Eight Acres Lost And Found In Newtown

By Kendra Bobowick

“In 1929 my grandmother received a 7.9-acre parcel of land for a dollar…” begins Polly Chidsey Brockway’s recent letter. Today, the acres remain untouched off Wilderness West Road in Newtown where they were almost lost to their owner.

Deputy Director of Planning and Land Use Rob Sibley contacted Ms Brockway and her cousins who had inherited that property nearly three decades ago.

As Ms Brockway reminisced, she wrote: “You can imagine our surprise when, more than 30 years later, we received a phone call announcing that a deed of land had been found.” Summer vegetables, red wagons, an “enjoyable childhood,” and “perils of collecting eggs from a chicken coop” are all part of her memories, or those borrowed from the storied her mother told.

The acres were originally her grandmother’s, purchased separately shortly after her grandparents bought a farm in town where they vacationed from New York City. Her grandparents eventually lived at the farm year-round after her grandfather lost his job during the Great Depression. The 7.9 acres stood alone.

“We can only conjecture that it was, perhaps, in payment for, or appreciation of [my grandmother’s] help during a desperately hard time,” Ms Brockway wrote. “That land was passed down to grandma’s two children; my mother, Janet Beers Chidsey, and my aunt, Betsy Beers Darby, in 1967.”

 Her letter continued: “Many years passed before mom and her sister decided that the parcel was to be sold, but the old deed’s points of reference were not to be found as the land was bounded by stone walls and boulders and no streets were named…”

Their “Newtown mystery” was finally solved with Mr Sibley’s call.

Now living in North Carolina, Vermont, and as near as Guilford, Conn., Ms Brockway, her sister Cindy Chidsey Goldberg, and her cousins Betsy Darby Hale and Steve Darby “were astonished heirs to land in Newtown and had to come to an agreement on the disposition of it,” she wrote. “We visited the property and discovered that it was a lovely woodland with a stream running through it.” A call to Mr Sibley led to a discussion. He hoped to purchase the land for the town. They learned that Mr Sibley was quite knowledgeable about the area; he said that the land was part of a vernal pool landscape and was ecologically important. “We had received an offer from a developer, but this news put an entirely different light on the matter.”

With her grandmother in mind, Ms Brockway and her cousins made a decision to save the land “in perpetuity,” she wrote.

“My grandmother, Ruby Stevens Beers, was a very civic-minded individual. She was a quiet lady with strong convictions …” Her grandmother had marched with Susan B. Anthony for women’s rights, earning her nickname Suzie. “In memory of her, we all decided that she would want the land to reside with the citizens of Newtown. I’m sure that she would be most pleased to know that the land is now conserved as open space for all to enjoy.”

Bursting with the news, Mr Sibley wrote his own email: “We’re on fire!” he said, conveying that the cousins would sell the land. The town paid $50,000.

The land ranks high for habitat protection, situated beside another area up for sale and possible development. The eight acres are also close to uninterrupted habitat.

“It’s near a huge unbroken portion of forest bisected by a watercourse — it’s a placeholder for open space in that section of town,” Mr Sibley said.

With a primary goal to set aside protected open spaces in town, Mr Sibley explained that acre by acre, “It’s how we build our house out of stone, it’s what we’ll build on.” He added, “Without a foothold, the open space begins to slip away and with it the opportunities for open space.” Each preserved space is a “great tool for habitat protection,” he said.

On the land is an “unmarred, intermittent tributary” where the watershed drains and passes through. “It’s very picturesque,” Mr Sibley said.

Remembrances of Newtown

From Ms Brockway’s letter: “One of my mother’s fondest memories was of the farm in Newtown. She was in her teens in the 1920s when her family first vacationed there; her parents bought the farm to get away from the heat of New York City. Later, when my grandfather lost his job in the city during the Great Depression, they lived in Newtown year round.

“Mom told us stories of raising fruits and vegetables in the Victory garden and of the perils of collecting eggs in the chicken coop. Mom and her sister Betsy used to pack surplus vegetables in a red wagon and distribute them to neighbors. Betsy recalled her years spent in Newtown (especially her fourth grade year, riding horseback and experiencing country life) as the most enjoyable of her childhood.”

The memories mentioned in Ms Brockway’s letter were compiled by Polly Chidsey Brockway, with help from Cindy Chidsey Goldberg, Betsy Darby Hale, and Steve Darby.