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.
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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