann Pearson Carroll, age 100, formerly of Watertown, Connecticut, passed away peacefully at her home in Avon, CT, on January 18, 2026. Born on December 19, 1925, in Fairfield, CT, she was the daughter of Patrick Carroll and Molly Risley Carroll and sister to Patrick and George. Mary

01/17/2026

Reached 8000, and it only took 16 years. 😂

I started this page in March 2010 just to post a couple hundred old photos my mother had. That was the plan. In and out.

But as I continued, I remember telling my mother it was not sustainable. Just too time consuming.

Well, here I am, still plugging away. Plus, I added the Waterbury History Page to my workload.

The 8000 followers number is really misleading. That probably only represents 20% of the audience. The other 80% are people who visit the page but have never clicked the page like button. (see the comments for more on that)

It’s not unusual to have over a million views in any given month. Sometimes several million. It depends on how much effort I put forth.

I’ll have an update on my long overdue book shortly. Cant wait to get it out there.

Thanks for being a part of all this!

01/17/2026

This clipping from April 7, 1897 highlights an ongoing problem presented by trains during dry times. As trains pass by on the tracks, they would generate sparks, which then sometimes ignited dry grass, creating fires.

I’m not clear on what the “town house” was, or where it was.

01/16/2026

This house on North Street was burglarized during the winter of 1897. The burglary wasn’t discovered until April of that year because this was a summer home and was unoccupied during the colder months.

The home was the summer residence of Mrs. William E. Curtis, mother of William E. Curtis, the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under the Grover Cleveland Administration.

Both Secretary Curtis and his mother stayed here during the summer.

(See the comments for the newspaper article about the burglary.)

Earlier, the house was known as the Bronson Cottage, home to Nancy Bronson, Watertown's first librarian.

In 2013, Taft School demolished this house despite it being in the Watertown Historic District and despite Taft having supported the creation of the district.

The hypocrisy didn’t go unnoticed.

Protests against the demolition made headlines but failed to save the structure.

The house was built around 1850.

01/15/2026

Seen here was the old St. John’s Convent in 1912. Behind it was the rather new (at the time) brick St. John’s School, built in 1907.

This is at the corner of Main Street and Woodruff Avenue.

In 1906, Henry T. Dayton sold his old home and two acres to the church for the parochial school to be built.

The old home itself became the convent.

A new convent was built at the bottom of Academy Hill in 1967.

The Daytons owned a lot of land in this area. When Watertown’s first movie theater opened across Main Street from this scene, it was called The Dayton Theater.

There are loads of Daytons buried in the Old Burial Grounds nearby.

During the American Revolution, Watertown’s Captain Michael Dayton (1722-1776) served in the local militia. He was commissioned in 1772, fought at the Siege of Boston. He died from camp illness and was buried in the Old Watertown Cemetery.

His son, Justus Dayton (1754-c.1825), was also a soldier, wounded at the Battle of Saratoga.

The bridge that spans Steele Brook on French Street is called the Dayton Bridge.

01/15/2026

This house stands at 99 Cherry Avenue. It was reportedly built in 1812. If so, it certainly has undergone changes over the years, evolving into a most unique residence.

The turret and wrap-around porch were most definitely later additions.

Early on, Cherry Avenue was along an old meandering stagecoach route the ran to Albany, NY.

01/15/2026

On Wednesday, March 20, 1895, a fire broke out at Taft School that could have altered the town’s history. According to reports, the blaze could have easily wiped out the entire school. This would have undoubtedly led to the school relocating to another town.

At the time, Taft was operating out of the old Warren Hotel. Mr. Taft called it “a forsaken place” and always considered it a firetrap.

He was reluctant to move his school to Watertown from New York but the old inn provided the space he needed at a minimal cost.

The school had only commenced operations in Watertown in the fall of 1893.

The fire department had only been created the year before the fire (1894).

The accompanying article tells the store of the fire. The full article is in the comments.

The injury to M. Braden’s finger during the firefighting turned out to be more serious than originally reported. Amputation was a possibility but I don’t know the end results.

After the fire, Mr. Taft put on “a fine supper and entertainment” for the members of the fire department who saved his school.

“It was an evening that will long be remembered by all those who attended.” So said the WATERBURY AMERICAN.