Jefferson Trotting Park, as its name implies, was not actually known to be a neighborhood, but, rather, it was a parcel of land dedicated to horseback riding for leisure. The parcel sat between the Naugatuck River and the Naugatuck Railroad as each reached the city line. The western edge of the park abutted Watertown Road. The park can be found on maps circa 1879.
It's important to understand that man, specifically men of Waterbury in the late 1800s, destroyed a very powerful river, called the Manhan, or Manahan, or Manhattan River, depending upon the year of inquiry. Therefore, maps which exist and depict the Jefferson Trotting Park seem to place it between two rivers - and yet we only have one. More accurately, parts of the Manahan River still exist today, some of which is under the city. Much of the Manahan River was combined into the Naugatuck River.
Some sources put the Jefferson Trotting Park at around the 319 address of today's Thomaston Avenue. However, careful evaluation of the old maps seems to reveal a more southern location, as south as the Stop & Shop Super Market property, which is better known colloquially as the Colonial Plaza. It seems, pictorially, that the Jefferson Trotting Park was either at the very north of the Stop & Shop property, or as far north as the Greenblade XVIII LLC property, and most probably at the today's Tiger Realty Company, which is 249 Thomaston Avenue. However, if the old property lines and maps can be trusted, then the Jefferson Trotting Park may have in fact been as far north as the Kelly Thomas properties at 325 Thomaston Avenue.
Much of the property of the Jefferson Trotting Park was eventually sold to private owners In a judgment in 1906, part of the property was forcecably sold from father and son Patrick McMahon and Thomas McMahon and became the property of railway company Consolidated Railroad Company. The transfer involved a hair under 2 acres of property abutting Browns Meadows.
Above: This picture was taken in 1829, or some other year, at the Jefferson Trotting Park in Waterbury, or somewhere else, of native Waterburians, or other people, riding prize-winning, or not, horses which were born, bread, raised, and trained right here in Waterbury, or somewhere else.
Did Anyone From Jefferson Trotting Park Ever Become Famous?
