Lake Zoar Bridge and the Lost Village Around Pleasant Vale

Years ago one thriving section of Oxford had its own post office, a railroad station, a church and a general store. People called the area Punkups, or Pleasant Vale, Zoar or Zoar Bridge. It was a center of commerce because of the toll bridge, which spanned the Housatonic River between Oxford and the Stevenson section of Monroe.

In the early 1800s, Punkups was a flourishing neighborhood. There was a woolen mill, a foundry, an axe factory, an auger factory, a bellows factory, a cotton mill, a saw mill and a tannery. With so much commerce along the river, a bridge was desired.

Ezekiel Curtiss built the first bridge across the Housatonic there before 1800. The Toll Bridge was made of logs bolted together, and it lasted until 1835 when it was swept away in a spring freshet.

Two years later, Elisha Hubbell built a big covered bridge at the same location under a charter from the Connecticut General Assembly. Hubbell collected tolls for many years. Later, Hubbell’s company stopped maintaining the bridge and collecting tolls.

The bridge fell into disuse until 1840, when brothers Webb and Beach Downs decided to take over the bridge business in the area. They took the old bridge down and moved it a little over a mile downstream. When they applied to the General Assembly for a charter to collect tolls, the owners of the original company objected. The General Assembly refused the Downs brothers a charter, and the original company asserted its right to operate a bridge there.

About 1842, Elisha Hubbell joined with Edwin Wooster to rebuild the bridge. By 1845, William A. Bradley became the bridge tender, renting a store and house at the end of the overpass. George Sharpe took over the store in 1848.

The store was on the north side at the end of the bridge. On the south side was house where Sharpe and his family lived. The bridge tender paid a stated rent for the use of the bridge, store and house. He collected the tolls and sold goods to the area residents to make his living.

The bridge was taken down in 1853 by another freshet, which washed away the west abutment and a third of the bridge itself. Philo Smith was the builder who put up the bridge once again. The following spring there was another freshet, and the rising water undermined the west pier.

Wm. A. Bradley rented it again for three years, from April 1, 1854 to April 1, 1857. In February 1857, an ice freshet carried off one pier and two-thirds of the bridge. It was rebuilt once again. In 1875, the river once again carried away the bridge.

The stock company decided not to rebuild the structure. The majority stockholder was a Monroe man, who then sold his stock to William Bradley. Bradley decided to have the towns of Oxford and Monroe build the new overpass. The local governments did not want the responsibility of building and maintaining the bridge, so Bradley hired a lawyer from Seymour to press his case. The towns decided it would be cheaper to rebuild the bridge than to fight the lawsuit, and a suspension bridge design was chosen as less likely to be carried away by high water.

Constructed in 1876, the new bridge cost the Oxford and Monroe $13,225, each town paying half. The towns rented the bridge to Charles Gilbert, who served as bridge tender and toll collector. The State Legislature allowed the towns to collect tolls until the cost of the construction was recouped.  (See photos of suspension bridge and the buildings at each end of the bridge.

When the towns had recouped their investment, the bridge was turned over to New Haven and Fairfield counties, of which Oxford and Monroe belong, respectively. The tolls were abolished, and the counties became responsible for maintenance and repairs. That bridge survived until 1918, when the Stevenson Dam was built and a roadway placed atop the dam. But that is a story for another time.