Tower Hill Preserve
credit: Milton Levin
Trail Information
Trail Map: Click here for a map of the trail. You will need Adobe Acrobat to view or print the map. Tower Hill Preserve is located at 140 Tower Hill Rd. in Chaplin.(GPS coordinates: 41.800, -72.140)
Parking is currently available on the grass area immediately in front of the preserve entrance.
As you tour the property on the 1.3-mile yellow-blazed loop trail you’ll be walking on long-abandoned farm roads through an oak forest that provides important habitat for nesting birds and mammals. The short red spur trail shown on the map takes you to Stonehouse Brook where you can sometimes view an intermittent waterfall on the far hillside. The trails avoid wetter areas on the eastern portion of the property which provide valuable habitat for a variety of wildlife. The area of the Preserve south of Tower Hill Road, which includes several open hay fields, has been reserved for active agriculture and conservation purposes.
About the Property
This 236-acre property was donated to Joshua’s Trust in 2021 by the Alexander Family Trust (Antoinette Monnier, trustee) and to date constitutes the largest single gift of land to the Trust in its history.
The Tower Hill Preserve represents a major milestone in the Trust’s goal to protect an ecologically critical wildlife corridor along Stonehouse Brook between the federally-owned Mansfield Hollow State Park to the south and the state-owned Natchaug Forest to the north.
History
The Nipmuc Tribe, whose lands extended from Tolland and Windham Counties into central Massachusetts, were the original inhabitants of this land. The land that is now the preserve was part of the nearly 2000-acre holdings of Benjamin Chaplin. Upon his death in 1795, Chaplin’s daughter inherited one of the farms on this land and lived here with her husband, Rev. David Avery. The house was reportedly used as a de facto religious meetinghouse before a church could be built in the center of Chaplin.
William Ross Sr. purchased the “Avery Farm” in 1835. William was a cattle trader and a very successful businessman who owned a number of rental properties and a silk mill in Willimantic. During the fifty years that he and his wife lived here, he purchased the neighboring farm you can see to the west and expanded their holdings on both sides of Tower Hill Road to over 300 acres. He also made a number of improvements on the land and in approximately 1880, completely “Victorianized “ the house. Most of the spectacular stone walls that exist throughout the property were constructed during this time. Reportedly it was the first house in Chaplin to have indoor plumbing, the remnants of which you can still see in the overgrown foundation. William I was active in Town government, serving as a selectman and State representative. He died in 1885 and left the property to his only son William II.
William Ross II, continued his father’s business ventures and married Emily Jones Clark who inherited the property from William in 1908. William II left $15,000 in his will to the Town to build a library. After his death, Emily married her chauffeur Walter Vail who was the son of Theodore Vail, the first and long-time president of AT&T. Emily died in 1933 and left the property to her son Walter Clark who was the first Governor of Alaska and a newspaper publisher in Charleston WV. He is the grandfather of Antoinette Monnier who donated the property to the Trust. After Walter Vail died in 1940 the property was rented out for about 15 years and then was left vacant. The house was burned down in 1982. A barn across the street burned earlier.
Location: 140 Tower Hill Rd, Chaplin, CT. (GPS coordinates: 41.800, -72.140)
Donor: Alexander Family Trust
Acres: 236 acres
Stewards: Deb Field and Scott Matthies
