Glossary of Interesting Place Names
Beaver Island: Island owned by Bear Swamp Power Co. in the Deerfield River under Negus Mountain (42.66800,-72.95891)
Brittingham Hill: Hill from Zoar Road up under the power lines. Named for the Brittinghams who lived at #37.
Browning Hill: The hill along Pelham Brook leading up towards the library. Named for the Browning family who lived at #306 Zoar Rd.
Chalk Stone Road: South end of Monroe Hill Road near the intersection with Hazelton Road. So named for the white stone from the Massachusetts Talc Mine.
Clay Pit aka “Borrow Area”: Area on the old Doubleday property where the clay was removed for Bear Swamp dikes.
Devil’s Elbow: Hairpin turn on Davis Mine Road at the junction where the old road went straight toward Charlemont.
Factory Village: Center of town when the Satinet Factory was in operation.
Hoot, Toot and Whistle: Nickname for the Hoosac Tunnel & Wilmington Railroad (HT&WR) Also known as Hungry, Tired & Weary or Hot Tea & Whiskey or Hold Tight & Worry.
Ide Brown Hill: The hill on Hazelton Road below #78 to the bridge.
Looking Northwest down from Old Kings Highway, the leftmost home was the summer home of Percy Brown, who generously donated 485 acres to the townspeople to be maintained as a public park. The town center is visible beyond Percy Brown’s home with the stone church and town hall in the center of the photo. The mill pond is just to the right of town center, and Middletown Hill Road rises behind the town hall.
Miami Beach: Sandy beach along the river below Soapstone Switch. Named by rafters thinking it was in Florida instead of Rowe.
Old Smokey: Negus Mountain in southwest Rowe. It periodically was burned over many times through the years by sparks from railroad cars transversing the base of the mountain. It made the blueberry picking luscious! Today’s RR cars carry fire suppression systems—hence no fires for quite some time now. It was also known as Blueberry Hill—but due to today’s slim pickings it’s not called that much anymore.
Over West: Any place from the top of Hazelton Road westward.
Pelham Country Club: An incorporated group named the Pelham Country Club of Charlemont owned a lot with buildings near Pelham Lake. The directors of this corporation were Lewis Vincent, Albert Veber and Jessie Steele, and Bessie Miller was the corporate clerk. This was a lot that had been conveyed to them by Walter Todd in Jan 1912. In 1929 they sold the lot to Myron Newton for one dollar and other valuable considerations, who in turn transferred the parcel to Percy Brown the following year for the same considerations. Percy added this lot, which contains a cellar hole, to Pelham Lake Park. It is referred to as the old Todd lot and is located on the east end of the Sabrina Rice Trail.
Potash, Langdon or Ide Brown Brook: Now called Shippee Brook. It runs under Zoar Road between the Kemp-McCarthy Museum and the Rowe Community Church. It is unknown where the potash works were located. Shippee lived at #32 Shippee Road nearer the source of the brook. Earlier known as Langdon Brook for another family further up the Old Readsboro Road. Later called the Ide Brown Brook and bridge where it goes under Hazelton Road. Ide Brown lived at an old house (now gone) at 78 Hazelton Road.
Pulpit Rock: Scenic area overlooking the Deerfield River Valley from 900 feet above on Rowe’s western hills.
Rowe Pond: Pelham Lake. Also known as Factory Reservoir or the Big Pond.
Sabrina Rice Trail: Eastern end of the base trail named to honor Sabrina Rice (1970-1984) who especially loved the Park.
Slab City: Ole name for the present center of town when the sawmill by the Mill Pond dam had lots and lots of piles of slabs. This name stuck into the 1940’s with a club called the Slab City Social Club.
Siberia: Anywhere in North Rowe.
Switching Station: The Bear Swamp electric substation off Tunnel Road.
Soapstone: Old Hoosac Soapstone Quarry and talc mine area at the bottom of the mountain about a mile east of Hoosac Tunnel.
Soapstone Switch: Switch on the railroad to divert trains to a siding.
The Northwest: The heights on the southern boundary of Rowe. The valley below in Charlemont is called The Basin.
Zoar Gap: Rapids on the Deerfield River at the southwest corner of Rowe.