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

So what we have here is a hill where a cooking stove for tar is, right? Well, sure. In lay terms that is exactly what we have here, but this “tar kiln” refers to something very specific.

Most people think of paved roads or streets when they hear the word “tar,” but from the Iron Age onward much of the world has been using tar for a multitude of reasons. Europeans turned it into an industry and commodity and of course American colonists were quick to utilize it. Tar was used for preserving and water-sealing/repellent on wooden sailing vessels, leather clothing, sails and roofs. It kept out the ocean water, rain or rot.

Unknown to many is that it was also used as a general disinfectant, to flavor candies or amazingly as a panacea or medicine for those mortally wounded. Today it is still used in dandruff shampoos, in cosmetics, paint and of course, preserving wood surfaces.

Where does the kiln come in? Tar is a product of burning wood – primarily pine, hence the term pitch pine or candlewood – for hours or even days in a closed environment. The fire would burn far past the point that the wood became charcoal. You need a kiln for that – often made from limestone and where that wasn’t available a deep pit was dug. There was a slight gradient to the kiln, so that the liquid tar could ooze out and be collected.

An integral aspect to the process is the minimizing of oxygen, but maintenance of the heat. This is achieved by covering the charcoal in moss and/or dirt. For days the tar would be collected. If you are a history buff or farmer, you know that nothing was ever wasted in colonial times. Once all the tar was extracted, the dirt and moss would be swept aside and the charcoal and by-product of tar kilns – turpentine and pitch – would be also collected.

Tar, pitch, turpentine and charcoal all became commodities to export back “home” in England. Since the colonists were perpetually clearing forests to build towns, homesteads and farmsteads these commodities were in abundance. In fact, it become an industry that burgeoned so much that towns began to complain about the odor and constant smoke from the glut of tar kilns. Some states like New Hampshire even allowed residents to pay in tar instead of currency. In the 17th century Massachusetts tried to stem the destructive industry by putting caps on the amount of barrels that could be produced annually.

Eventually lumber and ice harvesting come onto the scene and many jumped ship, pardon the pun. However, it did undergo a short lived revival in the early part of the 20th century.

So we’ve clarified what a tar kiln was and how our forebears in the region utilized it in a typically New England industrious way. So why in tarnation – again, pardon the pun – was this road specifically called Tarkiln Hill Road? This stretch of road is Main Street in Acushnet, becomes Tarkiln Hill Road once you cross “the river” and turns into King’s Highway once it hits Route 18. Coincidentally, nearby Pine Grove Cemetery was originally known as Tarkiln Hill Burial Ground prior to 1853 – before the city owned it.