from a page in my site on the Collegiate School
Daily Gleaner, May 13, 1956
from 'The Kingston Race Course' by F. L. C.
Firewood,cattle. small stock, poultry and perhaps some fruit, vegetables and ground provisions could nave been the only produce, and either the needed water would have been drawn from wells or the owner would have watered his stock at Pratter Pond, which was in the adjacent pen Cavaliers, on the east, and which covered the southern part of what is now Allman Town and much of the northern part of the present district of Kingston Gardens. Perhaps both sources of supply were used.
This large pond was named after Edward Pratter (died 1735) who was a merchant of Kingston, a member of the House of Assembly and Receiver General and who apparently at one time owned the pen in which the pond was situated. Originally a rain catchment, it was fed by waste-water coming from the north, and the overflow ran into a branch of the gully that now passes underneath North Street but then crossed it at the surface. The top-soil must have been clayey, to retain the water. The rainfall in those days may have been heavier than now.
The flocks of wild ducks that frequented the pond and the surrounding bushes provided a supply of food for the neighbourhood and targets for the guns of sportsmen, for whom the place was a favourite resort until about 80 years ago, [ca 1876] when the picturesque but most insanitary pond—a huge breeding place for mosquitoes—was drained and the select residential district of Kingston Gardens began to be built upon the reclaimed land.
Mr. J. F Brennan. retired Government Meteorologist, who died last year at the great age of 98 years, remembered the duck-shooting at Pratter Pond—surely a revelation to most people today.
Daily Gleaner, August 11, 1880
We learn that the residence of a government official in Prater Pond was entered on Monday evening by a burglar who got away with money. It appears that about ten minutes previous to the robbery, the gentleman in question had occasion to enter his bedroom where a little daughter was sleeping. On returning, he found a wardrobe broken open and money and jewel casket gone. The burglar must have been scared, however, as, in his flight, he dropped the casket in the garden where it was found.
We learn that the residence of a government official in Prater Pond was entered on Monday evening by a burglar who got away with money. It appears that about ten minutes previous to the robbery, the gentleman in question had occasion to enter his bedroom where a little daughter was sleeping. On returning, he found a wardrobe broken open and money and jewel casket gone. The burglar must have been scared, however, as, in his flight, he dropped the casket in the garden where it was found.