What are your cities zero points?

[silverback1065]

What are your cities zero points? does anyone live in a city with bizarre ones?  I used to live in indianapolis, and their's are straight forward, rockville and washington street for N/S and meridian for E/W.  I live in carmel now and main st is the N/S and rangeline is E/W for it's downtown area, but outside of the 31 keystone wishbone (and south of 116th st), it changes to the indy system.  What's interesting is that there's so such thing as south in hamilton county because of this. does anyone live in a city with weird zero points?

[Otto Yamamoto]

Bronx and Queens have no Zero points, not sure about Brooklyn or Staten Island. Houston St is N-S in Manhattan. E-W is 4 Ave.

XT1254

[Max Rockatansky]

Central Ave is unusual in Phoenix given that it total breaks the 8 Streets/Avenues per mile up.  The western Avenues jump from 7th, 19th, 27th, 35th, 43rd, ect to the 8 per mile format while east with Streets it is 7th, 16th, 24th, 32nd, 40th, ect.  So not unusual in that the name point is logical for a start point but its weird how the grid has to bow out slightly for everything to fit in the expanded city.  Even stranger the Avenue continue well into the 300s westward but they start over eastward in Mesa.  The east/west roads seems to be Van Buren Street which makes sense given the previous status as four US Routes.  The mile distance between the major named east/west roads is generally a mile from the get go.

[froggie]

Technically, the "zero point" for Minneapolis is where Hennepin Ave crosses the Mississippi.

[silverback1065]

Central Ave is unusual in Phoenix given that it total breaks the 8 Streets/Avenues per mile up.  The western Avenues jump from 7th, 19th, 27th, 35th, 43rd, ect to the 8 per mile format while east with Streets it is 7th, 16th, 24th, 32nd, 40th, ect.  So not unusual in that the name point is logical for a start point but its weird how the grid has to bow out slightly for everything to fit in the expanded city.  Even stranger the Avenue continue well into the 300s westward but they start over eastward in Mesa.  The east/west roads seems to be Van Buren Street which makes sense given the previous status as four US Routes.  The mile distance between the major named east/west roads is generally a mile from the get go.

Indy has a nice system for the numbered streets, 10 blocks per mile, so every 10 numbered streets should equal a mile.  so you can do some simple math to estimate how many miles away you are.  also, i thought NYC had just one zero point, interesting that they don't.

[paulthemapguy]

Chicago is easy--State and Madison...perhaps one of the most well-known zero points.  This leaves hardly any addresses with "E" in them, since State is rather close to Lake Michigan.  The zero point is in the heart of downtown, so it works rather well.

Aurora, Illinois's is rather interesting, so I'll share a bit about it.  Aurora on a map looks like just your average landlocked river town.  But the center of downtown is actually on an island!  The island is Stolp Island, and it's home to a single north-south street, aptly named Stolp Ave.  The zero point is located at the junction of Stolp Ave and Galena Blvd, one of the major east-west streets that used to carry US30 IIRC.  The zero point is on the island, so if you go north and South of Stolp Island, the prime meridian of Aurora addresses is assumed to be the Fox River.

Map for reference:
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.7580946,-88.3148505,18z

[Otto Yamamoto]

Central Ave is unusual in Phoenix given that it total breaks the 8 Streets/Avenues per mile up.  The western Avenues jump from 7th, 19th, 27th, 35th, 43rd, ect to the 8 per mile format while east with Streets it is 7th, 16th, 24th, 32nd, 40th, ect.  So not unusual in that the name point is logical for a start point but its weird how the grid has to bow out slightly for everything to fit in the expanded city.  Even stranger the Avenue continue well into the 300s westward but they start over eastward in Mesa.  The east/west roads seems to be Van Buren Street which makes sense given the previous status as four US Routes.  The mile distance between the major named east/west roads is generally a mile from the get go.

Indy has a nice system for the numbered streets, 10 blocks per mile, so every 10 numbered streets should equal a mile.  so you can do some simple math to estimate how many miles away you are.  also, i thought NYC had just one zero point, interesting that they don't.

Manhattan has the only zero point I know, and it also applies to the Bronx, sort of. The street grid sort of continues, but it's skewed, and the streets don't match up: 149 st in the Bronx crosses the Harlem River and becomes 145 St in Manhattan, 161 turns into 155 St, etc. Queens zero point would be in The East River. The lowest streets are 20 Ave and 18 St in Astoria, and the grid expands east and south from there. Brooklyn is weird. Part of it has numbers corresponding to numbered streets. Staten Island is sort of random.

XT1254

[silverback1065]

Central Ave is unusual in Phoenix given that it total breaks the 8 Streets/Avenues per mile up.  The western Avenues jump from 7th, 19th, 27th, 35th, 43rd, ect to the 8 per mile format while east with Streets it is 7th, 16th, 24th, 32nd, 40th, ect.  So not unusual in that the name point is logical for a start point but its weird how the grid has to bow out slightly for everything to fit in the expanded city.  Even stranger the Avenue continue well into the 300s westward but they start over eastward in Mesa.  The east/west roads seems to be Van Buren Street which makes sense given the previous status as four US Routes.  The mile distance between the major named east/west roads is generally a mile from the get go.

Indy has a nice system for the numbered streets, 10 blocks per mile, so every 10 numbered streets should equal a mile.  so you can do some simple math to estimate how many miles away you are.  also, i thought NYC had just one zero point, interesting that they don't.

Manhattan has the only zero point I know, and it also applies to the Bronx, sort of. The street grid sort of continues, but it's skewed, and the streets don't match up: 149 st in the Bronx crosses the Harlem River and becomes 145 St in Manhattan, 161 turns into 155 St, etc. Queens zero point would be in The East River. The lowest streets are 20 Ave and 18 St in Astoria, and the grid expands east and south from there. Brooklyn is weird. Part of it has numbers corresponding to numbered streets. Staten Island is sort of random.

XT1254

isn't jerome ave in the bronx a zero point?  i thought i heard this somewhere.

[coatimundi]

Most of this area is the water, but there are variations and that's not always the case. For instance, the end of the two wharves in Monterey are the 0 points for their streets (Alvarado and Figueroa), even though the businesses on the wharves don't use the streets for their addresses.
Then there's Canyon del Rey, a state highway that shoots out almost directly perpendicular to the bay. However, its 0 point is actually past its inland terminus. At the terminus, at Highway 68, it's only at the 400 or 500 block.
For its streets parallel to the water, Pacific Grove uses its eastern boundary with Monterey, at David Avenue, for the 0 point. That makes sense, since most of the streets either begin, shift or change names there.

In Tucson, the 0 point is definitively at Stone and Broadway. The grid is supposed to be major streets every mile, but it doesn't measure to a mile closer to town, staying around 25' under at its half-mile points. The Tucson grid was also supposed to run in cardinal directions, but an early surveying error shifted this clockwise a couple of degrees, and the grid has just been built on that.

[hbelkins]

All of Louisville is a zero point! 

[odditude]

In Philadelphia, it's Market St at the Delaware River.

[Rothman]

Isn't the zero point in Washington, DC the Capitol?

[pianocello]

Davenport's is River Dr and Brady St, right in the heart of downtown. Further west, 1st St divides north and south.

For the other four Quad Cities, the "zero" point is the corner between the west boundary and the Mississippi River. In Rock Island, the river bends, so it looks like they just took a guess for where 1st St should go.

Aurora, Illinois's is rather interesting, so I'll share a bit about it.  Aurora on a map looks like just your average landlocked river town.  But the center of downtown is actually on an island!  The island is Stolp Island, and it's home to a single north-south street, aptly named Stolp Ave.  The zero point is located at the junction of Stolp Ave and Galena Blvd, one of the major east-west streets that used to carry US30 IIRC.  The zero point is on the island, so if you go north and South of Stolp Island, the prime meridian of Aurora addresses is assumed to be the Fox River.

That sounds a lot like Cedar Rapids. The "zero" point where 1st Ave crosses the island in the Cedar River.

[cl94]

Isn't the zero point in Washington, DC the Capitol?

Correct.

Columbus, Ohio is the intersection of Broad and High Streets.

Zero in Troy is an effed-up thing. A lot of streets have nothing defined, but here's a few:
- East-West streets are the Hudson River. That one's easy.
- 1st-4th Streets have zero at River Street and increase heading SOUTH.
- 5th-7th Avenues are undefined, but increase NORTH. 6th Avenue starts at 1520 at Ferry Street, for example.
- 8th-15th Streets have zero at Congress Street, increasing NORTH
- All north-south streets re-zero at 101st Street and increase heading NORTH

[Chris19001]

In Philadelphia, it's Market St at the Delaware River.

Isn't it at Market and Front Streets?

[Brandon]

Joliet is very straightforward.  Washington & Jefferson Streets (US-52) for north/south, and Chicago Street (IL-53, US-6, US-52) for east/west.

[jeffandnicole]

In Philadelphia, it's Market St at the Delaware River.

Isn't it at Market and Front Streets?

Yep.  The Delaware River isn't a street, and the closest road to the river, Delaware Ave aka Columbus Blvd, isn't part of the 'numbered' grid.  Front Street would be 1st Ave if it was numbered.

[NWI_Irish96]

The zero point in New Albany is State Street and the Ohio River.  State Street divides E/W addresses.  There is no N/S.  Everything just counts upwards from the river. 

Similarly in Jeffersonville, the zero point is Spring Street and the river, with no N/S but rather addresses that count up from the river.

[busman_49]

Dayton, Ohio's is Main St. & 3rd St.  Looks like Vine St. is the east/west divider for Cincinnati, but no N/S divider.  Everything goes upward starting at the river.

[Duke87]

isn't jerome ave in the bronx a zero point?  i thought i heard this somewhere.

Yes, Jerome Ave in The Bronx is the border between east and west and addresses on E-W streets count up from there. It continues the role of 5th Ave, which is the border between east and west in Manhattan.

Queens zero point would be in The East River. The lowest streets are 20 Ave and 18 St in Astoria, and the grid expands east and south from there.

That's the intersection in the NW corner of Astoria, but lower numbered streets and avenues both exist. The lowest numbered street is 1st Street, which is in Hallets Point near Astoria Houses. The lowest numbered avenue is 2nd Ave, which runs for a few blocks in Whitestone. I don't know why there isn't a 1st Ave, there isn't a logical place for one.

The other quirk of this is that due to how numbers are assigned, there is no 6th St, 7th St, 15th, 16th, or 17th Streets in Queens. There probably are some numbers higher up that are skipped completely as well. Queens has grid numbering on what is not at all a consistent grid.

As for Staten Island, it's not "random", it follows the method of assigning addresses that is typical in the northeast: rather than picking a consistent baseline and referencing everything back to that, each individual street has address numbers which start at 0 at one end of the street, wherever it may be.

[silverback1065]

The zero point in New Albany is State Street and the Ohio River.  State Street divides E/W addresses.  There is no N/S.  Everything just counts upwards from the river. 

Similarly in Jeffersonville, the zero point is Spring Street and the river, with no N/S but rather addresses that count up from the river.

interesting, i never realized that.

[silverback1065]

indy is also weird because the numbered streets start at 7th st and end with (the county line and northern city boarder is 96th st, after that Hamilton county continues with the same grid) 296th, but i don't think there has ever been a 1st through 6th street in the city. 

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Duluth's is Lake Avenue and Michigan Street. The only unique thing about this is that those two streets don't intersect anymore. They were grade-separated as part of Lake's adjacent interchange with I-35.

[TR69]

Louisville's is pretty straightforward, at the intersection of Main and First. Main is pretty close to the river downtown, so you have to get away from downtown before you get much in the way of "North" streets.

Main Street ends on the east edge of downtown. From there the N/S 0 line follows Frankfort Avenue and Shelbyville Road.

[apeman33]

Most around here are pretty straightforward with the possible exception of Parsons. It has a normal-enough north-south line, Main Street. But it's east-west zero point is skewed way off to the east because at the time First Street was the city limit. So addresses on Main Street itself are just "Main St." west of First but "East Main St." east of First. 18th St. is actually the street that would be a logical east-west line if Parsons' system was normal.

I think Iola's zero point is dead center of the town square, which would make it in the middle of the Allen County Courthouse.