“The ABCs of Newtown” is a series tying each letter of the alphabet to something in Newtown. This week we continue with a look at a public park in the center of town.

For more than a quarter-century, the public has been invited to enjoy The Pleasance, a public garden on private property at 1 Main Street that offers a reprieve at the corner of Main and Sugar streets and complements the historic Ram Pasture to the immediate south. The 1.03-acre property hosts meandering pathways, an antique fountain, sculpture, carefully planned and manicured gardens, and a forested area for children complete with a playhouse and separate garden.

Its name, Bee Publishing Company Co-Publisher Helen Smith said this week, means “is a feeling of pleasure and delight. A place to rest and to have recreation.” Her late husband, R. Scudder Smith, once expanded on the definition, writing “Depending on the dictionary consulted, the definition is ‘A place laid out as a pleasure garden or promenade.” Its creators surely fulfilled both definitions.

The Pleasance is owned by The Scudder Smith Family Association LLC and maintained by Bee Publishing Company.

Visitors of all ages have long enjoyed the current offering of the property, which previously housed two auto-related businesses.

'The Lovell Corner'

Louis Lovell purchased 1 Main Street and the five acres to its immediate west in 1925, and constructed a service station he then operated for decades before selling to Oldsmobile dealer Harry Greenman.

The Bee Publishing Company purchased the property in 1983. Greenman continued working for four years, retiring in 1987. The building — still referred to as “Lovell’s Garage” by many residents, despite its change of hands and focus — then became storage for vehicles repossessed by Newtown Police Department (who at the time had its headquarters at 3 Main Street) and a spot for unwanted graffiti.

The building was demolished in May 1993, and The Bee had hoped to move its office and printing facilities there. Following failed legal battles, however, the newspaper offices and printing facility remained on Church Hill and Commerce roads, respectively.

It was during the summer of 1996, while at Wilton Antiques Marketplace, that Helen and Scudder Smith found what became the initial centerpiece for the property.

“That fountain would look nice at the Lovell corner,” Helen Smith reportedly said as she zeroed in on a three-tier cast iron Fiske example at the outdoor marketplace. The next day Don Heller, a dealer from Portland, Me., was in town unloading the fountain from his truck and suddenly a major project was in the making for Bee Publishing Company.

According to “A ‘Pleasance’ Takes Shape At A Newtown Crossroads” by R. Scudder Smith (October 31, 1997), “Attention had to be first given to the condition of the fountain. It had not been used for many years and had grown a healthy crop of rust in areas where an orange colored paint had worn off.

“Professional help was badly needed and found in the person of Chris Bowman, a blacksmith of many talents working in Shelton. Within a week the fountain was back to its former self, clean of rust and dirt and painted with a gray primer,” Smith continued. “The sandblasting process took away the grime and now the small turtles and frogs which line the rim of the bottom pan of the fountain are sharp and distinct.”

Once the fountain’s new location was determined, local garden designer Kimberly Day Proctor drew up a plan for the area bounded by Main Street, Sugar Street, and a right-of-way that ran south of Town Hall South and curved out to meet Sugar Street.

“She was asked to incorporate a few gardens, a gazebo, a path which would lead walkers through most of the lot, and steps where the slope of the land was steep,” Smith wrote. “A planted berm here and there would be needed to enclose the property, and a bocce court was thrown in for good measure.”

Sinopoli Mason Contractors of Southbury, under the direction of brothers Vincent and Anthony Sinopoli, installed the fountain. Frank La Pak, a retired employee of The Bee, gave the fountain its final coat of signature green paint.

The Sinopoli team also painted lines all over the lot outlining the walkways, steps, gardens, bridges, and a stone-lined swale designed to carry rain water from the adjoining town-owned parking lots through a pipe and out into the wetlands.

Topsoil was brought in to the property and construction machines began removing large chunks of cement that were once part of the foundation of Lovell’s Garage. They also placed slabs of granite to form three sets of steps on the south side of the lot. Work progressed from Main Street down the hill, until a row of boulders was placed along the right-of-way, completing the project.

“After they saw what was going on at the corner of Main and Sugar Streets, a few people stepped forward with contributions of their own,” again according to the 1997 Newtown Bee feature. “Tom Draper donated ten lush hemlocks from his Deep Brook Road property, Tom Johnson of Lexington Gardens contributed an ornamental tree which now sits by the gazebo, and Wendell Stonaker brought some plants from his garden just down the road on Sugar Street to fill in some of the holes.”

Bee employees Billy Albers and Scott Baggett joined Proctor to install all of the plants. Bob McCarthy of Roxbury, the owner of Artistic Irrigation, installed a water system to ensure the future growth of both the grass and the plants.

The second landmark feature when many people think of The Pleasance is a gazebo in the main part of the property on the western corner of Main Street and Sugar Street. The gazebo offers a place to enjoy lunch, gather for small meetings, or have photographs taken.

The property’s original gazebo came from The Barn Yard in Brookfield. Losito Electrical Contractors wired the gazebo and lights around the fountain.

Pathways from the gazebo take visitors through a manicured garden; past sculptures that include a 600-pound cast iron turtle, an equally oversize rooster, and a life-size man (“Steve”) with a collection of five life-size dogs of myriad breeds; and past the antique cast iron fountain that launched the project.

As former Newtown Bee Editor Curtiss Clark wrote in a February 2017 editorial: “It has been a joy through the seasons for thousands of drivers — and pedestrians — passing by. An array of perennials and annuals that border the route is nurtured through the seasons, providing a burst of color to be appreciated while waiting for the traffic light to change. Shrubs and trees — including dawn redwoods, a rare deciduous conifer that was the contemporary of dinosaurs and only rediscovered in the 1940s — march from Main Street to the police driveway, shielding those within the parklike space of The Pleasance from the noise and busyness of the intersection and shielding those in idling cars from having to view the aesthetically challenged Town Hall South building.”

Western Expansion

The Pleasance expanded during summer 2001, when the area on the west side of the property sprouted a new wooden flagpole, stone paths, and a few pleasant places to sit.

The additions came only after months of careful pruning and attention paid to weeds, wild rose bushes and brush in that section of The Pleasance. For months the new portion was mowed, and with each cutting the area was increased.

After nearly 20 trips to the landfill with brush and dead trees, new willow trees were planted along the border of wetland and topsoil was installed. Several specimen trees were planted in the area, including three Leprechaun ash trees, a Harry Lauder Walking Stick, flowering plum trees, and a magnolia.

Paul Miles of Elm Glade Landscaping volunteered his time and machine to help that transition happen.

“In excavating the path buried treasures were found, including several pieces of side molding, oil filters, a muffler, part of a steering column, and even a complete engine block,” Scudder Smith wrote in November 2001 (“Down The Pleasance Path”). “With a little more excavation, perhaps an entire car could have been assembled.”

The Bunny Garden

That second area also includes The Bunny Garden, a children’s garden complete with sculptures of five rabbits and one farmer, benches, and a playhouse for children to enjoy.

Officially opened in 2007, The Bunny Garden and its inhabitants are based on the characters imagined by Beatrix Potter for her very classic children’s book The Tale of Peter Rabbit. A scene from the tale of a mischievous Peter Rabbit was brought to life in the children’s area within The Pleasance when Helen and Scudder Smith commissioned Ken Memoli to create its inhabitants.

A tool shed along the northern edge of The Pleasance has a fenced-in garden to its south, where a sculpture very much resembling Mr McGregor can be found. The farmer is on his knees, presumably planting young cabbages like his literary counterpart.

The farmer is looking to his right, where he has spotted a very naughty Peter Rabbit, who has just pulled up three beautiful carrots.

To the west of this scene, a second outbuilding was also installed years ago. This is the Bunny House, and it is large enough for a few small children — or one very agile adult — to fit into. A Dutch door welcomes children into the play space, which holds a few child-size pieces of furniture, and dolls and toys that are swapped out once they become weathered.

Mother Rabbit stands outside the house, to the right of the door. One of her children — Flopsy, Mopsy or Cottontail — is to the left of the door. The other two young rabbits can be found along nearby pathways.

The four figures are gazing toward the activity in the farmer’s nearby fenced-in garden. The bunnies and farmer were resin-fortified, cast cement statues, according to a July 2007 Newtown Bee feature announcing their arrival and inviting families to find them.

Did You Know…

*Ridgefield resident Jerry Wilson worked part-time at The Pleasance in its early years. An expert in Adirondack material and gardening, he was called by some nurserymen “a walking encyclopedia” when it came to knowing and caring for plants, shrubs, and trees. He died suddenly in September 2009, while taking part in the Antiques Show & Sale at The Adirondack Museum.

A memorial plaque honoring Wilson was installed at The Pleasance on a rock near the Fiske fountain in July 2010. The plaque was mounted on a rock to the right of the fountain, courtesy of Ned Steinmetz of Brown’s Monument Works in Monroe.

*In 2011, after a pine tree had reached the end of its life, property owners R. Scudder and Helen Smith decided they did not want to simply chop down and remove the tree. Instead, the couple began building a collection of birdhouses to the tree. Seventeen birdhouses, each decorated by Mrs Smith, were placed on the remaining branches of the tree in the northwest section of the property.

*For many years, the Pleasance was filled ahead of Newtown High School’s prom, when dozens of young adults and their parents would visit the picturesque location for pre-event photos.

*One of the bridges has been used by Girl Scout Brownie troops for their Bridging Ceremony (moving girls from Brownie to Girl Scout stage), and it is a popular location for garden club events. During the week, many people meet in the gazebo for lunch.

*In 2005 the bocce court at The Pleasance was the site for an official Tercentennial Bocce Competition

*C.H. Booth Library presented a few seasons of its Summer Concert Series at 1 Main Street.

“It looked like a scene out of a Norman Rockwell painting, with kids playing, couples strolling, and an interested and recumbent crowd sprawled on blankets and on lawn chairs across the grass listening to music,” this newspaper’s editorial celebrated in June 2004 following the first concert there. That scene, as well as previous “weddings, the small parties, the preprom photo sessions, and all the other mini celebrations that bloom like the surrounding gardens on summer days, and the scene is exactly as we envisioned when we first thought to put a park on the site of an old service station.”

*The Bunny House was one of nine locations contestants needed to visit during the inaugural Newtown Youth & Family Services Holiday Festival Scavenger Hunt. Twenty-two teams competed on Sunday afternoon in December 2020 to win five one-day hopper tickets to Disney World.

Team 6/The Kinsey family was the winner of The Road to Disney Scavenger Hunt.

*The park is home to two of 26 black steel benches installed around town in 2016, one for each victim of 12/14. The Pleasance proudly hosts the benches celebrating Charlotte Bacon and Ben Wheeler. Both were installed near The Bunny House. The full series of benches was gifted to Newtown by Mark Sigrist of Columbus, Ohio.

*The property was included at least once on Newtown Historical Society’s House & Garden Tour, in July 2014.

*For a few years, The Pleasance served as the meeting location for Newtown Juggling & Circus Arts Club. The group would meet on Saturday afternoons and welcomed anyone with an interest in juggling and other circus arts including flower sticks, poi, hoops, diabolo, and other instruments.

The property also hosted the club for at least two World Juggling Day Celebration events.

*The property’s original gazebo was among the casualties of the winter of 2010-11, when record setting storms led to the collapse of at least two dozen buildings in town that season. The Pleasance gazebo collapsed in February 2011. It was replaced four months later with a model from Kloter Farm.

*The Dog Walker sculpture collection — a male affectionately named “Steve” by its owners and Bee Publishing Company employees, and five life-size dogs of varying breeds — was created by folk artist Stephen Huneck of St Johnsbury, Vt.

Over the years The Dog Walker and some of his charges have been adorned with varying hats and other headgear.

Steve’s owners appreciate finding fashions left for Steve and/or any of his five canines, but they do ask one favor: keep the donations soft. Nothing scratchy on the metal, which has damaged the painted artwork in the past.

*With a large American flag as a backdrop, The Pleasance was among the locations to host an observance in September 2002 on the first anniversary of 9/11.

*The Pleasance is available for private and public functions. Reservations are requested to avoid conflicts, and can be made by calling 203-426-3141.

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Managing Editor Shannon Hicks can be reached at shannon@thebee.com.