Old Barn
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Size: 48x36 in
Status: Available
Where the name Cloverdale Farm came from is lost to history. But plausibly it was added when the house and barn were built, most likely between 1873 and 1876. For those few years, the land was owned by Thomas Donner of Stowe, who may have purchased it in order to fix it up and resell.
The deed selling the land in September 1876 to Lyman Prescott, whose family went on to own and farm it through three generations until 1921, notes, “Donner has erected a dwelling house and barn on the main Stage road to Waterbury.”
In fact, the property appears to have been bought and held for short periods by investors several times, according to the town’s records of purchases and sales, which go back more than 200 years.
The land was part of the second sale of lots in Waterbury. Its first resident owner was likely Patrick Bryan, an Irishman born in London who immigrated to Waterbury via Quebec and Burlington around 1815. He was a tailor by trade and the first Catholic in town, according to The Vermont Historical Gazetteer. His son Lorenzo sold to Donner.
CLOVERDALE FARM
Dating back to around 1815 when Irish immigrant Patrick Bryan first settled the land, the property operated as a family dairy farm for generations before closing due to increasing highway traffic and developmental pressures.