Entire contents copyrighted 2005 by Jack Sanders. Reproduction without permission is forbidden.
QUAIL DRIVE
Quail Drive is a second name for a road, running off Old Stagecoach Road. Originally called Kathy's Court, it was built around 1960 as part of the Ridgefield Knolls subdivision. Kathy Southworth was the daughter of the supervisor of construction on the Knolls project.
In 1969, residents of the road petitioned the town to have it changed. They termed the name ``an anomaly'' which was not in keeping with the neighborhood or with names of other roads in town.
The group at first wanted the new name to be ``Hickory Bluff.'' That went over like a lead balloon at a Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, where commissioners noted that a Hickory Lane already exists off Florida Road. The ``bluff'' was not an acceptable term under the commission's regulations.
The residents next suggested Quail Trail. The commission deemed it too song-songy, and felt ``trail'' should denote only a through road.
Quail was probably used as another name for the bobwhite, a common chicken-like bird in these parts.
QUAIL RIDGE
Quail Ridge is the town's third largest condominium project, built in the 1980s by Carl Lecher, who has also built many single-family houses in Ridgefield.
The development covers about 10 acres of former farmland running between Prospect Ridge Road and the Great Swamp.
The Quail Ridge units were larger and more expensive than the previously built condominiums at Casagmo and Fox Hill, and were designed to look colonial rather than modernistic like the earlier projects.
QUAKER RIDGE
Quaker Ridge is the name of the 17-acre subdivision consisting chiefly of Saunders Lane off Farmingville Road. Development began as early as 1949. Origin of the name is unknown.
QUARRY ROAD
Quarry Road led from northern North Street to a mica mine in Copps Mountain, north of (or within) the Mimosa development. The mine appears on Beers' 1867 map, and was apparently worked in the mid-1800s.
The road went from North Street eastward, near Pinecrest Drive, and was mentioned as the south boundary of the former Summ property in a 1977 deed.
QUINCY CLOSE
Quincy Close, a lane at Casagmo, was named by David L. Paul for ancestors of the Olcott family, who built the Casagmo mansion in the 1890s. The house was torn down around 1968 to make way for the condominium project, but the name was retained for the development.
According to the Olcott genealogy, Edmund Quincy (1602-1654) came from England in 1633 and settled in Boston. From him, blood somehow flowed into the Olcott clan, but judging from the number of Quincy entries in the genealogy, the relationship was very remote. Mr. Paul probably selected the name because it sounded good, rather than because it had an important connection with the
Olcotts.
Mr. Paul later spent some 10 years in a federal prison, convicted of fraud and other charges in connection with one of the nation's largest bank failures. The apartment-condo builder of the 60s and 70s became president the CenTrust bank in Miami, Fla., in the early 80s. More than $1.5 billion was lost when the bank collapsed.