Where do you live?  The Origin of Hopkinton’s Street Names, Part II

The Hopkinton Historical Society and HopNews recently ran a contest on the origin of street names in our community. See the article below to start off:

Where do you Live? The Origin of Hopkinton’s Street Names.

In response, over a dozen people commented with additional information. The grand prize winner was Sarah Cavanaugh, a member of the Historical Society with the following list:

• Daniel Shays Road: named after Daniel Shays (born in Hopkinton in 1747), leader of the Shays’ Rebellion
• Walcott Street: named after Charles F. Walcott (born in Hopkinton in 1836), Union Army Officer during the Civil War
• Claflin Commons, Claflin Place, and Claflin Ave: named after the Claflin family
• Colella Farm Road: named after the Colella family
• Chamberlain Street: named after William Chamberlain
• Wood Street: named after John Wood, an early influential resident
• Woodville: also named after John Wood & the Wood family
• Walker Street: named after Joseph Walker, inventor of the pegged shoe and helped Hopkinton’s shoe industry
• Price Street: named after Rev. Roger Price, Rector of King’s Chapel
• College Street: named after College Rock
• Norcross Road: named after Joel Norcross (discovered mineral springs near Lake Whitehall)
• Spring Street: named after the mineral springs
• Rice Street: named after Dexter and Elbridge Rice
• Church Street: named after St. John’s church *
• Pleasant Street: named because it’s a pleasant getaway from the construction on Main Street
• Hayden Rowe (also spelled Hayden Row in older town maps): named after Elisha Hayden (August 9th, 1723: Elisha signed a petition of trustees asking the Court to empower the people of Hopkinton to hold a town meeting and elect officers–first town meeting was held March 25th, 1724) **

Later, Sarah added the following details to her robust list:

• Granite Street: (most likely) named after the granite from local quarries (probably Maguire Quarry, which was located on Lumber St not too far from the Milford line)

Our first-place winner was Ann Dragsbaek with this contribution:

“Gassett Rd was named after my grandfather Joseph Gassett, Carol Ann Drive was named after my mom Carol Gassett. Queen Anne Rd was named after me. My dad developed that land. I now live on Norcross Rd. which was named after Joel Norcross who owned a hotel on Lake Whitehall. The DiCarlo roads … Were all named after family members. Andrea, Gina, John Matthew, DiCarlo, Barbara. The roads near Colella farm were all named after Colella family members”. ***

John Ritz shared this with us, “The streets in my neighborhood (Valleywood) are all named for members of the developer’s family (Erika, Lynn, Tiffany Ewald).”

And we learned from Phyllis Barra that “The street names comprising Roosevelt Farms off Fruit Street pay homage to Teddy Roosevelt who is rumored to have stayed at the farmhouse originally on this land. The street names are Roosevelt Lane, Cubs Path, Rough Rider Ridge and Bull Moose Run.”  Teddy Roosevelt did undertake a barnstorming tour of New England in 1902 which included many Massachusetts stops.

We also heard from folks who identified streets as being named for their ancestors such as Joseph Walker’s great, great, great granddaughter Allison Gibson who grew up at 54 Spring St. in a home her grandparents built.

John Ritz informed us that “Greenwood (Road & Neighborhood) was named for the Greenwood family. The foundation of their house at the summit of Saddle Hill still exists, and has a marker installed by Harrison Bograd for his Eagle Scout project.” And last but not least Bill Hamilton stopped by the Historical Society building and let us know that McNeil and the adjacent streets, McGill and Cole, are named after Hopkinton WWII vets. 

We invite readers to share any information that they may have as well. The street that everyone seems stumped on is College Street. It was suggested that it was named for College Rock but no one is sure of the origin of that, either. Do you know? You can email us with updates at: hissochopma@gmail.com

* It could be that Church St. was named for the Methodist Church which was built in 1855 on land donated by Lee Claflin. Claflin also financed the construction of the building. Saint John’s wasn’t begun until 1876.

** There were multiple Hayden’s in town at this time period and it is unclear for whom the Row was named. Several members including Elisha had large farms where the High School and Middle School are now located as well as where Parmenter’s is.

*** The following streets were named for specific members of the Colella family: Angelo, Teresa, Nicholas, Alexander, Joseph and Daniel. Nicholas and Teresa were immigrants from Italy, while their sons Joseph, Angelo, Alexander and Daniel were all born in town.