Harrub Pilgrim Memorial

Updated April 15, 2024

## Harrub Pilgrim Memorial (Waterbury, Connecticut): What It Is, Where It Actually Sits, and Why It Matters

If you’re building a Waterbury itinerary around outdoor history stops, the Harrub Pilgrim Memorial is one of the city’s most prominent pieces of public sculpture tied to early colonial memory—set within Chase Park in Waterbury’s Town Plot area. Institution

### Quick facts (grounded)
– Name: Harrub Pilgrim Memorial (also cataloged as “Pilgrim Fathers’ Memorial”) Institution
– Type: Outdoor sculpture / memorial
– Location context: In/at Chase Park, Waterbury, Connecticut Institution
– Common “pin” address: 326 Highland Ave, Waterbury, CT (frequently used by listings; see note below)
– Common cross-streets referenced by sources: near Highland Ave & Sunnyside Ave
– Date dedicated: October 11, 1930
– Artist: Hermon Atkins MacNeil
– Administration/owner info (catalog record): administered by the City of Waterbury Parks Department; located at Chase Park Institution

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## Where it is (and why the address can be confusing)

A lot of map and directory listings attach the memorial to “326 Highland Ave”.
But the more specific, institutional-style documentation places it in Chase Park—and describes it as an outdoor sculpture located there (rather than a standalone building at that street number). Institution

Best “real world” way to orient: treat the memorial as a Chase Park feature in the Highland Avenue / Sunnyside Avenue area.
If you’re navigating with city facilities info, Chase Park is listed by the Waterbury Bureau of Parks at 150 Sunnyside Avenue, Waterbury, CT 06708, with contact details for the Bureau of Parks.

Outdated/variable data to flag: because third-party listings may pin it to a street address (like 326 Highland Ave) while civic/cultural records describe it within Chase Park, you may see slightly different map placements depending on the source.

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## What you’re looking at (not just “a statue”)

Cataloging and monument documentation consistently treat this as a major memorial group—not a small plaque or marker—and it’s widely referenced as one of Waterbury’s notable historic public works.

Two reliable threads show up across sources:

1. It memorializes the Pilgrims / early colonial settlement memory, explicitly framed around hardship and endurance in period narratives.
2. It is also tied to the Harrub family—sources describe it as honoring Rhoby Harrub as well as the Pilgrims.

If you want the most “primary-source-like” interpretive detail without speculation, the Historical Marker Database entry includes the memorial’s inscription context and dedication specifics.

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## The historical timeline you can state confidently

### Dedicated in 1930
Multiple sources agree on a dedication date of October 11, 1930.

### Relocated from an earlier position
The HMDB record notes that it was dedicated at an original location at the entrance to Chase Park, then later moved (the record attributes the move to later infrastructure construction).

### Recognized as a MacNeil work
The memorial is repeatedly identified as a 1930 work by Hermon Atkins MacNeil in Waterbury landmark listings.

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## Visiting Harrub Pilgrim Memorial as a “Chase Park stop”

### Use Chase Park as your planning anchor
Because official city recreation/parks information is attached to Chase Park (rather than the memorial alone), you’ll get the most dependable on-the-ground planning from the park listing:
– Chase Park (facility listing): 150 Sunnyside Avenue, Waterbury
– City recreation page also points to “Chase Park House” at the same address and provides phone info.

### What’s verifiable about park amenities
The Chase Park facility listing includes basketball courts, flag football, and tennis courts as facility areas.
(That’s useful because it confirms you’re dealing with an active public park environment—not a fenced museum site.)

### Status/open question
The facility page shows the park as “Status: Open.”
It does not provide universal “always open” hours for the memorial itself in the snippet we can verify here, so it’s more accurate to treat hours/access as park-dependent.

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## Inclusivity and interpretation notes (fact-based, not performative)

This memorial is part of a long U.S. tradition of Pilgrim/colonial commemoration. That doesn’t require you to agree with the framing to visit it intelligently. What you can do is read it as a historical artifact of 1930s civic memory—what communities chose to monumentalize at that time, and how those stories were publicly told.

Also, cataloging for the related “Pilgrim Fathers’ Memorial” record includes subject tags tied to colonization themes and references to Indigenous representation categories in the cataloging taxonomy.
That’s a signal to approach the iconography thoughtfully, especially if you’re photographing or writing about it.

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## Two contextual internal links you can add (RealJourneyTravels-ready)

– Connecticut travel hub: /united-states/connecticut/
– Waterbury guide / things to do: /united-states/connecticut/waterbury/

(Those are written as relative paths so your CMS can resolve them to your canonical domain without me dropping raw URLs.)

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## Source transparency (so you can QA)
All concrete claims above are supported by:
– Smithsonian/SIRIS art inventory entries for the “Pilgrim Fathers’ Memorial” in Chase Park Institution
– Historical Marker Database entry for Harrub Pilgrim Memorial (dedication/move/inscription context)
– City of Waterbury Parks/Recreation facility pages for Chase Park location/contact/amenities
– CTMonuments summary placing it in Chase Park and tying dedication to 1930 and the Harrub family context

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