Roads named for businesses which no longer exist (there)

[jakeroot]

Today I was lamenting that Segale Business Park doesn't exist in name any more.  I used to pass their sign every day on the bus, and remember (according to legend) that Nintendo's Mario was named after their headquarter's landlord Mario Segale.  Mr. Segale died a few years ago, and the industrial area has changed its name.  Looking around I found there is still a Segale Park Drive, so the name lives on.

I think that story is widely considered to be factual, and not just legend. Although to think a warehouse landlord in Tukwila is the reason for the name Mario is quite humorous!!

[ethanhopkin14]

Apologies for not reading this thread, but the title reminds me of the opposite here in Austin.  WE have a road named Manchaca Road.  A year and a half ago, the city decided the road was named after Jose Menchaca and was misspelled forever and the road, which had been named Manchaca Road for over 100 years, needed to be named Menchaca Road.  There are several businesses that take the Manchaca name in their business name, so now the businesses are named after a road that technically doesn't exist any more. 

Funny tidbit, there was a road alignment change in the 80s, leading to a section of old road being named Old Manchaca Road, but it will not be renamed to reflect the spelling error, so there is a road named after an old alignment of a road that doesn't exist. 

To make this whole thing even more convoluted, at the end of Manchaca Road has always been Menchaca Elementary School in the community of Manchaca.  The school was the only thing that had the Men spelling, yet, no matter what the spelling is, the locals in Austin pronounce it "Man-shack".

[briantroutman]

Apologies for not reading this thread, but the title reminds me of the opposite here in Austin.  WE have a road named Manchaca Road.  A year and a half ago, the city decided the road was named after Jose Menchaca and was misspelled forever and the road, which had been named Manchaca Road for over 100 years, needed to be named Menchaca Road.  There are several businesses that take the Manchaca name in their business name, so now the businesses are named after a road that technically doesn't exist any more.

There is, somewhere on this forum, a thread about "businesses named for a road that no longer exists"  (a topic which inspired me to investigate the reverse phenomenon). And as I recall, that thread is filled with businesses named things like "Route 42 Diner" –years after Route 42 was decommissioned, re-routed, replaced by an Interstate, etc.

[zzcarp]

Ramada Street in Sandusky, Ohio. There used to be a Ramada Inn that (I believe) is now a Days Inn. It's mostly an access to Walmart and an abandoned movie theater.

[briantroutman]

Ramada Street in Sandusky, Ohio. There used to be a Ramada Inn that (I believe) is now a Days Inn. It's mostly an access to Walmart and an abandoned movie theater.

Looks like it was demoted twice since its Days days–first to an America's Best Value Inn, then, at some point in the past year, to a Magnuson. Interestingly, Magnuson lists the property's address as "Milan Road" –US 250 passing through–rather than the side street originally named for the hotel.

But without seeing the "Ramada Street"  name, it's still easy to tell that the property used to be a Ramada Inn. When I pulled it up on Street View, I was struck by its overall similarity to a hotel in my hometown–which has been an Econo Lodge for my entire lifetime but was opened as a Ramada around 1970. Ramada's portfolio has been a hodgepodge of different hotels dropped from other chains for so long that I forgot that they ever had any sort of a standard architectural design language.

[planxtymcgillicuddy]

Carolina Pottery Drive still exists near Bristol, TN, for a Carolina Pottery outlet that used to be there, part of a larger Factory Stores of America outlet center.

[mapman]

State Farm Drive in Santa Rosa, CA.  If I remember correctly, State Farm Insurance used to have regional offices on this street many decades ago.

[DJDBVT]

Town Crier Drive in Brattleboro VT continues to exist, even after the Town Crier (weekly paper) ceased publication in 2006.

[RoadWarrior56]

In Gwinnett County, GA near I-85 and Gwinnett Place Mall there is a short commercial street with a cul-de-sac at the end called "Day Drive".  I helped prepare the plans for that street back in 1983.  It was named Day Drive by the developer because a Days Inn was constructed at the end of the street.  That building still stands, but it has not been a Days Inn for at least 30 years.

[catch22]

Bentley-Harris Way in Gordonsville, TN.

Back in the early 2000s, I worked for a Tier 1 auto supplier who had bought B-H's parent company which included this location.  I made two trips here, one to install our company's WAN/LAN gear to get them on our internal network, and again around 2007 to remove it after we sold this site to Tahio.

https://goo.gl/maps/ckV9jiVPyVq4oE9H6

[ThatRandomOshawott]

There is a "Cbs Fox Drive" in Livonia, Michigan, that is named after a former occupier of a building on that road, CBS FOX Video.

In addition, just north of the town of Cairo, IL are Sears Drive and Roebuck Drive. They are split by Interstate 57, and a Sears and Roebuck Company mill used to be located on the road. This mill was where some of the materials for Sears catalog houses were produced, and there are still two Sears catalog houses on one of those drives. There are a couple of online articles about the two drives.

[tchafe1978]

Platteville, WI has Ubersox Dr. named after the former Ubersox Chrysler dealership. Last year the owner went through a nasty divorce and was forced to sell the business. So now it's Kunes Country Chrysler that sits on Ubersox Dr.

[The Ghostbuster]

Here in Madison, there is a Shopko Dr. where there once was a Shopko store, where there is now a Pick n' Save Grocery Store: https://www.google.com/maps/@43.1124294,-89.3475392,670m/data=!3m1!1e3.

All Shopko Stores have closed. All that is left is the Shopko Optical stores: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shopko.

[JKRhodes]

Phelps Dodge Road in all places Kentucky:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Phelps+Dodge+Rd,+Hopkinsville,+KY+42240/@36.8348358,-87.4548318,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x88653151930c20f7:0x6014562a2666cfc6!8m2!3d36.8348358!4d-87.4526431?hl=en

For those who don't know they were big time mining out west in Arizona even up until 2007 when they got merged out of existence.

And Standard Oil Avenue out in California:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Standard+Oil+Ave,+Kettleman+City,+CA+93239/@36.0092337,-119.9631974,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x8094b2bac22c5941:0x16873306dc4ee474!8m2!3d36.0092337!4d-119.9610087?hl=en

The main road leading to Safford's copper mine was named Phelps Dodge Road in 2006 just prior to startup and the merger. Eventually the name was changed to Freeprort-McMoRan Road.

There's currently a rumor that Freeport-McMoRan may get merged with Barrick Gold corporation. If that happens, the road may eventually get renamed again.

They should have just named it Safford Mine Road or Dos Pobres Mine Road in the first place... The original ore body that kicked off the operation in 2006 was Dos Pobres. The company is currently  mining the San Juan ore body and the Lone Star ore body, both of which have their own eponymous access roads leading into town (gated and closed to the public, but still.)

[JKRhodes]

There's one or two in the Phoenix area named after defunct malls. Metro Parkway circles the Metro Center mall, which closed its doors permanently earlier this year.

Other than that, there's not much in Arizona... I guess we're not known to hang on to much that has historical significance, and that includes street names.

[Skye]

There are two in Florence, KY (near Cincinnati) that are just on opposite sides of I-71/75 from each other. The first one is Holiday Pl, which I assume used to go to Holiday Inn, but now it's a Baymont and a Best Western back there.  Just on the other side of I-71/75 along US 42 is Freedom Dr, which leads to the home of the minor league baseball team formerly known as the Florence Freedom, they're now called the Florence Y'alls.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Viking Drive in Eden Prairie, MN used to run past the Minnesota Vikings' team headquarters and facilities. The team moved to a new HQ in Eagan two years ago.

[mrcmc888]

Philips Way in far eastern Knox County, TN- the plant closed in 2004 and the local community college has run a branch campus in the building for many years.

[STLmapboy]

I would like to throw in DiamondJacks Blvd in Bossier City, LA: this short renamed stretch of Hamilton Drive is mentioned on I-20. It was named after the DiamondJacks casino, which closed a few months back due to COVID hardships.

[J3ebrules]

A couple of people mentioned airports, so I wanted to shout out the example in my area - Central Hwy and Airport Highway (across the street from Airport Plaza shopping center and down the street from the colloquially-titled but unofficially named "Airport Circle" ). All of these names are nods to the long-gone Camden Central Airport, which had its heyday in the 30's.

I used to see a doctor in one of the medical buildings in the industrial park that now occupies the site.

[bassoon1986]

I would like to throw in DiamondJacks Blvd in Bossier City, LA: this short renamed stretch of Hamilton Drive is mentioned on I-20. It was named after the DiamondJacks casino, which closed a few months back due to COVID hardships.

And before DiamondJacks the street and the exit were named for the casino before...Isle of Capri


iPhone

[Avalanchez71]

TN has some businesses along US 412 which are named after Hwy 20.  Now technically SR 20 still runs along a vast majority of US 412 but it is now hidden along these paths as a silent concurrence. 

[hotdogPi]

TN has some businesses along US 412 which are named after Hwy 20.  Now technically SR 20 still runs along a vast majority of US 412 but it is now hidden along these paths as a silent concurrence.

This goes in the reverse thread (not sure where it is).

[lepidopteran]

Someone else mentioned a Holiday Inn Road, where the lodging became a Park Inn. 

This seems to happen with Holiday Inns a lot.   In Michigan, for example, there's this location in Kalamazoo (now a Marriott Delta) and this one in Howell (since demolished)

At the Englewood, OH exit of I-70, there was an older Holiday Inn that is now a Clarion.  But that's located on Rockridge Rd.  Yet if continue on that road, you'll come to an intersection with Holiday Dr.  Did they just miss the mark?  Actually, at the other end of Holiday Dr., at the corner of Wenger Rd., there used to be a gym in the "Holiday Health Spa" chain.  The gym is now a medical office building after extensive remodeling.

[roadfro]

Desert Inn Road in Las Vegas was named after the old hotel.  I'm sure if you look up a lot of Old Vegas Casinos there are plenty of examples.

Here are some other examples of former casino properties that still have streets named for them:

Sahara Ave (originally San Francisco Ave before being renamed for the hotel/casino in 1960): The Sahara closed in 2011, reopened as the SLS in 2014. Sahara Ave is a major east/west arterial now, spanning the entire Las Vegas Valley, so unlikely to ever be renamed.

Sands Ave: Named for the Sands Hotel & Casino, which has long since been superceded by The Venetian. However, the original Sands Expo Center still exists. This is a shorter east/west arterial segment transitioning between Twain Ave and Spring Mountain Road alignments.

Riviera Blvd: The Riviera closed within the last year or so, and it's site will become part of the convention center. The roadway runs along the former casino property.

Hacienda Ave: This small property was the southernmost resort on the Strip, the first people would see coming in from LA. It also had its own eponymously-named airline that was used to being in visitors. The site is now part of Mandalay Bay. Hacienda Ave is a minor east/west arterial spanning a good chunk of the valley.

Dunes-Flamingo Road: This was a short stretch of Flamingo Road between I-15 and Las Vegas Blvd (actually signed as such from I-15 in the late 80s). Pretty sure the Dunes part of the name was dropped in the early 90s, possibly even before the Dunes was imploded to make way for the Bellagio. Of course, the Flamingo still exists (but no longer part of the Hilton chain).

Updating my post from a couple years ago:

• The SLS Hotel/Casino has been sold and renamed back to Sahara, so Sahara Ave now has its namesake business back.
  
• In conjunction with the Las Vegas Convention Center expansion to the former Riviera Hotel/Casino site, the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority successfully sought to rename Riviera Blvd as Elvis Presley Blvd a few years ago.
  
  
  And not exactly a street and more of a driveway, but this backlit street name sign for Park Lane Mall still exists in Reno, NV, despite Park Lane Mall closing in 2007 and most of the mall building having been demolished by 2008. The site is currently being redeveloped into a major mixed-use development with a new name, so this street name sign is likely to be changed out in the not-too-distant future.