What are your cities zero points?

[hbelkins]

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

No, for another five weeks, it's the White House. 

[kphoger]

Wichita has no zero point.  The corner of Douglas and main separates N/S and E/W, but numbers start at 100 from that point.  That is to say, by crossing Douglas you move from the 100 North block to the 100 South block.  This has the interesting effect of making 1st Street the 200 line, 2nd Street the 300 line, and so forth.

[dgolub]

When we say "zero point," are we talking about where addresses start at zero or where street numbers start at zero?

[silverback1065]

When we say "zero point," are we talking about where addresses start at zero or where street numbers start at zero?

east/west north/south dividing line of your city

[Otto Yamamoto]

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

No, for another five weeks, it's the White House. 

Sportsmanship, how does that work? I know I sure appreciate your boy clogging up 5 Ave.

XT1254

[cl94]

When we say "zero point," are we talking about where addresses start at zero or where street numbers start at zero?

east/west north/south dividing line of your city

Then why didn't you say that? At least in New England and eastern parts of New York excluding Manhattan and the Bronx, that's a pretty foreign concept. I can only think of a couple of places that have multiple N/S/E/W streets.

[jp the roadgeek]

Baltimore is Baltimore and Charles Streets

[1995hoo]

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

Yes. There is a "Zero Milestone" on the Ellipse that was intended to be the point from which distances across the country were calculated, I believe based on something similar in ancient Rome. Obviously that didn't work out too well, but the marker is still easy to visit if you're willing to walk to it (it's next to the part of E Street the Secret Service blocked off in 2001).

[froggie]

^ The "Zero Milestone" does exist in DC, but that isn't the point of the OP's post, which appears to be where street numbers and/or address numbers begin at zero in a given city.  For DC, that is very much the U.S. Capitol building.

[freebrickproductions]

Huntsville, AL's North/South and East/West dividing lines intersect at Clinton Avenue & Jefferson Street, but I don't believe it's quite a "true zero point", as the block numbers start in the 100s from the dividing lines:
https://www.google.com/maps/@34.7312617,-86.5865515,3a,60y,56.64h,90.36t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sy0AQ83shAaQ0iiYGNbZEBQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en&authuser=0

[Tschiezberger123]

Elkhart's N/S line is Jackson Blvd (east side/downtown) and Strong Ave (west side), and its E/W line is Main St (north side/downtown) and Prairie St (south side), but the addresses start at 100 (e.g. Johnson St is eight blocks east of N Main St, but is 900 E, or W Beardsley Ave is 7 blocks north of Strong Ave, but is 800 N.) W Indiana Ave. is 14 blocks south of Strong Ave, but is 1500 S, S Nappanee St is 20 blocks west of Prairie St, but is 2100 W, etc.) So CR 17 is 52 blocks east of the dividing line, but is 5300 E. Ok, enough examples. I think you get the point.

[1995hoo]

^ The "Zero Milestone" does exist in DC, but that isn't the point of the OP's post, which appears to be where street numbers and/or address numbers begin at zero in a given city.  For DC, that is very much the U.S. Capitol building.

I am well aware of that.

[silverback1065]

o wow, i didn't know about the dc 0 point!

[noelbotevera]

Harrisburg is easy yet not easy. Since the city is divided by the Susquehanna River, there is two N-S zero points and no E-W zero points (if there was a perfect zero point, it would be in the Susquehanna River). The grid on both shores end at Front Street.

But here's the harder part: there's only four crossings that completely cross the Susquehanna (I'm excluding the Walnut Street Bridge, because it's cut in half at City Island). It's hard to tell which one is the correct one (Harvey Taylor, Market Street, I-81, and I-83).

I'd say the zero point for E-W would be the Harvey Taylor Bridge, as it gives a straight shot to Downtown and is close to the PA Capitol and the Whittaker Center.

Baltimore is Baltimore and Charles Streets

I'd actually place it at West Franklin/Mulberry Streets, and North Calvert/Saint Paul Streets. Looks like it's smack dab in the center.

[plain]

Richmond, Va oddly enough has TWO zero points and I run into non-locals all the time who gets confused about this:

North of the James River it's at the intersection of Main and Foushee, which even though is downtown, it's actually more towards the western part of downtown.

South of the James River it's a lot more confusing... there is no N-S dividing line, only E-W. The zero point is Hull Street at the James River itself, and Hull (travelling, of all directions, westbound from here) creates the line of E-W until the junction will Midlothian Tpk, which takes over the dividing duties. The block numbers on these streets and the few that actually parallel them increases as one drives further away from the James. The most confusing part of all is the fact that both roads run East-West themselves, even though the cross streets are divided as East and West... in other words, if one was on Southside's 30th street, E. 30th would be actually south of Midlothian while W. 30th is north of Midlothian.

Adding to the madness is the fact that the city has two completely unrelated sets of numbered streets.. north of the James they are labeled N-S while south of the James they are labeled E-W.

Confused yet? 

[Otto Yamamoto]

Richmond, Va oddly enough has TWO zero points and I run into non-locals all the time who gets confused about this:

North of the James River it's at the intersection of Main and Foushee, which even though is downtown, it's actually more towards the western part of downtown.

South of the James River it's a lot more confusing... there is no N-S dividing line, only E-W. The zero point is Hull Street at the James River itself, and Hull (travelling, of all directions, westbound from here) creates the line of E-W until the junction will Midlothian Tpk, which takes over the dividing duties. The block numbers on these streets and the few that actually parallel them increases as one drives further away from the James. The most confusing part of all is the fact that both roads run East-West themselves, even though the cross streets are divided as East and West... in other words, if one was on Southside's 30th street, E. 30th would be actually south of Midlothian while W. 30th is north of Midlothian.

Adding to the madness is the fact that the city has two completely unrelated sets of numbered streets.. north of the James they are labeled N-S while south of the James they are labeled E-W.

Confused yet? 

Seattle has like 10 different zero points.

XT1254

[peterj920]

Green Bay, WI:  Walnut St and the Fox River
Appleton, WI:    College Ave and Oneida St
Milwaukee, WI: Confluence of the Milwaukee and Menomonee Rivers.
Sheboygan, WI: East of where Pennsylvania Ave ends and Lake Michigan
Brillion, WI: Main St and the abandoned rail line

[NWI_Irish96]

Elkhart's N/S line is Jackson Blvd (east side/downtown) and Strong Ave (west side), and its E/W line is Main St (north side/downtown) and Prairie St (south side), but the addresses start at 100 (e.g. Johnson St is eight blocks east of N Main St, but is 900 E, or W Beardsley Ave is 7 blocks north of Strong Ave, but is 800 N.) W Indiana Ave. is 14 blocks south of Strong Ave, but is 1500 S, S Nappanee St is 20 blocks west of Prairie St, but is 2100 W, etc.) So CR 17 is 52 blocks east of the dividing line, but is 5300 E. Ok, enough examples. I think you get the point.

Lots of cities start their addresses at 100 instead of 1. 

[Rothman]

^ The "Zero Milestone" does exist in DC, but that isn't the point of the OP's post, which appears to be where street numbers and/or address numbers begin at zero in a given city.  For DC, that is very much the U.S. Capitol building.

Heh.  Took a picture of my kids leaning against it.  People were busy looking at the South Lawn and most did not realize that the block of granite meant anything special.

[jeffandnicole]

In the glorious city of Trenton, NJ, State Street at Warren Street is the 0 point.

[dgolub]

When we say "zero point," are we talking about where addresses start at zero or where street numbers start at zero?

east/west north/south dividing line of your city

OK, then for Manhattan it would be 5 Avenue, since that's where all the streets change from east to west.  The exception is south of where 5 Avenue ends.  There, the streets changes from east to west at Broadway.  In the Bronx, it's Jerome Avenue.  The other boroughs don't have east/west distinctions in that sense.

[Mrt90]

Madison, WI:  The Capitol
Kenosha, WI:  Doesn't have a zero point. There are no north/south east/west indicators.  Numbering starts at Lake Michigan and the Racine County Line and increases as you go south and west from there, but I'm not sure that that is really what is meant by a zero point.
Lake Forest, IL:  Green Bay Road and Route 60 extended (if Route 60 continued east and intersected Green Bay Road).

Racine, WI:  I'd like someone to explain this one to me. It seems like the zero point is Lake Michigan and the Root River but then the north/south numbering seems to follow the Root River (which meanders in different direction through the city) but only in certain places. And some streets get tagged with a direction and some don't: for example, north of the Root River is North Main St. but south of the Root River is Main St. (not South Main St), and when you are south of the river the numbers on Main St start with 1, but on North Main St they start around 1000.  Another example: you could be near 300 North Memorial Drive (just north of 6th St and north of the Root River) and take 6th St east over the Root River about 1/4 mile to Marquette St and the first address on Marquette St just north of 6th street but now south of the Root River is 600 South Marquette St.  I'm sure people that live there get it but I'm glad for GPS when I'm in Racine.
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/300+N+Memorial+Dr,+Racine,+WI+53404/626-698+S+Marquette+St,+Racine,+WI+53403/@42.7224756,-87.8020778,15z/data=!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x880543a084c3ea3d:0x1393327b67933a8b!2m2!1d-87.7990249!2d42.7259771!1m5!1m1!1s0x8805439e390247ab:0xf2a80364a4049afd!2m2!1d-87.79277!2d42.7261371?hl=en
 

[1995hoo]

^ The "Zero Milestone" does exist in DC, but that isn't the point of the OP's post, which appears to be where street numbers and/or address numbers begin at zero in a given city.  For DC, that is very much the U.S. Capitol building.

Heh.  Took a picture of my kids leaning against it.  People were busy looking at the South Lawn and most did not realize that the block of granite meant anything special.

See, I knew that marker would be the sort of thing members of this forum are likely to find interesting, even if it might be a mild threadjack.

[J N Winkler]

Wichita has no zero point.  The corner of Douglas and main separates N/S and E/W, but numbers start at 100 from that point.  That is to say, by crossing Douglas you move from the 100 North block to the 100 South block.  This has the interesting effect of making 1st Street the 200 line, 2nd Street the 300 line, and so forth.

Just to make things interesting, there is a subdivision way east (near Beech, I think) that is just north of Douglas and has sub-100 addresses in the first block.

[Tschiezberger123]

Goshen, Indiana is Lincoln Ave (N/S divider) and Main St (E/W divider). The grid is messed up (1st-3rd Streets are west of Main St, making 16th street 1300 E) center is 100, not 0.