Crowell Lot Cache - Lindenhurst Traditional Cache
bren1467: archiving, as I haven't had a chance to replace it.
Crowell Lot Cache - Lindenhurst
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What you’ll see here is a nice community park, with playground equipment and basketball courts, and lots of room for kids and adults alike to enjoy the outdoors. It is currently the proposed (though somewhat controversial) site of a future skatepark.
NOTE: park is closed from 10pm-6am.
What you don’t see is the history of this lot. Try to picture an elegant Victorian mansion named Lindenhurst, the drive lined by majestic maple trees, as it was 125 years ago.
This mansion was built in 1859 by the future Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner, Sr. of New Orleans, for his friend, Louisiana State Senator James B. Eustis. It eventually came into the hands of George Crowell, a local businessman who made good, and made his mark on the town. He did extensive renovations on the mansion in1890, which was eventually torn down during the Depression.
The trees are still here, and some remnants of foundations. See the link below for more history.
The cache is just a little tribute to the once beautiful mansion.
(visit link)
A CIVIC MINDED BUSINESSMAN
In 1866, George Crowell, age 32, moved to Brattleboro from Massachusetts to work at the Vermont Record and Farmer. A year later Crowell started and served as publisher of the highly successful women's weekly paper The Household, headquartered in the Crosby Block on Main Street. The paper, a forerunner of other women's magazines of the period, had 80,000 subscribers in 1890. In addition to his publishing activities, Crowell became active in other businesses, including real estate. But it was his interest in the growing needs of the community and another enterprise that got his name in the paper--the town of Brattleboro's water supply and distribution system.
Crowell had acquired considerable real estate holdings and, like his fellow businessmen, was concerned with fire protection and a supply of potable domestic water.
About 1880, he started to develop a spring fed distribution system to serve his apartments in the Forest Park area of town. In 1882, he purchased a partially completed reservoir, started by Isaac Hines, four springs, and land from Isaac's son, Alonzo. In addition to developing the reservoir and aqueduct, Crowell developed a park around the area and renamed it Chestnut Hill because of the large number of chestnut trees in the area. The 30-acre park and reservoir was on a plateau at a higher elevation than the town. This provided an increase in water pressure for the water system, and gave park visitors a commanding view of the town and surrounding area. Roads were built that enabled the public to visit croquet grounds, a newly built log cabin, a bandstand, and a three-story cottage of Swiss architecture that had a 50-foot observatory tower.
On November 7, 1888, two fire hydrants were installed, at the expense of a local businessman, George J. Brooks. These hydrants were connected to the newly built Chestnut Hill Reservoir and improved fire-fighting capacity by providing a large quantity of water, under pressure, to the downtown area.
The park eventually fell into disrepair, and is now a residential area. The dry reservoir can still be found at the top of the hill across the street. The water system is now totally owned and operated by the town of Brattleboro, but George Crowell is remembered as a man of vision who gave Brattleboro water.
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