Totoket Valley in the early 1920s before The North Branford Dam.
May 1, 1926, looking west. Construction is underway. Note the use of steam shovels as well as hundreds of horses. A rail spur was built from the New Haven Trap Rock Co. to the northern side of the dam where a concrete plant was built.
July 1, 1927 looking West. The dam is nearly complete.
|
The Nathan Harrison House. While Lake Gaillard was filling the house became surrounded by water. It was jacked up and put on sledges. In winter the house was skidded down on the ice and hauled up to its present location on Beech Street. |
|
The Nathan Harrison House today. |
The Dam and Lake Gaillard as they exist today.
The Curtiss-Rose House. The home was built in 1724 by Jonathan Rose. It was sold to the Rev. William Curtiss in 1866. He went bankrupt and lost the house in foreclosure. In 1906 it was purchased by John & Daniel Rose. It was probably the largest farm in the valley comprising ~ 800 acres. It was purchased by the New Haven Water Company in 1923.
Two rooms from the Curtiss-Rose House were acquired by Yale University. They were removed and reassembled at the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven in 1928. The Gallery was renovated in 2012 and one of the Curtiss-Rose rooms was reinstalled in 2013. It is worth a trip to New Haven.
The Totoket Historical Society, Inc. possesses a model of one of he rooms from the Curtiss-Rose House. This is located at The Reynolds-Beers House.