This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Neighbor News

A Place in Naugatuck History: The Garden of the Spencer Homestead

A first person account of an old borough home, taking from excerpts from the Naugatuck Daily News archives.

Join me as we take a journey through the garden of the old Spencer Homestead on Cherry Street in the early 1900's. Rhea Holton, just a child at the time, will be sharing with us her memories of this joyous childhood garden.

The home is situated in the middle of about 2 acres of land. The original front entrance is on Spencer Street surrounded by a fence. There is another entrance on Cherry Street, both with the same Iron Gate standing guard. There is a wonderfully odd latch in the shape of a cow’s head on each gate, the ears can be lifted causing the gate to swing in or out.

As we enter, old-fashioned flowers abound from every direction. Deitzia wave their graceful bells, the pink blossoms of honeysuckle scent the air all around. Snowballs weight heavy on their old vines while snow berry, white lilac and flowering quince bloom in abundance.

Find out what's happening in Naugatuckwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The delicate white flowers of bridal wreath trail down their long stems of green, as flowering clove and syringa as high as the house scent the summer air.

Roses are everywhere, jack rose, blush rose, large single white rose with a golden center. There is a beautiful red rose that blooms on my birthday and mama’s favorite, a Baltimore Bell, which climbs unopposed on a trellis by the back door.

Find out what's happening in Naugatuckwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

We have a flower and vegetable garden, each separated from the rest by a fence. There are beds of lilies of the valley, purple monk‘s hood, delicate Jacob’s ladder all contrasting one another in perfect harmony.

The top of the stonewall is dripping with the yellow starflower of sedum while the base of the wall, Star of Bethlehem has taken over. Orange poppies, purple perennial peas and rows of sweet peas line the long path through the garden, each adding their own sweetness to the air.

Plums, green and russet apples and current bushes keep Mama busy making preserves. The original kitchen in our house has a Dutch oven and large fireplace but we use that for our living room. The ell that was added in the mid to late 1800’s has a large pleasant kitchen and a working kitchen on the lower level that mama uses to do her canning. We have cold sparkling water that is pumped into our kitchen from the corner of our house. Mama keeps our preserves in the cold cellar under the house.

Asparagus from old beds of long ago still grow in the grass at the end of the garden, near where the sweet strawberries grow wild. The yard is dotted with black and sweet cherry trees also sickle pear and one with large golden pears. The pear trees are the perfect distance apart for a hammock calling us to rest on lazy summer days.

There is a Rhode Island green apple tree that all of us children enjoy; its limbs so crooked even the smallest of kids can easily climb it. It holds a long swing where I love to sit and enjoy the largest and pinkest apple blossoms in the springtime. The many fruit trees were planned so perfectly that from early summer until frost, we enjoy apples as well as jelly and jam from our grape vines along our brick fence.

Do you see all the wildflowers growing high on the hill behind the house? In the winter we go sledding there and skating on the little pond at the bottom of the hill.

The nice clean barn on our property is a fun place to play and where my brother and his friends made plans for the first Boy Scouts in Naugatuck.

When the twilight descends upon us on a warm spring evening, my dad and I like to take a walk, just the two of us. Sometimes we will visit the Lewis Farm or Hoadley’s pond to watch the frogs and pollywogs. A special peace sets in as we quietly listen to the sounds of the katydids and see the glow of lightening bugs all around us.

When we return home, sometimes we will have a family sing along, with my sister playing all the songs she knows on our huge old square Steinway piano. We are too far from our neighbors to cause a bother by our enthusiastic singing.

Just down Cherry Street where Rubber Ave meets there is a hustle and bustle of the Rubber industry in both directions. However from the beautiful gardens of my old home on Cherry Street, there is a simplicity and joy that has been passed down from the other happy children that have lived here before.

Until next week when we find another place in Naugatuck history, may you find a secret garden all your own.

A note from the writer: The family of Mrs. Rhea Holton Smith once lived in the famous old Spencer Family Homestead, moving there in the early 1900‘s. It was considered one of the oldest homes in Naugatuck at the time. This information was taken from her account of her childhood in this home. Rhea Holton was a secretary at Risdon Manufacturing and in 1927, married Joseph Smith, who worked in the advertising department of the Naugatuck Daily News. They had several children and later moved to Woodbury but never broke ties with their beloved Naugatuck.

Credit: The Naugatuck Daily News archives

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?