Derby History Quiz

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This spring on North Avenue (earlier Pent Hill) was once a popular source of cold drinking water for residents of Derby and surrounding towns.

Long before bottled water became a trendy (and expensive!) industry, the spring pictured above on North Avenue was considered  Derby's favorite drinking water. If you had driven by this site as late as the 1960's you might have seen a long line of people lugging 5-gallon glass jugs waiting their turn to fill them with the waters from this cool spring. The spring is still there though overgrown by brush. The Health District has convinced us to rely on safer forms of drinking water. Several people answering the quiz remembered that the street was once called Pent Hill.

The Bonus question asked for the identity of a commercial bottler located less than a mile away. That bottler was a man by the name of Paul Cullen, and the street on which his spring was located is now called Cullen Hill Road. Many people in the Valley relied on this bottler to deliver their drinking water. 

Correct answers were received from: Marsha Pettingill, Clarence Douglass, Catherine Kelleher, Tom Carey,  Ronald M. Sill, Gene Wajdowicz, Henry Wajdowicz, Ray Allen, Cathy Vaine, Ann Searles, Dave Lenart, Lee Williamson, Randy Ritter, and Mary Lou Boroski. 

The following people knew the answer to the bonus question: Marsha Pettingill, Clarence Douglass, Catherine Kelleher, Ronald M. Sill, Tom Carey,  Mary Lou Boroski, and Henry Wajdowicz. 

To see our other earlier quizzes and learn more about Derby's unique history, click here.