Different addresses on opposite sides of streets along jurisdictional boundaries

[KCRoadFan]

This thread has its origins in a personal memory dating back to October 2008.

That month, we spent about a week and a half in Italy. (Great trip, by the way!) We flew from Chicago to Milan, and because the flight was in the morning, we drove up to Chicago the night before, staying at a motel near O'Hare.

How is this relevant to the thread's topic? Well, I remember that the address of the motel was something like 2200 South Elmhurst Road, in Mount Prospect. On the drive to the airport, I noticed that the addresses directly across the road were substantially different, like in the 1400's range or near thereabouts.

"How could this be?" I wondered. It was only later, after we got home, that I realized that section of Elmhurst Road straddled the municipal boundary between Mount Prospect (west side of the road) and Des Plaines (east side). Each municipality has their own street grid, and both of them used theirs for their respective sides of Elmhurst Road.

One thing I wonder: what other examples are there of this phenomenon, where the addresses along one side of a street are wildly different from those on the other side, due to the road running along a municipal, county, or other jurisdictional boundary? Another example I know from the Chicago area is Howard Street, which runs along the city's north border adjoining Evanston, using Chicago's numbers on the south side of the street and Evanston's on the north side. (As an aside, that means no building along most of Howard Street has an even number; in Chicago, odd numbers are on the south side of the street and evens are on the north, whereas in Evanston, the reverse is true.)

In some cases, it is not only the addresses that are different, but also the street names as well. An example of this close to home, in the KC area, is the road which runs along the border of KCK and Roeland Park (and, in turn, Wyandotte and Johnson counties), going west from Mission Road. The north side is known as County Line Road and has addresses based on the KCK/Wyandotte County grid, whereas the south side is called West 47th Street, which uses Roeland Park's numbers (which, like most Johnson County suburbs, are based on KCMO's grid, which is what the majority of the metro uses, aside from Wyandotte County [as well as Leavenworth County, which extends Wyandotte's grid].)

Elsewhere, I believe State Line Avenue in Texarkana is another example; I think there's about a five-block offset between the Texas and Arkansas sides, as far as the address numbers are concerned.

What other examples of this phenomenon, of two different address ranges on opposite sides of one road due to it straddling a boundary of some sort? I'm sure there are several of them out there.

[Big John]

Cormier Rd between Green Bay and Ashwaubenon WI.  From the west end at South Point Rd. to just east of Packerland Dr.

More confusing is Lombardi Ave. Certain parts have Green Bay on both sides and the rest straddle Green Bay and Ashwaubenon.  All addresses adhere to which municipality it is in.

[usends]

Just wanted to point out that the alternative is to have all the suburbs conform to the grid/numbering system of the core city.  Denver suburbs did that about a century ago, and I'm sure lots of other western cities too (SLC and Phoenix come to mind).  Overall it's a good solution because, as the metro area grows farther and farther out, most of the roads in newer subdivisions still have familiar names, so people have a pretty good idea where something is located just based on the address.  But there are drawbacks too, probably foremost of which is the fact that some long-established roads in the suburbs had to change their names.  I've seen where some suburbs (like Westminster) post the historic street name in addition to the actual name.  Another drawback is, once you get out far enough, you get into five-digit address numbers, which are harder to remember.  And then there are a few suburbs that refused to change their road names.  Littleton is the best example, although at least they did change their address grid to line up with Denver's.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

MN 120 straddles the Washington and Ramsey County line. Addresses on the Ramsey County side of 120 are on Century Ave and addresses on the Washington County side are on Geneva Ave.

[US 89]

Just wanted to point out that the alternative is to have all the suburbs conform to the grid/numbering system of the core city.  Denver suburbs did that about a century ago, and I'm sure lots of other western cities too (SLC and Phoenix come to mind).

The last major holdout for Salt Lake County was Midvale, which only changed over in 1999. Copperton was using its own addressing system until quite recently, but I think they've fully converted to the county grid now. In general, only numbered streets actually changed names, so Salt Lake County still has at last five Main Streets: the main one in downtown Salt Lake City, plus smaller ones in Midvale, Sandy, Magna, and Herriman.

Weber County (Ogden) is also on one unified number system, but Davis and Utah Counties unfortunately are not. The general rule in Davis is that smaller cities will use the address system of a nearby larger city, but this is almost never the case in Utah County, where nearly every city has their own system. And it happens in rural areas too, though it may not be as obvious due to lower densities - often times you'll have an unincorporated county address grid, but a small city far from the county origin will use its own system.

The end result is in a place like Utah County, because most Utah cities use grid coordinates to name streets, you'll get stuff like this or this - not only are the address numbers different on either side, but the actual street coordinate numbers are different, and both have to be signed along with their corresponding city.

I'm sure there are bigger examples out there, but one of the largest offsets I can recall seeing is on the Highland-American Fork line, where "14 E 9600 N" is directly across from "5822 E 1500 N". American Fork has its own address grid, while Highland uses a Utah County grid that's sort of close to Provo's but doesn't exactly match up.

[GaryV]

North Campbell Road between Royal Oak and Madison Heights.  Royal Oak has it's own numbering system; Madison Heights uses the Detroit system.  So addresses on the MH side are from 29000 to 33000, while those on the RO side are between 1800 and 4900.

This is mitigated somewhat due to there being very few addresses on the MH side south of 13 Mile, and very few on the RO side north of 13 Mile.

[NWI_Irish96]

Just a block from my house on State Line Ave:
Lansing, IL, side uses an extension of Chicago numbering with houses on the 17500-18200 blocks
Munster, IN, side uses the same system -10000 with houses on the 7500-8200 blocks

Even more confusing is a few miles south of me on Main St:
Fitness Center on the north (Munster) side of the street is 821 Main St
Bank directly across the street on the south (Dyer) side is 1001 Main St
The blocks are off by 200 and both sides of the street are odd

[Eth]

One of Atlanta's major east-west streets, Ponce de Leon Avenue (much of which carries portions of US 23/29/78/278), continues Atlanta's address numbering system east into unincorporated DeKalb County. When the street then reaches the city of Decatur, there is a brief portion that straddles the city limits, resulting in 2203 (using Atlanta's system in unincorporated DeKalb) being directly across from 841 (using Decatur's system).

[KCRoadFan]

Just remembered an example from Minnesota: for a few miles east of I-35, MN 19 runs along the line between Dakota and Rice Counties; the north side is numbered based on the Dakota County grid and is named 330th Street West, while the south side is based on Rice County and named Lonsdale Boulevard East.

I remember this from when we drove that road back when we visited my younger brother at Carleton College in Northfield.

[1995hoo]

One example from Virginia: US-29 runs along the jurisdictional boundary between the City of Falls Church and Fairfax County for a few blocks. I'm not certain, but I believe the boundary runs down the middle of the road. In the Street View image linked below, the house to the right where the red minivan is parked is 7247 Lee Highway. Pan the camera to the left and the white house across the road is 1110 South Washington Street. The Lee Highway residence is in Fairfax County and the white house is in the City of Falls Church.

https://goo.gl/maps/qvmw3yK6n4egbS8Z6

[Brandon]

How about close, but they are actually the same damn numbers?

Joliet, IL uses even numbers on the south side of streets.  Crest Hill, just to the north along Theodore Street, uses even numbers on the north side of streets.  Needless to say, there's barely an odd number to be found on Theodore Street east from the former Joliet Junction Tracks to Broadway Street (IL-53), about 2.25 miles.  Spin around here: https://goo.gl/maps/64mCGkxtXo1Dvjdc8 1450 is on one side, 1422 is on the other.  Theoretically, you can have 1450 opposite 1450. Spin around here for 400 and 406 on one side, and 402 and 404 on the other: https://goo.gl/maps/qck9sgc2uJCUR77T9

For something truly oddball, here's a Jiffy Lube split in half, diagonally by Joliet and Crest Hill (1600 N. Larkin Avenue).  The oil bays are in Crest Hill, the register and waiting room are in Joliet. https://goo.gl/maps/Eo24Hcbyhop1NSqVA

[Bigmikelakers]

The one in Southern California that comes to mind is 226th St/Woodson Avenue which makes up part of the border between Long Beach and Hawaiian Gardens. Hawaiian Gardens uses the LA address system while Long Beach does not. So the Hawaiian Gardens side of the street is 226th St and the Long Beach side is Woodson. If you see the street view of the area, you can see the street signs where the block numbers on the Hawaiian Gardens side of the street start at 12200 and the Long Beach side 8200 E.

https://www.google.com/maps/@33.8241932,-118.0697565,3a,48.3y,193.85h,87.83t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sshlN0dAF6T-z2vYUT8VSVQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192!5m1!1e1

[frankenroad]

A street runs down the border of Cincinnati and the adjacent city of Wyoming, Ohio.  Wyoming calls it E Mills Ave, and the house numbers are in the 300 series.  Cincinnati calls it Millsdale Avenue, and the numbers are in the 100 series.  A friend of mine in high school lived at 320 E Mills, directly across from 117 Millsdale. 

Fields-Ertel Rd runs the border between Hamilton and Warren Counties in Ohio.   The south side is numbered based on the Hamilton County numbering system.  Houses on the north side actually have two numbers, a Warren County-based number and a Hamilton County based number.  One set of number is ascending and one set is descending.

Here's a picture of a mailbox with both numbers.  If you continue west, you'll see another one.

I think this has something to do with a postal address -vs- a 911 address,  but it seems confusing as all get-out to me.

[6a]

Moeller Rd. in New Haven, IN has addresses about 8500 numbers apart depending on which side you're on.

[mapman1071]

SE Valley Metropolitan Phoenix, AZ Between Baseline Road and to 1/2 mile South of Guadalupe Road on AZ87 (Unsigned)
West side of street Mesa, AZ
S. Country Club Drive and Mesa Addresses running from 2000 S to approx 3199 S
East Side Of Street Chandler And Gilbert, Arizona
N. Arizona Avenue with Chandler Addresses 3500 N to 3999 N to Guadalupe Road and Gilbert Addresses 800 N to approx 1599 N

[Roadwarriors79]

I was thinking of the Country Club Dr/Arizona Ave example when I saw this thread. This also happens on Power Rd in the Gilbert/Queen Creek area. Mesa address numbering on the west side of the road. Queen Creek/Maricopa County numbering on the east side. This only last for a couple miles. North of Pecos Rd uses Mesa numbering. South of Ocotillo Rd uses Maricopa County numbering.

Another example is 48th St bordering Phoenix and Tempe. West side of the street uses Phoenix numbering. East side uses Tempe numbering.

[The Nature Boy]

Google Maps isn't helping me on this but I seem to remember Stanstead, Quebec and Derby Line, Vermont having different numbering convention for their sides of Canusa St. I could be wrong though.

[mrsman]

The one in Southern California that comes to mind is 226th St/Woodson Avenue which makes up part of the border between Long Beach and Hawaiian Gardens. Hawaiian Gardens uses the LA address system while Long Beach does not. So the Hawaiian Gardens side of the street is 226th St and the Long Beach side is Woodson. If you see the street view of the area, you can see the street signs where the block numbers on the Hawaiian Gardens side of the street start at 12200 and the Long Beach side 8200 E.

https://www.google.com/maps/@33.8241932,-118.0697565,3a,48.3y,193.85h,87.83t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sshlN0dAF6T-z2vYUT8VSVQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192!5m1!1e1

Another one is Beverly Hills and Los Angeles.  The east-west streets thankfully incorporate the LA numbering system, but the N-S streets do not.  For the part of LA west of BH, the N/S divide is on Sunset, in BH its on Wilshire, and for LA east of BH its 1st street/Alden Drive.  This definitely leads to some confusion, especially on or near the eastern part of Bev Hills.

Robertson Blvd is probably the most interesting, since it crosses Alden in LA and Wilshire in Bev Hills.  It is also the boundary between BH and LA for the section between Burton Wy and Clifton and then again from Gregory to Whitworth.  The addresses are quite confusing. 

Robertson begins a block north of Santa Monica in West Hollywood (which follows the LA system).  As you go south, the numbers on north Robertson go down in a normal fashion.  The 200 north block is omitted, so you go from the 300s to the 100s as you cross Beverly.  Then you are on the 100 north block until Alden.  Then you are on the 100 south block and the numbers begin going up.  The 200 south block is skipped and you are on the 300 block as you cross 3rd street.  Upon crossing Burton Way, the east side is in LA and the west side is Beverly Hills.  The east side begins the 400 south block and continues going upward.  The west side is the 300 north block and it is going downwards.  Crossing Dayton/Colgate the east side is still the 400 south block upward, and the west side is the 200 north block downward.  At some point before crossing Clifton, both sides of the street are now in BH and so both sides of the street are 200 north block downward.  After Clifton, its the 100 north block downward on both sides.  Then you cross Wilshire so you are on the 100 block south going upward.  After Charleville, you are on the 200 block on both sides.  After the Gregory that emanates to the east, you are now in LA on the east side but not the west, so you are still on the 200 block on the west side but you are beginning the 800 block on the LA/east side of the street.  Then you cross Gregory that emenates to the west and now it is the 300 block on the west and still the 800 block on the east.  Crossing Chalmers means 900 block on the east, but 300 block on the west.  Crossing Olympic means 400 block on the west and 1000 block on the east.  Then, you cross Whitworth and leave BH for good, so both sides of the street are on the 1100 block.

As you can see, on Robertson (and on many of the nearby parallel streets), there are two separate 100 north blocks, two separate 100 south blocks, two separate 300 north blocks, two separate 300 south blocks, and two separte 400 south blocks.  The four 100 blocks (100N LA, 100 N BH, 100 S LA, and 100 S BH) are all within half a mile of each other.  Stating an address here is no simple manner.  I had a friend who lived on a parallel street at 123 north, but he didn't specify which one.  It took a while to find him.

To ease the confusion for finding businesses there are some signs that BH had put up to specify the addresses, but it is still utterly confusing.

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0594935,-118.3835635,3a,37.5y,16.83h,122.88t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sHUqOdleZa-Ujv4SH8CUPoQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

[bandit957]

O'Fallon Avenue along the border of Bellevue and Dayton, Ky. For instance, there's a spot where the Bellevue side is in the 200s while the Dayton side is in the 600s.

This street is also famous because one time about a year ago, I saw some woman walking across the street blowing a bubble with bubble gum, which means she has the distinction of blowing a bubble in two cities at the same time.