Thursday, June 25, 2009

Soden Drive History

I had a note from Holly Knott mentioning that she grew up on Soden Drive. She mentioned that her parents had built a house on that street in the 1970s when the street was known as Knott's Hill (named after her grandparents).Unfortunately her Email did not come with her message so I could not tell her that the street was renamed from Forest Avenue to Soden Drive in the late 1940s. It was named in memory of Ed Soden a young man whom I knew. He was killed in action in World War II. I remember Ed because he liked to hunt with his home made bow and arrows. On one occasion, we were down at Gropp's Lake and he shot a large fish -about 15 inches - with the bow and arrow. That's a pretty tricky shot because he had to compensate for the refraction of light by the water. I took a picture of Ed with the fish but sadly that photo is no longer around. My recollection is that Knott's Hill referred to the end of what is now Soden Drive where it goes down hill towards the marsh areas. I know that Lousells and Albrechts lived on that hill in my youth (the 1930s). I am looking for an early map of the Heights to see what the offical name of that street was before it was renamed Soden Drive. The earliest map I have found in my files is from 1967 when it was shown as Soden Drive.

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