Sunday, May 1, 2016

Wolcott History – How the Roads got their Names

One interesting bit of trivia I recently learned is that the most common street name in the US is Second/2nd Street. While one would think that First/1st Street would be more common, since that would normally be a more major road through town, many streets that might otherwise have that name instead bear the name of Main Street, Front Street, or some other name. For an interesting read about street/road names see *1.

But this blog is not about names in general, rather it is about the streets/roads in Wolcott.

Early Years

In the early years of Farmingbury/Wolcott history there was not much need for roads to have names. Wolcott was a pretty small place. In an earlier blog (*2) I made reference to the population of Wolcott over time. You can see this graphically in *3. It was not until the mid-1930s that the population exceeded 1000 people. Thus for 200 years, beginning with the earliest settlers of Farmingbury about 1731, there were few people and few roads.  During this period it would not have been unusual when asking for directions to be told, “Go down this road, turn left at the big oak tree, and they live just past the old Smith place.” Roads didn’t have official names but were often referred to by either geographic features or the names of individuals who lived there. And it didn’t matter that the Smith family no longer lived in the house referred to in this example, it was just that everyone still called it by that name since the Smith family had built the house and had lived in it for a couple of generations before the current occupants bought it.

The Wolcott Historical Society has several old maps on their website (*4). In the 1868 map you will find no street/road names, but every house in the town is identified by the family who lived there. Many of these family names would later be the basis for the street/road names. Here are some names of streets that would come from the geography/families of that period.

Geographic Names
North Street
Center Street
East Street
Boundline Road – the “Bound Line” was the separating line between Waterbury and Farmington
County Road – extended down over the escarpment into Southington in the next county
Long Swamp Road –crossed the long swampy area alongside of Roaring Brook on its way to the New Britain Reservoir

Family Names
Minor Street – named after the Minor family who were town clerks from 1815-1839 and 1848-1902 and who lived near the end of Minor where it intersects Boundline
Beecher Road – named after the Beecher family
Andrews Road – note the C Andrews at one end of the road and M.L. Andrews at the other end
Clinton Hill Road – named after the farm on that road and the hill that it was on
Upson Road – the Upson farm included the area where this road is, the Upson family were ancestors of the Atwood family
Todd Road – there were several Todd families in that part of town
Finch Road – named after Finch Brook which was named after the Finch family who lived on Todd Road, but whose farm extended back a considerable distance to include the brook (*5)
Nichols Road – see the S. Nichols home just two doors down from the school
Munson Road – named after the Munson family

Because families moved and over time there were new roads in town, these street/road names were not fixed, but could change over time as well. For example, the portion of Route 69 at the north end of town from the intersection with Woodtick Road went by (*6)
(1) Plumb Road (named after the Plumb family whom you can see in the 1868 map);
(2) Center Bristol Road (i.e. the middle of the three roads that went into Bristol, the other two being Spindle Hill Road/Witches Rock Road and Beecher Road/Willis Street
(3) Waterbury-Bristol Road (after Route 69 was built in 1935 that ran continuously from Waterbury to Bristol)
(4) Wolcott Road (since it was the main road in Wolcott which finally became a town of more than a few people in the late 1940s)

Years of Town Growth

When the town began growing in the late 1930’s and then growth exploded in the decade or so after WWII, it became necessary to formalize street/road names and to register them with the town government so there would not be duplicates. Most of the informal names above were officially adopted. Some new roads continued to follow the same naming patterns as above such as:
Cedar Ave – since it was near Cedar Lake/Cedar Swamp Pond
Lakeview Drive – since it overlooks Cedar Lake
Lakeside Drive – runs alongside of Hitchcock Lake

But during the period from the 1940s through the 1950s there were many new developments (often called subdivisions since they were formed by subdividing large properties/farms). Since there were no long-time residents or landmarks in these subdivisions, the individuals who were building these subdivisions had the freedom of coming up with their own names (subject to town approval so there would not be duplicate or confusing names, etc.) Often there were several streets/roads in these subdivisions so the developer would have a “theme” for their naming. Here are a few examples from that period. (Since the rationale for the naming was not required to be made public, there is some speculation in these examples.)

Charles Dr/Janet Ave/Richard Ave – probably the names of the developer’s children
Laurel Ln/Cedar Ln/White Oak Ln/Hickory Ln/etc. – all tree names
Wilson Road – named after the developer who lived on Woodtick Road
Coe Road – named after the Coe family
Garrigus Ct – named after the Garrigus family
Lewis Ave/Shelton Ave/etc. – probably all peoples names, Lewis is after the Addin Lewis family (*7), and Shelton is after Shelton Hitchcock (*8)
Seery Road – on the property of Tom Seery
Barclare Lane – first permanent dwellers on the road (Barbara and Clarence Pierpont)
Town Line Rd – intersects Wolcott Rd right at the edge of town

Later Years

After 1960 the explosive growth in the town leveled off a bit. While there was continued growth, the number of new developments was moderated. Some of the new streets/roads in town continued using the same types of naming conventions, but others were given names that would be attractive from a marketing perspective so the developer could attract buyers to his properties/homes. Here are some names from the past 50 years:

Old New England Road – not old at all, but meant to invoke a feeling of nostalgia
Saddle Rd/Wagon Trail/Stagecoach Ln – visions of the Wild West
Deer Run Dr/Red Fox Run – visions of living in the country
Winterbrook Rd/Crystal Brook Rd – close to the Mad River
Hempel Dr – in front of Wakelee School and named for a former superintendent of schools
Executive Hill Rd – only for rich people?
Cambridge Dr – references to England


Obviously, I have not covered all the streets/roads in town. There are many more examples that I could have given. But this is a good overview of some of the reasons why our streets/roads have the names that they do. What street/road do you live on? Do you know why it’s named what it is? (I do not live in Wolcott any longer, but my address is on Crown Lane – named because it’s at the very top, i.e. the crown, of a steep hill.)


Notes:

*4 http://www.wolcotthistory.org/, then click on History, then Maps of Wolcott, then the 1868 map.


1 comment:

  1. Note from Bev (Arquette): Bilby Drive was named by my grandfather George T Hawes when he built the street and it is how my brother William H Arquett DMD said his name "Billy" at the top ole age of 2.

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