Wichita Street Suffixes

[minneha]

I'm just posting this to generate a discussion about the usage of street suffixes in Wichita, Kansas. From what I've seen, most of the street signs in Wichita don't list the street suffix. Some do, but most don't. I've been trying to ascertain what the official suffixes are for the primary streets in Wichita. Some streets are always identified with the same suffix (for example, Rock Road), while others have a different suffix depending upon which source you use. Google Maps shows Woodlawn as both Woodlawn Boulevard and Woodlawn Street. I believe I've also seen city directories that list Woodlawn as Woodlawn Boulevard. But the municipal Code of the City of Wichita (Chapter 11.96) refers to Woodlawn as Woodlawn Avenue.

From what I've seen, Maize, Tyler, Ridge, Rock, Webb, and Greenwich are always "Road". Central and Douglas are always "Avenue". McLean and Zoo are always "Boulevard". West is always "Street". Beyond that, it seems like the suffixes for other streets are either not well-defined or not consistent in their usage. I've seen Kellogg referred to as Avenue, Street, or Drive. The City Code refers to Hillside as Hillside Avenue, but some maps, including Google Maps, show it as Hillside Street.

I just thought it was an interesting topic for discussion. Thoughts?

[Ned Weasel]

I'm just posting this to generate a discussion about the usage of street suffixes in Wichita, Kansas. From what I've seen, most of the street signs in Wichita don't list the street suffix. Some do, but most don't. I've been trying to ascertain what the official suffixes are for the primary streets in Wichita. Some streets are always identified with the same suffix (for example, Rock Road), while others have a different suffix depending upon which source you use. Google Maps shows Woodlawn as both Woodlawn Boulevard and Woodlawn Street. I believe I've also seen city directories that list Woodlawn as Woodlawn Boulevard. But the municipal Code of the City of Wichita (Chapter 11.96) refers to Woodlawn as Woodlawn Avenue.

From what I've seen, Maize, Tyler, Ridge, Rock, Webb, and Greenwich are always "Road". Central and Douglas are always "Avenue". McLean and Zoo are always "Boulevard". West is always "Street". Beyond that, it seems like the suffixes for other streets are either not well-defined or not consistent in their usage. I've seen Kellogg referred to as Avenue, Street, or Drive. The City Code refers to Hillside as Hillside Avenue, but some maps, including Google Maps, show it as Hillside Street.

I just thought it was an interesting topic for discussion. Thoughts?

I thought Woodlawn and Hillside were both "Avenue," and I'm pretty sure I remember seeing "Woodlawn Ave." on paper maps.

Kellogg is officially "Avenue," at least if the BGSs on intersecting freeways are correct.  Personally, I would like to see the freeway portion officially changed to "Freeway," just so the BGSs on intersecting freeways can read "Kellogg Freeway."  It is sometimes unofficially referred to as "The Kellogg Freeway," but most people simply call it "Kellogg."

I think Oliver is "Street," but I could be wrong.  I'm pretty sure Harry is "Street," though.

Frankly, I think it's always been a bold move on Wichita's part to omit suffixes from street names on signage, and it gives the names a more streamlined appearance.  However, I did always find it a bit awkward to see green signs that simply read "Rock."

I'm sure someone on this board who has actually lived in Wichita could provide more insight.

[WichitaRoads]

I'm just posting this to generate a discussion about the usage of street suffixes in Wichita, Kansas. From what I've seen, most of the street signs in Wichita don't list the street suffix. Some do, but most don't. I've been trying to ascertain what the official suffixes are for the primary streets in Wichita. Some streets are always identified with the same suffix (for example, Rock Road), while others have a different suffix depending upon which source you use. Google Maps shows Woodlawn as both Woodlawn Boulevard and Woodlawn Street. I believe I've also seen city directories that list Woodlawn as Woodlawn Boulevard. But the municipal Code of the City of Wichita (Chapter 11.96) refers to Woodlawn as Woodlawn Avenue.

From what I've seen, Maize, Tyler, Ridge, Rock, Webb, and Greenwich are always "Road". Central and Douglas are always "Avenue". McLean and Zoo are always "Boulevard". West is always "Street". Beyond that, it seems like the suffixes for other streets are either not well-defined or not consistent in their usage. I've seen Kellogg referred to as Avenue, Street, or Drive. The City Code refers to Hillside as Hillside Avenue, but some maps, including Google Maps, show it as Hillside Street.

I just thought it was an interesting topic for discussion. Thoughts?

I thought Woodlawn and Hillside were both "Avenue," and I'm pretty sure I remember seeing "Woodlawn Ave." on paper maps.

Kellogg is officially "Avenue," at least if the BGSs on intersecting freeways are correct.  Personally, I would like to see the freeway portion officially changed to "Freeway," just so the BGSs on intersecting freeways can read "Kellogg Freeway."  It is sometimes unofficially referred to as "The Kellogg Freeway," but most people simply call it "Kellogg."

I think Oliver is "Street," but I could be wrong.  I'm pretty sure Harry is "Street," though.

Frankly, I think it's always been a bold move on Wichita's part to omit suffixes from street names on signage, and it gives the names a more streamlined appearance.  However, I did always find it a bit awkward to see green signs that simply read "Rock."

I'm sure someone on this board who has actually lived in Wichita could provide more insight.

It looks like this is a job for ICTRds!  lol...

Woodlawn should be Blvd. The code was put together by an idiot. It is, indeed, called St. or Ave. depending on who you ask on what map you look at. I agree on the Kellogg issue... it's not an Avenue by any stretch anymore. It is a Freeway.

Oliver is Oliver St. and Harry is Harry St. In fact, there is actually a Harry Street Elementary School.

Downtown, Water, Main, and Market are St., Broadway is Broadway, Waco, Emporia, Topeka, and St. Francis are Ave. Central is Ave., the ordinals are St. William (suddenly a two-way now), English, Waterman, and Lewis are all St. (Lewis Street Glass Co.)

Others? Just ask.

ICTRds

[J N Winkler]

WichitaRoads--I remember you commented in a post some months ago that Woodlawn was actually a Boulevard.  What is the authoritative official source for the full names (including suffixes) of streets in Wichita?  It seems rather surprising that the city ordinances (per Minneha's citation) reference Woodlawn as an Avenue if it is actually a Boulevard.

In regard to Kellogg, I have never known mainline Kellogg to be referred to officially as anything other than an Avenue.  It used to be signed that way at the I-135 turban interchange, but when it was upgraded several years ago to add option lanes, the replacement guide signs omitted the "Ave."  It is still signed as an "Ave." at the I-235 cloverleaf, but this may well change when that is upgraded to a stack/turban hybrid in the next few years.  I have also never known "Kellogg Drive" to refer to anything but the non-continuous frontage roads on either side of Kellogg.

I am personally happy for Kellogg to remain an Avenue.  We don't really do named freeways in Kansas, partly because of KDOT's rather strict posture about MUTCD compliance.  Also, "Kellogg Ave" on signs is a reminder of how far Kellogg has come in the last 40 years, largely on our own nickel:  KDOT paid for the airport connector interchange, the West Street SPUI, and Washington-Hillside, and is contributing to Webb/Turnpike, but most of the rest has been paid for with a local sales tax increment and has had design and construction administered by the City of Wichita.

The entire freeway length has been referred to loosely as the "Kellogg flyover," but it really isn't; strictly the "flyover" term applies only to the split diamond that gives access to downtown.

Guide signing around Wichita is actually pretty inconsistent about omitting street name suffixes.  Rock Road, for example, gets the suffix on K-96 but not US 54.  On northbound I-135, the one-mile advance guide sign for Harry Street omits the "Street," while the exit direction sign has "Street."  The suffix is, however, invariably used for numbered streets on I-135.  Guide signing on I-235 almost always has the street name suffix, but even there it is not perfectly consistent--for example, the northbound one-and-three-quarters-mile advance guide sign for Broadway Ave. has just "Broadway."  K-96 usually omits the suffix except for Rock, Webb, Greenwich, and the numbered streets.  US 54 is a mess; the eastbound advance guide sign for Edwards says "Ave." while the exit direction sign says just "Edwards/Meridian," while Seneca/Sycamore have suffixes omitted on both advance guide and exit direction signs, but Washington Ave. has the suffix on both advance guide and exit direction signs (but no arrow on exit direction sign--a major no-no); etc.

On city streets there is a similar lack of consistency with regard to street name signs and mast arm signs.  However, the city has traditionally had two separate designs for street name sign.  The simpler of the two is generally used inside subdivisions and omits the suffix unless the street is numbered, has a relatively short name, or there is some potential for confusion (e.g. you would expect to see "13th St" and not just "13th," "Kellogg Dr" and not just "Kellogg," "Bekemeyer" and not "Bekemeyer Ave.").  The more elaborate of the two is used at arterial intersections and has the street name, sometimes suffix and sometimes no suffix (depending on the street and sometimes the intersection), the block number, and the compass bearing.  On West Street, for example, there are variations of this sign that say just "West" (e.g. 13th and West) and others that say "West St" (most other intersections), while "Ave" is pretty consistently omitted for Central.

In the past couple of years the City of Wichita has overhauled its street name sign standards to use Series B at a larger size rather than Series C.  The arterial signs have additionally been overhauled to use the suffix at a much smaller size (I'd say about half the capital letter height of the street name).  I frankly think the new design is ugly and less legible, but I am waiting to see if (1) it means the suffix will always be used, and (2) the suffix will be at the smaller size for numbered streets ("13th St" versus "13th St").

KDOT also has a freeway guide signing rehabilitation in the pipeline for Sedgwick County that will cover I-135, I-235, and K-96 but not US 54.  My understanding is that it will result in suffixes being deployed in an uniform and consistent manner ("Woodlawn Blvd" instead of just "Woodlawn").  I don't expect that to go down very well with the pipe-and-slippers brigade or the people who regard omission of suffixes as local color, but we shall see.

[Ned Weasel]

We don't really do named freeways in Kansas, partly because of KDOT's rather strict posture about MUTCD compliance.

I assume you're referring to the prohibition on mixing road names with destination legend, under which this example (https://maps.google.com/maps?ll=37.670221,-97.401116&spn=0.003423,0.005284&t=k&z=18&layer=c&cbll=37.670143,-97.401114&panoid=HdL7fRqtgsVMtJbTjuPzyg&cbp=12,2.11,,0,0.28) is compliant, but this one (https://maps.google.com/maps?ll=37.67366,-97.235613&spn=0.003447,0.005284&t=k&z=18&layer=c&cbll=37.673705,-97.235502&panoid=xGgUC6CXKP0M526bcSayTA&cbp=12,89.93,,0,2.38) isn't.  I personally don't see a problem with named freeways, and others exist in Kansas (I feel there could be a separate thread for those), but they are in the minority, and they do create MUTCD challenges if you want to sign destination names/control cities.

[Scott5114]

https://tools.usps.com/go/ZipLookupAction!input.action

Type in a valid address, and USPS will return a "standardized" address output that includes the suffix. Accodring to USPS, it's Woodlawn St.

When I was a slot attendant, I would run customer addresses through this tool whenever they would leave off the suffix, just in case there were two streets with the same name but different suffix. (It also gives you ZIP+4s, for whatever that's worth to you.)

[J N Winkler]

https://tools.usps.com/go/ZipLookupAction!input.action

Type in a valid address, and USPS will return a "standardized" address output that includes the suffix. According to USPS, it's Woodlawn St.

Brilliant.  We have one source now that says Blvd., another that says Ave., and now a third that says St.  BTW, I ran my home address through it and it says I live on an Ave.  We can never remember whether it is Ave. or St. since we use just the street name (as do 97% of Wichitans who live inside subdivisions and not on numbered streets), though of course this drives out-of-towners crazy.

When I was a slot attendant, I would run customer addresses through this tool whenever they would leave off the suffix, just in case there were two streets with the same name but different suffix.

For cities like Atlanta (which apparently has something like 25 different streets with "Peachtree" in the name), this is a necessary step.

Wichita has never had a consistent scheme for allocating street name suffixes, like CRAP in Miami.  The closest we come to one is a rule that numbered streets always have the St. suffix, while arterials that run diagonally to the street grid are Blvd.

We don't really do named freeways in Kansas, partly because of KDOT's rather strict posture about MUTCD compliance.

I assume you're referring to the prohibition on mixing road names with destination legend, under which this example (https://maps.google.com/maps?ll=37.670221,-97.401116&spn=0.003423,0.005284&t=k&z=18&layer=c&cbll=37.670143,-97.401114&panoid=HdL7fRqtgsVMtJbTjuPzyg&cbp=12,2.11,,0,0.28) is compliant, but this one (https://maps.google.com/maps?ll=37.67366,-97.235613&spn=0.003447,0.005284&t=k&z=18&layer=c&cbll=37.673705,-97.235502&panoid=xGgUC6CXKP0M526bcSayTA&cbp=12,89.93,,0,2.38) isn't.  I personally don't see a problem with named freeways, and others exist in Kansas (I feel there could be a separate thread for those), but they are in the minority, and they do create MUTCD challenges if you want to sign destination names/control cities.

The consideration you mention is part of it.  Another part is that KDOT has never shown any willingness, either now or in the past, to stretch MUTCD message loading limits by including a freeway name in addition to shield, cardinal direction word, and destination, as has traditionally been done in Southern California.  If a freeway name is used on action signs in Kansas, it is usually as a cross-street name, as is the case for Kellogg Avenue in Wichita and the Shawnee Mission Parkway, 18th Street Expressway, and Turner Diagonal in suburban Kansas City.  There are plenty of other named freeways in Kansas--State Fair Freeway, Northeast Freeway, Turkey Creek Expressway, Kansas Turnpike, Canal Route, Oakland Expressway, Overland Parkway, South Lawrence Trafficway, etc.--but these are not referenced by name on action signs.

[Ned Weasel]

The consideration you mention is part of it.  Another part is that KDOT has never shown any willingness, either now or in the past, to stretch MUTCD message loading limits by including a freeway name in addition to shield, cardinal direction word, and destination, as has traditionally been done in Southern California.  If a freeway name is used on action signs in Kansas, it is usually as a cross-street name, as is the case for Kellogg Avenue in Wichita and the Shawnee Mission Parkway, 18th Street Expressway, and Turner Diagonal in suburban Kansas City.  There are plenty of other named freeways in Kansas--State Fair Freeway, Northeast Freeway, Turkey Creek Expressway, Kansas Turnpike, Canal Route, Oakland Expressway, Overland Parkway, South Lawrence Trafficway, etc.--but these are not referenced by name on action signs.

Overland Parkway is an exception, as the name is signed along SB I-35 (perhaps to distinguish it from the first iteration of SB US 69, Metcalf Avenue), but I see what you mean.  Frankly, from what I've observed, NYSDOT and IDOT/ISTHA have been more consistent in applying their own distinguishing styles of named freeway signage than Caltrans, but perhaps I haven't seen enough vintage Caltrans signage.

[TheStranger]

Frankly, from what I've observed, NYSDOT and IDOT/ISTHA have been more consistent in applying their own distinguishing styles of named freeway signage than Caltrans, but perhaps I haven't seen enough vintage Caltrans signage.

The Los Angeles region specifically - even now - has the most freeway name signage of anywhere in the state, though less than in the 1960s.  (shield/route name/control cities being the common format, even at onramps)

i.e. https://www.flickr.com/photos/csampang/12602014274/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/csampang/12063784754/

In the 1950s the freeway names even sometimes took precedence over control cities entirely:
www.aaroads.com/shields/show.php?image=CA19550601

[WichitaRoads]

JN, I am at the Wichita library in downtown tomorrow. While there, I will check my sources and try to get more details for you.

ICTRds

[WichitaRoads]

Okay, here's what I have:

Book:Street directory of Wichita and adjoining additions, 1940. By: City of Wichita City Clerk's Office. Published by Wichita Public Library, 1987. Call Number: 978.1861 STR, oversized.

It was a WPA project to document all Wichita streets and surrounding areas, stating name changes (which is the most fascinating part!), street runs, directions, extensions, and establishment, either by ordinance or by addition.

As to Woodlawn, if we look at Section C, "Directory of Streets in Addtion and Sub-Divisions Outside of Wichita, Kansas", we find the following:

Woodlawn (Rose); N-S; Location: 3 1/2 mi. E of Broadway & 1/2 mi. S. of Douglas, Kellogg to Lincoln; Addition Code: D-8

Woodlawn Blvd. (Larman); N-S; Location: 4 mi. E. of Broadway N of Douglas, Douglas to Norfolk, 9th to 13th St.; 4 mi. E. of Broadway S. of Douglas, Douglas to Kellogg; Addition Codes: D-5, E-1, E-2, E-5, F-8, W-19

The stretch stated as running from Kellogg to Lincoln seems to be a half-mile off; either an error of measure, or the fact that Woodlawn jogged over and continued south from a point a half-mile west (not impossible, but improbable). That would put it dropping south along what is now Edgemoor Drive. Edgemoor Drive does exist in the book as being in the city, but only as a street north of Kellogg to 8th St. (8th road east of Oliver is the description; that makes it 3.5 miles east of Broadway.) The street is also referenced as "Rose", which when looked up gives the same designation of location. Maybe a naming error because it formed the western boundary of Woodlawn Addition.

Now, as to the stretch 4 mi. from Broadway (the proper position of Woodlawn today), the book does indeed name as Woodlawn Blvd. There are actually a limited number of streets in the directory that give a street suffix, so this stands out to me as a solid indicator. As well, the City of Eastborough always referenced it as a boulevard, even on the old signs that they no longer have. Now, this entry also couples the street with a street named "Larman". When I look up Larman, I find that it runs from Douglas north to 2nd St., an overlap of Woodlawn Blvd's Douglas to Norfolk. There is a gap from Norfolk to 9th, which I assume was either a rural county road or nothing at all, and everything south of Kellogg and north of 13th is unnamed, if extant.

Also, when one drives down Woodlawn, you see at the intersections with streets in subdivisions north of Eastborough entry columns and towers with street names engraved. The vast majority say "Woodlawn Blvd." This, of course, is not an authoritative or defintive proof, but it certainly points to a reality at least in some point in time.

I ceratinly recommend, if you want an interesting research opportunity, grab this book. It's in the basement level of the Main Library, in the Geneology and Research Area. It cannot be checked out or removed, but they don't care how many copies you make.

Hope I haven't bored you to tears!
ICTRds

[J N Winkler]

WichitaRoads--Many thanks for running this down.  I have made a note of the bibliographical information (and have found the downstairs librarians' "don't see 'em" policy regarding cameras helpful in the past, since they have probably the only local library copy of the mid-1970's environmental assessment for what is now Kellogg between downtown and Hillside).  As it happens, I have to be on the east side of the city later today to run an errand, so I will have a drive down Woodlawn and see if I can spot the gateway signs referencing it as Blvd.

[WichitaRoads]

WichitaRoads--Many thanks for running this down.  I have made a note of the bibliographical information (and have found the downstairs librarians' "don't see 'em" policy regarding cameras helpful in the past, since they have probably the only local library copy of the mid-1970's environmental assessment for what is now Kellogg between downtown and Hillside).  As it happens, I have to be on the east side of the city later today to run an errand, so I will have a drive down Woodlawn and see if I can spot the gateway signs referencing it as Blvd.

You see them on the west side of Woodlawn across from Eastborough between Kellogg and Douglas, and you will see them north of Central, between Normandie Shopping Center and 13th St, both sides possibly.

ICTRds

[minneha]

Good replies, all, but unfortunately the fact that Wichita does not put suffixes on most of its street signs still creates confusion as to what the official suffixes are. I have decided to use the U.S. Postal Service address database. Even though it conflicts in certain instances with other information, the USPS database is the most official and consistent source for full street addresses, including street suffixes.

In my opinion, every city should put the full street name, including the suffix, predirectional, and postdirectional, if applicable, on all of their street signs. A street name has several elements; it is not just the street name, but also includes the suffix, the predirectional, and the postdirectional.