Klan Drive

OKKKaaaayyy…
Klan Drive, Wolcott

I’m sure there’s a perfectly benign explanation for Klan Drive in Wolcott. Googling “Klan” does not provide this, however. In fact, deep Googling only makes the case that “Klan” is and always was what you associate the word with.

So maybe Wolcott’s Klan Drive is named after someone with that unfortunate last name. It has to be. And Wolcott and its residents don’t think twice about it. Or they are history buffs and want to honor this Klan guy? But unlike Pussy Lane in New Hartford, I can’t find any newspaper or historical society articles about why the town keeps the road name. (Man, what a trove my Pussy Lane page turned out to be.)

I’ve written about many things in Wolcott and since the 2020 presidential election, I’ve found it germane to mention that of Connecticut’s 169 towns, Wolcott residents made their town Donald Trump’s top vote-getting town. That, after being Trump’s top town in 2016 as well. Does that have any correlation or relation to the apparent fact that no one sees “Klan Drive” as something they may want to change? No, of course not.

Klan Drive is a short residential street with about 20 houses on it. Well maintained lawns and the whole bit. No different from any other short residential street in any suburban town like Wolcott. I don’t know what I was expecting… lawn jockeys? (I saw none, by the way.)

Anyway, when I went in search of some sort of explanation online, I did come across a business on the road. Am I reading too much into this?

I must be, right? People name their small businesses with cutesy alliterative names all the time, right? We had Kelly’s Kone Konnection in Hamden for 25 years before the name was finally changed to proper spelling… and less of a KKK overtone.

Was this someone making a tasteless joke about living on Klan Drive? That was my first thought. But no, Kreative Klips on Klan Drive is a legit business.

Yeah, I’m reading too much into this. I must be. Too woke and all that. Right!?

2024 Update: Kreative Klips still exists but it has moved into a commercial space on Wolcott Road.

I can’t help but think, though, that when residents give their address to someone they feel like choads; “Handyman Services? I’d like you to come and help me with my issue. Yes, Klan Drive. With a K. That’s right. Klan Drive. I know. Yes, I know. I’ve heard that before. At least it’s not as bad as Pussy Lane, right? Oh. It’s worse? Can you please just come and build my cross though? It’s very large and I’m having trouble stabilizing it.”

Okay, I’ll stop. And I’ll await someone telling me there was some guy named Johnny Klan who was a Wolcott Civil War hero or something and that Kreative Klips on Klan Drive is owned by a lovely family who have three kids all with names starting with K and that they just really like the letter K.

I’ll wait.

I didn’t have to wait long. A few more familiar with Wolcott provided me to an explanation:

This topic came up a handful of times on the old town Facebook group, so I went back and looked at the commentary. “When my family lived on Long Meadow drive, Mr. Klan lived next door to us. He owned that property and had the road built and named it after himself. Check it out at the town hall. The road was built in the early 50’s.”

Okay, I’ll buy that. (I simply must buy that.) And that makes me feel a bit better. But still… man. Klan Drive?

CTMQ’s Highways, Roads & Tunnels