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New Bedford Streets; A Piece of Americana: Tarkiln Hill Road

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Welcome to next installment in the New Bedford Streets; A Piece of Americana series. Previously we covered William Street, Kempton Street, Middle Street, Centre Street, Ashley Boulevard, Elm Street, Coggeshall Street, Mechanics Lane, Washburn Street and others. If you would like to read those or perhaps revisit them, they can be found by using the search bar to the right. You can also select the “Streets” category.

As usual, I’d like to re-iterate the importance of reader feedback, correction, and contributions. In the process of exploring these streets, I try to confirm or validate statements and dates by finding multiple sources. Unfortunately, if all those sources are making their statement based on an older, incorrect source, and there isn’t any dissenting information available, there’s no way to know otherwise. So by all means, please join in.

In addition, when trying to validate some statements, often there is very little to no information available. I haven’t decided which is worse – finding one source, or finding multiple sources, but not knowing if they were all founded on an inaccuracy. So help from local historians, those who remember, oral histories and anecdotes handed down through the generations, people with private collections, and even know-it-alls will help!

By all means, let us make this an open discussion to keep the “wiki” accurate.

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We New Englanders are famous for the pronunciation of our streets, towns, and cities. Laughs abound whenever an out-of-town friend or family member visits and discussions about the region are had. There is a very popular video where a number of Americans from other regions in the U.S. are given a card with a local city or town on it, e.g. Worcester, Billerica, Gloucester, Leominster, etc. Very few people, if at all, get the pronunciations “right.”

American English prefers practicality over aesthetics. We’d rather use short vowels than long, use contractions rather than pronounce out both words, and use nicknames rather then full names. We have things to do, places to go, and we’re heading to work!

19th century cutaway of a tar kiln. (George Wilkinson)

So in this spirit, we prefer to gloss over a few letters to speed things up. Hey, if we want to make a “k,” “g,” “e,” “t,” or other letter silent, it’s our prerogative! We do it to words like knight, buffet, Worcester and even New Bedford (no “r”.)

So it should come as no surprise that Tarkiln Hill Road becomes “Tahkin Hill Road.” Goodbye “r” and “l.” We ain’t got time ‘fo dat. We have Titleist deals to sign and a need to get to Dunkin’ Donuts stat. Outta my way.

Tarkiln Hill Road is one of the oldest roads in the region, rich in history. It’s a road I drive daily. Etymologically speaking, this compound word can be broken down to “tar” and “kiln.” While we all know what tar is, fewer of us know what a kiln is. It’s a word that is rarely used in daily conversation and most would say “It’s an oven of sorts.” You would be very right – the word is derived from the Latin culina which we see is where we get culinary from. The Old English spelling was cyln.

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About Joe Silvia

When Joe isn't writing, he's coaching people to punch each other in the face. He enjoys ancient cultures, dead and living languages, cooking, benching 999#s, and saving the elderly, babies and puppies from burning buildings. While he enjoys long walks on the beach, he will not be your alarm clock, because he's no ding-a-ling.

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16 comments

  1. So why does the street signs along the length of road have different spellings. Next time you travel the road look at the signs there spelling is different.

    • Hi Mike – I touch upon this briefly in the article.

      Both spellings are correct. You can separate “tar” and “kiln” or compound them. The term is outdated, archaic and infrequently used so a search on Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Dictionary.com, and the Cambridge Dictionary turned up no entries for “tar kiln” or “tarkiln.”

      Common usage seems to be that when separated they refer to the actual kiln itself, and when compounded it refers to a street. There are three other Tarkiln Roads in America and all are compounded. Historical documents refer to the kilns themselves as “tar kiln.” I chose to use this method within this article, but it doesn’t seem there are hard and fast rules.

      • I’m not sure if this is what Mike Charles was referring to, but…. quite some time back, I noticed one street sign where it was spelled TarKLin ( K & L reversed). Some months after I noticed it had been changed to the correct spelling. ( Tarkiln)
        Many locals DO pronounce the ending as “KLIN” though.

        • My bad… I said the K and L were reversed, when I should have said misplaced.

        • You are correct. I’ve heard that countless times over the years. It highlights how words evolve over the years and how American English has changed from the Queen’s that was spoken among settlers and colonists.

          It also highlights how rarely we use kiln in everyday speech, something I also touched upon in the article. Many people don’t know what a kiln is, so if someone says klin, there is no feedback correcting it.

          Thanks for sharing!

    • Jeanine Gendron Gawthrope

      Thank you for this article. So it seems my mother was correct..
      Mike said exactly what I was going to say. I forgot which sign(s) were wrong but I definitely saw at least one that said “Tarklin Hill Road”. Spelled exactly as some people mispronounce it. The others say “Tarkin Hill Road”. I noticed the misspelled sign a while ago. I just now took a trip up “The Hill” via Google Maps. All the signs appear to be correct. Also Ian is correct (below) Tarkiln Hill Road used to go straight through to where Mount Pleasant and New Plainville Road meet. This is one of the many Army tank sits. I remember my friends and I riding our bikes to the tank (we used to be able to crawl under the tank, open the hatch and climb inside). This was before Route 140 was built. Before Route 140 was built, Church Street to Braley Road (another road cut in two by Rt 140) was the route to take if we were heading north. My parents grew up on “The Hill” married and raised us there. My 94 year old father still lives on Church Street where he’s been for 65+ years. I will ask him for any info he may remember.

  2. I love reading these stories…awesome. Keep it up!

  3. Great article. Just a slight correction, it remains Tar Kiln Hill Rd. past Rt. 18 all the way up to the Wendy’s in front of S&S, where it bears to the right and goes behind the Stop & Shop. Then it gets cut off by 140, and the other end of it can be found on the other side of 140, off Mt. Pleasant St.

  4. Joe, Have been reading the New Bedford Guide. You are doing a thorough job. Have been wondering where the tar kilns were on this road for years. Do you know about the pond that existed between Pine Grove Cemetery east to Caswell street?
    Keep up the good work.

    • Thanks a bunch Jeanne. Means a lot.

      Ironically I was talking to another reader through email and he mentioned this pond – the first I’ve heard of it. He mentioned that the brook and pond got covered in the 1920s.

      I made an effort to locate the tar kilns, but I couldn’t pinpoint them. There is little to nothing about them. Their temporary nature means that out of practicality they were shifted as trees were harvested so the distance from harvest to production was short as possible.

      Also, since the height of production was from the late 17th century into the 18th century before the industry faded and was replaced, the sheer age means there aren’t many historic documents about them.

    • Jeanine Gendron Gawthrope

      Hello Mrs. Swiszcz. You were one of my Girl Scout Leaders.

    • I grew up in that area when it was woodlands..the area was known as ” Five (5) Alleys” and the pond was Hawes Pond, named after the owners of the Acushnet Saw Mill which was located on River Road. Water running into Hawes Pond first entered into the pond that is located in Pine Grove Cemetery. Those ponds are now void of water due to the construction of homes and development ( especially NB Regional Vocational High School)l.

  5. Joe,

    I’ve always wondered who Topham Street was named after. My great grandmother’s maiden name is Topham and her family had a Lumber Company during the whaling days in the 1800’s and one of her Uncles was the City Assessor.

    Maybe you could add this street to your list – please?

    Thanks for all you do…..great article on Kinyon-Campbell too – my Dad, Gerald Sherman, was a teacher and Dean there for years and absolutely loved the school. His students were his friends and enjoyed going to work everyday!

    • Hi C.P.,

      Thanks for the kind words. The Sherman name is a storied one in New Bedford’s history and there are quite a few documents detailing it.

      I just opened a draft for Topham Street and will do it this weekend. I’m looking forward to it.

  6. Wow, great work that you are doing here. Please keep it going. So informative and a great read always, thanks so much..

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