George T. Chaffee (1857 - 1929), a prominent businessman in Rutland, bought a farm on Middle Road just outside North Clarendon village in May 1911. He renamed it the Alfrecha Meadows Farm. The name Alfrecha reflected his three children Alice (1887 - 1972), Frederick (1889 - 1974), and Charlotte (1891 - 1977).
In January 1912 the Rutland Railroad Company announced they were changing the name of the Cold River station to Alfrecha station. The road that the station was on became Alfrecha Rd in 1912 as well. Behind the changing of the Cold River station to the Alfrecha station was perhaps the fact that in Oct. 1910 George Chaffee was named head of the Railroad Committee in the State legislature.
What was this road called before it became Alfrecha? Note that at the time, what is now Moulton Ave was also referred to as Alfrecha Rd. The 1st reference to Moulton Ave found in the newspaper wasn't until 1977, though that doesn't mean it wasn't informally referred to as Moulton Ave long before then. As can be seen in the entry Moulton Ave Subdivision 1928 found in this collection, there were two parcels on the road owned by Moultons at that time. It is only in more modern times that using legal road names became critical. It didn't matter as much when addresses were often RR# (Rural Route #) with a name and town, or even just a name and town.
Below are two related articles from the Rutland Daily Herald, the 1st from Jan. 4, 1912 and the second from July 11, 1912.
See the Alfrecha Meadows Farm Entry in the Farms & Barns collection for the history of the farm. The cover photo is courtesy of Bob Underhill in 2021.
Concerning the names of the roads (Alfrecha, Moulton), they apparently had been simply called Cross Rd at one time per John Pratt in Dec. 2021:
Thanks
for posting this and clearing up some questions. Growing up in the 50s I
thought the name came from the station master's children. I didn't know
about the farm. We called the road the Cross Road supposedly because it
crossed from Route 7 to the Creek Road. Only in the last few years did I
see it referred to as Moulton Avenue. Here is a picture of the brass
name plate on one of my grandfather's milk cans. Apparently it was
picked up at the station and taken by train to Rutland then returned to
the appropriate farm.