Hamilton Park is the oldest city park in
Waterbury, Connecticut
Waterbury is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut on the Naugatuck River, southwest of Hartford and northeast of New York City. Waterbury is the second-largest city in New Haven County, Connecticut. According to the 2020 US Census, in 20 ...
. Founded in 1898 as a gift from the locally prominent Hamilton family, it offers both passive and active recreation, with ballfields and other amenities. It is located on southeast of downtown Waterbury, accessed via entrances on East Main Street. It was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
in 1996.
Description and history
Hamilton Park consists of 93 acres of rolling terrain, bounded on the north by East Main Street, the west by Silver Street Expressway and the
Mad River the south by the river and
Interstate 84, and the east by Idylwood Avenue, Plank Road, and a residential area. It is entered via a formal entrance at Hamilton Park Road and East Main Street, and a secondary entrance at Idylwood Avenue and East Main Street. The easternmost section of the park is a relatively unimproved wooded area which serves as a bird sanctuary. The western and southern sections are more intensively developed, with formal athletic fields and passive open fields to the south, and several structures in the northwestern parts. The structures include a building built as a dance pavilion but now housing the Seven Angels Theater, and the Liberty House, so named because it was where
Liberty Bond
A liberty bond (or liberty loan) was a war bond that was sold in the United States to support the Allied cause in World War I. Subscribing to the bonds became a symbol of patriotic duty in the United States and introduced the idea of financi ...
s were sold during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. Near the center is a small pond, which once served as a swimming hole. At the southern and southeastern edge of the park, abutting Interstate 84, are foundational and archaeological remnants of the
Waterbury Brass Mill, the site of one of the city's first brass works.
[ With ]
The park's origin was in the 1898 gift of of land by Mrs. David Hamilton in memory of her late husband, owner of a silver factory in the city. The park's design and growth is largely the work of Robert Cairns, a city engineer, and George C. Walker, the city's first park superintendent. Early features of the park included a swimming pool and zoo. The park was expanded north of Plank Road in 1915 with a gift of land from Carolyn Pratt, also from a family that owned a local metal factory, and then in 1916 to the east of Idylwood Avenue with a land gift from Goss family; the latter gift stipulated its use as a bird sanctuary.
See also
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References
{{National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places in New Haven County, Connecticut
Parks on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut
Colonial Revival architecture in Connecticut
Waterbury, Connecticut