Street names: What on earth were they thinking (or drinking)?

[WichitaRoads]

The story I heard about those streets is a little different:  they are in Hyde Addition, named after A.A. Hyde--the mentholatum baron and big wheel in the early YMCA--and the street names come from his female relatives and friends (wife Ida, wife's sister-in-law Laura, wife's half-sister Pattie, and Fannie for a family friend).

http://f5paper.com/article/mentholatum-man

As an aside, Hyde's original metholatum factory on Douglas now houses the Spice Merchant, which is pretty much the only place in Wichita where exotic coffees (Kenyan, Javanese, Ethiopian Sidamo or Yirgacheffe, etc.) can be bought in less than bulk quantities.

Edit:  I had also assumed Hoover Road was named after the President.  This, it turns out, is not so:  instead it is named after Samuel Hoover, an early land developer who was responsible for much of what is now Riverside.  He is also the namesake of Hoover Orchard.

http://f5paper.com/article/100-years-ago-wichita-0

Right on with Hoover. As for the other streets in Hyde Addition, you are right - my info was a little off! I know for sure about the date of the name change, though!

ICTRds

[Mark68]

I've always been annoyed with "Broadway" or "Broad Street" that isn't broad. Or "Grand Ave/Blvd/Etc" that isn't very grand.

[froggie]

A while back there was an article in the Washington Post about people in one of the rural Virginia counties who were angry that the county government was forcing them to have street names. Seems the emergency services (fire, ambulance, etc.) didn't do well with directions like "turn left at the big rock and look for the house after the red crape myrtle."

Given that virtually every public road in every rural county in Virginia is maintained by VDOT and has a route number (and has for 80 years now), theoretically they could have skipped the streetname and arranged it so that the route numbers were displayed more prominently than they already are (i.e. "take SR 635 out of Umptyville, turn left on SR 1711, 3rd house on the right just past the red crepe maple").  But regarding your analogy, the route numbers having existed for 80 years means there's no excuse for poor direction giving.

[Laura]

Any road named after a farm in a subdivision that obliterated that farm.

Or any road that is named after what it replaced. I puke a little when I see roads in subdivisions named "Whispering Woods Way", "Apple Orchard Way", "Deer Hill Ct.", etc.

The absolute worst example of the concept of naming the road after what you replaced: Broken Land Parkway in Columbia, MD.

[1995hoo]

Any road named after a farm in a subdivision that obliterated that farm.

Or any road that is named after what it replaced. I puke a little when I see roads in subdivisions named "Whispering Woods Way", "Apple Orchard Way", "Deer Hill Ct.", etc.

The absolute worst example of the concept of naming the road after what you replaced: Broken Land Parkway in Columbia, MD.

A neighborhood called "Maple Trace" was built near my old high school. We joked they chose that name because there wasn't a trace of a maple after they tore out the trees.

A while back there was an article in the Washington Post about people in one of the rural Virginia counties who were angry that the county government was forcing them to have street names. Seems the emergency services (fire, ambulance, etc.) didn't do well with directions like "turn left at the big rock and look for the house after the red crape myrtle."

Given that virtually every public road in every rural county in Virginia is maintained by VDOT and has a route number (and has for 80 years now), theoretically they could have skipped the streetname and arranged it so that the route numbers were displayed more prominently than they already are (i.e. "take SR 635 out of Umptyville, turn left on SR 1711, 3rd house on the right just past the red crepe maple").  But regarding your analogy, the route numbers having existed for 80 years means there's no excuse for poor direction giving.

I rather strongly suspect most of them have no idea what the numbers are, but I tend to agree with you that if you live on an unnamed street, it behooves you to know the route number and not to rely solely on landmarks that may change (for example, "turn at the big maple tree" becomes worthless if said tree falls over in a storm and is removed). I more strongly suspect that in Loudoun's case it was another aspect of conflict between people who lived there when it was primarily rural and out in the sticks versus people who moved there as it became more suburban and wanted it to be like other suburbs.

VDOT is not as thorough about posting route numbers as in the past, though (example: the road in and out of my neighborhood is a VDOT road by has no number posted anywhere).

[kj3400]

I always found it a bit odd that Liberty Heights Ave was in the city, but Liberty Heights Terrace was off of Liberty Rd, half a mile in the county. I also felt it was odd that they felt there was a need to name it Liberty Heights Terrace.

[aerules]

In Blairstown NJ there is a Shades of Death Rd. (A house for sale on that street made it to Leno).   

[HurrMark]

Don't forget Street Road in PA...

[aerules]

Don't forget Street Road in PA...

Forgot about it.  I was on Street Road yesterday.   

[hotdogPi]

Salisbury MA has Toll Rd. It doesn't have a toll, and it's not even a freeway.

[empirestate]

Salisbury MA has Toll Rd. It doesn't have a toll, and it's not even a freeway.

Well I wouldn't expect a freeway; Massachusetts toll roads, historically speaking, have not in most cases been those.

[NE2]

Toll Road was the southern approach to the New Hampshire Turnpike.

[Thing 342]

Salisbury MA has Toll Rd. It doesn't have a toll, and it's not even a freeway.

Asheville has Old Toll Rd, an extremely narrow 2-lane that climbs up Town Mountain.

[NE2]

Asheville has Old Toll Rd, an extremely narrow 2-lane that climbs up Town Mountain.

Gee, I wonder. Could it be a former toll road?

[Thing 342]

Asheville has Old Toll Rd, an extremely narrow 2-lane that climbs up Town Mountain.

Gee, I wonder. Could it be a former toll road?

Considering that it goes through mostly residential areas, I doubt it.

[NE2]

It was a toll road: http://archive.org/stream/northcarolinagui00fede#page/148/mode/2up/search/toll
As best as I can tell, it began at the Grove Park Inn entrance and climbed to the current end of Old Toll Road at NC 694, then continued straight and looped around on what's now a private driveway, ending up on Westhaven Drive to the summit. The houses came later.

[nyratk1]

There's a road in Coram/Middle Island/Ridge, NY named Whiskey Road. Obviously you know what they were drinking. http://www.longwood.k12.ny.us/history/midisl/bayles stories/book 9/How Whiskey Road Got Its Name.htm

A jug of whiskey was placed a short distance a head of the men, who were told that they could stop and have a drink when they had cleared a trail to where the jug was placed, and then the jug was taken ahead again and the same process repeated.  Tradition has it they each time the jug was changed a different course was made so the trail was very crooked, and in later years when the road was opened on this trail it became one of the most crooked roads in Brookhaven Town.

[PColumbus73]

I live in a farm themed subdivision, so there are streets like Corn Husker Lane, Red Rooster Lane, Picket Fence Lane, and so on. One thing that annoys me is when subdivision streets try to call themselves Boulevard or Parkway, the pretentious sods.

[Urban Prairie Schooner]

In Baton Rouge, but I suspect a good many other cities, originality in street naming is sadly lacking. The list below provides the number of times that certain words turn up as either complete street names or part of a street name in East Baton Rouge Parish:

Park: 118
Wood: 383
Tree: 25
Water: 18
Oak: 187
Pine: 37
Creek: 67
Green: 55
River: 40
Lake: 179
Field: 50
Meadow: 48
Ridge: 156 (in a topography that is essentially flat)

Some of these overlap, but these words are all or part of a fair number of the 6535 unique street names in the parish.

The reason? Developers are lazy around here and use the same street naming themes over and over and over.....

[PColumbus73]

There are a couple roads in Columbus, Ohio that I found particularly amusing; Hard Road, around Dublin, and Godown Road in north-central Columbus (above Upper Arington).

[6a]

I have an old picture around here somewhere taken at the corner of Fairy and Hooker Sts. in Martinsville VA.


Edit:

In Baton Rouge, but I suspect a good many other cities, originality in street naming is sadly lacking. The list below provides the number of times that certain words turn up as either complete street names or part of a street name in East Baton Rouge Parish:

Oak: 187

Yup, that is a part of my street name.

[catch22]

Yes, even roads with historical connections can make sense (all of these examples are in my area).

• Northline Road: runs along what was formerly the northern limits of Wyandotte prior to the annexation of Ford City in 1922
• Eureka Road: the Eureka Iron Company was once located at the foot of this road at the Detroit River in the late 1800's
• Pennsylvania Road: the Pennsylvania Salt Company (later Pennwalt) was located for many years at the Detroit River foot of this road
• Sibley Road: this road once ran along the northern edge of the hamlet of Sibley, which was later annexed by Trenton
• Gibraltar Road, Inkster Road: both roads do pass through their respective communities
• Telegraph Road (U.S. 24): telegraph poles once lined this road

Two roads in my area have names that don't make sense, though:

• Trenton Road: is entirely within Southgate, though it intersects Fort Street (M-85), which passes through Trenton
• Ecorse Road (old M-17): goes nowhere near Ecorse, though it's eastern end is a few blocks from Southfield Road (M-39), which does enter Ecorse itself

Ecorse Road is named after Ecorse Township, which today is Allen Park, Lincoln Park, Ecorse, River Rouge and probably others which escape me at the moment.

[Charles2]

A street north of Birmingham has the not-so-politically correct name of Jew Hill Road.

[vtk]

About streets "named after the [farm/trees/whatever] they replaced": I think this is technically not true in most cases.  They are actually named after the residential subdivisions to which they are the main entrances.  Those subdivisions are named after what was there before, which I take as a sign that the developer didn't want to look like a huge for-profit corporation that doesn't care about the community's history.  The main road into that subdivision is then given that name to aid the recognition of the subdivision's name.

A distinction without a difference? Maybe, but to me, it's still a distinction worth noting.

[hm insulators]

Salisbury MA has Toll Rd. It doesn't have a toll, and it's not even a freeway.

Asheville has Old Toll Rd, an extremely narrow 2-lane that climbs up Town Mountain.

There is an Old Toll Rd not far from Lake Arrowhead, California, which used to be a toll road in the early 1900s or around there.

Back to the silly street names, how about Cheery Lynn Rd in Phoenix, a residential street that runs off 7th Street? I use it to get at one of my favorite Chinese restaurants.