Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Most Gothic Place Names in the United States--Connecticut



[For previous entries, click the "Most Gothic Place Names" label under Features in the right sidebar.]

Next up in our weekly tour of Gothic America: Connecticut.  Here you'll find such wonderful appellations as Lonetown (if ever there were a place that sounded isolated and ghostly...), Wildmans Landing (don't expect much civility here), Breakneck (the locals are apt to leave you hanging), Hazardville (pitfalls aplenty; don't say you weren't forewarned), Thralltown (whose residents are into some serious bondage), Devils Backbone (no mystery about the favorite Guillermo del Toro movie here), Sodom (c'mon, now, these people are just tempting fate), Killingly Center (the murder capital of Connecticut?), and Overlook (the hotels in this town
must be a real scream).  Still, the most Gothic place name in Connectiuct is sported by...

Town Plot Hill.  The name conjures images of a hillside cemetery, like the one forming the setting for Edgar Lee Masters's Spoon River Anthology.  But "town plot" also resonates, suggesting locals in cahoots.  This place could be a clearinghouse for communal conspiracies and wicked schemes.  Simply not a nice place to visit, because you wouldn't want to die there.

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