Thursday, June 9, 2011

Maple Avenue and Interstate 84

I don’t know when Maple Avenue came to be named Maple or took on the length and characteristics it had in the 1960’s but it’s a local road that at that time joined 17K in Coldenham with Rte. 207 between Little Britain and Rock Tavern. Given that it passes the site of the original Colden home and family cemetery, the origins of the road seem clear.

I’ve driven up and down Maple Avenue many times looking for trees and Tin Brook, walking in the frozen swamp and gazing at the cemetery and current day Pimm Farm. Last June, at the beginning of this project, I went looking for the cemetery historic marker on Maple Avenue and while driving the road for the first time, was startled to find it forms a cul-de-sac that dead ends right at Interstate 84. Rising above Maple Avenue, I 84 is a busy highway carrying much car traffic as well as freight beginning it’s western trip into Pennsylvania and on across the country. Maple Avenue starts up again on the other side of the highway and like other north/south local roads, was bisected when this section of the highway opened in 1971.

The original 3000 acre Colden patent is also bisected by I 84, effectively cutting the property into northern and southern parts and making a circuitous route necessary in order to see things that are geographically close. Of the many juxtapositions of the historic with the contemporary at Coldenham, Interstate 84 represents the most glaring example of how things have changed. Not only does the area look different but sound and smell are permanently altered and the differences in the speed of life couldn’t be more dramatically displayed.