ATHOL — It began in June with an email to the Athol Daily News editor from a Connecticut man, and developed into a curious case of historic identity.
Gregory R. Gunn from Ashford, Conn. came across a green-colored street sign in Danielson, a borough of Killingly, Conn., announcing “Athol St.” in white lettering with the posting, “Not A Town Road.”
Gunn said his father grew up in the town, which has a population of around 4,000, but has no idea of the name’s origin. “It made me laugh,” he wrote. “I can say that it is certainly a busy road (street) for ‘Not A Town Road.’”
Contact with Killingly Town Clerk Liz Wilson led to Killingly Town Historian Margaret Weaver who had just been at the town office and was told of the search for information about the Athol Street sign. In phone and email interviews, Weaver said she felt it would have been named sometime in the 1940s because it wasn’t included in a 1936 street list. She spoke to an 88-year-old friend who grew up in the area and said that when she was a child, the street didn’t exist.
Athol Street is located near Filemile Pond, a cemetery and railroad tracks. Weaver contacted the Killingly Engineering Department and was told that when the road was laid out, it was not built according to town specifications.
Weaver continued her research and was surprised to find information about the Athol Brick Company in Killingly which she said no one at the Killingly Historical and Geneaological Center had heard of before. In the March 23, 1911 edition of the Windham County Transcript, she found a notice that the Athol Brick Company was dissolved that year.
She sought help from Killingly Assistant Town Manager and Assessor Paul Hopkins who found in his files an apartment house that was erected on the street in 1930 on what was a private drive. The building was renovated into condominiums and additional ones were built in 1974.
Weaver also found in the Killingly Land Record Index that in 1897 the Athol Brick Company was located in Athol, Massachusetts with stock valued at $20,000 and real estate valued at the same amount. By the next year the company was located in Killingly.
Weaver said it appeared to be a small company because only three individuals showed up in the records as stockholders; Emily W. Bailey, President, Russell A. Bailey, Treasurer, and A. Lockwood Danielson. Russell Bailey was mentioned in the Killingly Business Encyclopedia in 1888 as manager and selling agent for the Quinebaug Brick Company in Brooklyn, Conn.
Inspired by the mystery of how Athol Street got its name, Weaver, also a columnist for the Killingly Villager newspaper, reported her resulting historic research on local brickyards in a July 26 article, asking readers to contact her if they know the answer to the Athol Street name stumper.
Athol area residents are welcome to share any information they may have about the Athol Brick Company by emailing kchaisson@atholdailynews.com.