By Nancy K. Crevier

Without road names, directions from one place to another would be rather fuzzy. "Take this road to the road by the big tree; turn left and at the third road, go right; then continue on until you pass a house with a well out front painted blue and turn at the next road, keeping to the fork to the right."

How much easier it is to have a road named, something that signifies the path traveled is the one intended. In Newtown, the major roads have carried monikers for decades, usually signifying the destination — a city, a prominent landowner, or a significant landmark. Other roads gradually assumed their names, and in the 1950s, the Newtown League of Women Voters took it upon itself to verify and officially name the miles and miles of streets that carry residents from place to place.

Day to day, road signs are taken for granted, but behind the names emblazoned on the street signs is the history of Newtown: the people who founded the village, the families that farmed the land and peopled the churches and left a mark on the face of the town.

Hawleyville and Land's End

Old Hawleyville Road in Newtown runs from Route 25 to the Bethel border where it changes name to Secor Road. Even the very newest resident quickly hears about Mary Hawley and the legacy of buildings and properties she left behind. But Old Hawleyville Road is named not for the Main Street maven, but another branch of Hawleys who populated the northwestern part of Newtown.

Benjamin Hawley came to Newtown in the early 1700s, according to Newtown's first town historian, E.L. Johnson, in his book Newtown 1705 to 1918. "He came to a place he called Land's End, which has ever since retained that name," he wrote.

More people today might know that area as Hawleyville, although the Land's End name lingers on at the Land's End Cemetery at the intersections of Currituck and Obtuse Roads and Route 25, and in Land's End Road, a dead-end street off of Old Hawleyville Road. The Land's End Schoolhouse still stands, as well, at the intersection of Obtuse and Currituck Roads.

The map of 1854 lists several Hawleys living on Currituck Road and the vicinity, and in Mary Mitchell's book Touring Newtown's Past, it is noted that the homestead at 176 Currituck and a cider mill that stood there until recent years were built in 1870 by Ernest Hawley. The cider mill was used by families with orchards in the Land's End District. Ms Mitchell also writes that it was one of the first Hawleys to settle in Newtown who built the home still standing at 58 Farrell Road, just off of Route 25 in Hawleyville.

Other notable descendents of Benjamin Hawley were Sidney Hawley, who served as the sheriff of Fairfield County, and Glover Hawley, who is attributed with making the first cast iron plough in Newtown.

It was Benjamin Hawley, Jr, who engineered the naming of Hawleyville, though, said Town Historian Dan Cruson. "Benjamin Hawley, Jr, sold a substantial amount of land to the railroad as a right of way — with the provision that the stop would be called Hawleyville Station," said Mr Cruson. The road that led to the station is, of course, known as Old Hawleyville Road, although its original path was reconfigured a bit by the advent of Interstate 84.

Lake Roads

It might seem likely that Lake Road off of Hanover Road would be so named due to its proximity to Lake Lillinonah, but the Lake family was once a big name along the Bridgewater/Brookfield border of Newtown, said Mr Cruson. Nor is there a lake at the end of Lake George Road, an unpaved, dead-end road off of Newbury Road. That road, as well as the schoolhouse and school district of that region created in 1768, takes its name from a combination of the Lake family name and another gentleman with the first name of George, according to Ms Mitchell and also Mr Johnson, although it is not clear if it was for George Lake, who built the home at 32 Butterfield. The Lake family also built the farmhouse overlooking Pond Brook Valley at 55 George’s Hill Road. It is most likely for this same mysterious George that nearby George’s Hill Road is named (which runs from Butterfield Road to Newbury Road, and also is a dead-end road off of Stony Brook Road), said Mr Cruson — or perhaps for George Lake.

Parmalee Hill

Parmalee Hill runs between Currituck Road and Butterfield Road. Off it are two other roads, Parmalee Place and Old Parmalee Road. Several generations of Parmalees descended from Stephen Parmalee, one of Newtown's earliest settlers, making names for themselves in Newtown as carpenters, said Mr Cruson, probably being responsible for the erection of most of the homes in the Hattertown district, where the family homestead was located.

It was Hiram Parmalee who owned the carriage shop on Hattertown Road that is noted on the Newtown map of 1854, and Hiram and Isaac Parmalee who built many of the area churches. A popular folktale, said Mr Cruson, is that it was Isaac Parmalee who performed a headstand on the steeple of the Brookfield Congregational Church in the center of town, sending thrills and chills to the crowd of people who begged him to come down.

After a fall while building the Brookfield church injured him, Hiram Parmalee put his carpentry skills to use making coffins.

So why are the roads that bear the Parmalee name on the opposite side of town from where the family prospered through the 19th Century? "It is strictly conjecture," Mr Cruson said, "but the roads may have been named after one individual Parmalee who lived on that road."

Brennan Road

Sometime between the time the Newtown map of 1952 was issued by the Newtown League of Women Voters and today, a portion of Stony Brook Road off of Currituck was renamed Brennan Road. The map of 1854 marks the residence of a T. Brennan in that vicinity, making it likely that at some time, someone determined to honor Mr Brennan by naming a road for him. Who he was and what role he played in the history of Newtown is not clear. And while maps denote the portion of the road as Brennan Road, markers continue to designate that part of the road as Stony Brook Road.

Sanford Road

An unpaved road that links Tamarack Road to Echo Valley Road, Sanford Road commemorates the founding family that settled in Newtown in 1711. Samuel Sanford II came to the area to open a gristmill in the fledgling town, according to Ms Mitchell. At 68 Church Hill, just past the highway entrance heading toward Sandy Hook Center, Samuel Sanford built his home. The gristmill was built on the Pootatuck River along Church Hill Road, and moved in 1842 to the structure at 11 Glen Road, writes Ms Mitchell in Touring Newtown's Past. The Sanford gristmill attracted many newcomers to the fledgling town, several of whom built the homes that line Church Hill Road and Glen Road in Sandy Hook.

So many roads, so many names, so much history. Even today, the honoring of Newtown's historical figures continues on, with roads at Fairfield Hills being renamed after families who once walked the fields and footpaths there, who built their homes on that property, and made a living from the land. Family members are venerated by developers seeking to leave their mark on the many newly created roads that criss-cross Newtown.

The road signs are silent, but the stories behind them continue to speak loudly and clearly to anyone who listens. In a hundred years, who will know whose roads these once were?