Last week we began listing streets that either have been renamed or no longer exist. To complete that list, there was Stone Row, also called “Hayden’s Lane” (present day Riverside Drive) and White Row (a section of Main Street). They consisted of worker housing constructed by the Windham Manufacturing Company. Brick Row and Yellow Row are today combined and known as Vermont Drive.  Several years ago, historian Tom Beardsley researched the origin of many of Willimantic’s street names for his weekly “Chronicle” column. Most  of the following material is Tom’s. He says that street names usually originate from geographical features, descriptive names, names of prominent people. Most of Willimantic’s streets follow that pattern. Matthew Watson, Nathan Tingley, and Arunah Tingley built the Windham Company’s mill on Bridge Street and gave their names to Tingley and Watson Streets. Jackson Street was named for Lyman Jackson, a farmer who owned much of the land where the street was built. Lewiston Avenue was named for Joseph A. Lewis, another Jackson Street farmer who also ran a canning factory on North Street. Whiting Hayden, who bought out the silk mill on Bridge Street had Whiting Street, Hayden Street and Hayden’s Lane named after him and then he named Willard Street after his grandson. Capen Street was named for John H. Capen. Capen and William Jillson built the first cotton mill in Willimantic. Dunham Street and Ives Street were named after mill owners Austin Dunham and Lawson Ives. Turner Street was named after Thomas Turner who opened  one of Willimantic’s first dry goods stores on the corner of Main and Church Streets. Church Street took its name from the Methodist Church which was built at that location in the 1840s. Bank Street was named for the Willimantic Savings Institute’s new bank building, built in 1869 at the corner of Main Street. High Street was the first thoroughfare built northward from Main Street in the 1830s and was named by Robert W. Hooper, a real estate developer who invested in the inexpensive land in that area shortly after the first cotton mills were being built along the Willimantic River. Wilson Street began its life as Hooper’s Lane as both Robert and his brother John built houses close to the Windham Manufacturing Company. Summit Street is located at the top of the “Hill Section” while Prospect Street offered a fine prospect of the Willimantic River Valley. A number of freshwater springs were located along Spring Street and flowed down to Valley Street (which is in the base of the Willimantic River valley) and created what was more like a marsh but was named Meadow Street. Bellevue street was aptly named because of the views of the river valley at that time. Milk Street was the thoroughfare where Mansfield farmers transported milk to the Jillson Mills before the Civil War. One interesting area was known as the “South American lots”. The landowner was a Mrs.F.G. Byers who enjoyed trips to South America and in 1882 divided up her land into lots along Bolivia, Lima and Peru Streets. Mrs. Byers was also the owner of the land that eventually became Park Spring. Today’s photo of the trees along the aptly named Maple Avenue.