Way We Were Update
The photo that ran with the December 1 Way We Were was identified as looking north from Coger’s Pond when in fact it is looking south.
How do we know this now? Norman Nagy, who now owns the property that includes the former pond, called this week to clarify things.
Norman’s backyard now includes that pond, he said. The small dam and waterfall seen in the photo — toward the right in the image, in front of Coger’s Pond, he said — divert water toward the former Coger’s Mill.
The mill, which is long gone, would have been behind the photographer who took the photo we had in the paper last week, Norman said.
The whole area is “all grown in with trees now,” he said. “The sluiceway is all dry now.”
If you’d like to see what the mill looked like circa 1910, it’s on page 45 of Images of America: Newtown by Dan Cruson (the first Images of America collection Dan published). It’s also the photo offered with this week’s Way We Were.
According to the late Town Historian’s notes in that book, the grist mill was located north of Cold Spring Road. The remnants of the pond can still be seen where the road crosses the Pootatuck River.
Dan’s notes also state the remains of the flume, foundation, and water turbine pit still exist on private land about 100 yards north of the old dam. Built shortly before 1857, the mill was operated by the Coger family until the late 1920s, the book’s notes also continue.