Street names that don't seem to make sense

[Streetman]

It's obvious how some streets got their names: Main St. and Broad St. for characteristics of the street itself, streets with names like Park, School, Church, Bank, Canal, Wall for things that were or are near them. Are there any streets in your area whose names don't seem to make sense? In my town, Main St. is a country lane, Hill St. is pretty flat, Circular Av. is practically straight, and Westerly Dr. is at the far eastern edge of town. (Main and Hill were probably named for people. There is an Easterly Dr. east of Westerly but it's only a paper street so little known. I have no good explanation for Circular.)

[mgk920]

A number of streets here in Appleton, WI don't seem to make sense (such as the spelled out numbered streets, (Second through Eighth Sts, that show no resemblance to the current addressing grid), but make total sense when it is remembered that they were once streets of prior munis that were amalgamated by the state legislature in the 1850s to form the present-day city.  Ditto 'Division St' and 'Lawe St',which were the borders between these pre-amalgamation munis.  There are several weird street names elsewhere in the city with similar origins.

Mike

[PColumbus73]

Don't know if it applies, but I hate generic, corporate, word-salady road names

Some examples near me include streets like:

Premier Resorts Blvd
McLeod Health Blvd
Drs Bruce and Lee Foundation Blvd
Burroughs & Chapin Blvd

Also, street names like 'Development' or 'Technology' are obnoxious as well.

[roadman65]

Now that  in Florida, Cypress Gardens is currently Legoland, the street that serves the former park, is no longer making sense to have that name to it. Cypress Gardens Blvd. that is FL 540 in where Legoland is located on the site of the historic botanical theme park.

[1995hoo]

Since it opened, I've thought Clemaline Boulevard in Fairfax County has an overdone, pretentious name. It's not a "boulevard" in any normal sense of the word. It's an access road that primarily serves Wegmans.

[Quillz]

I live right by Valley Circle Boulevard. It does not make a circle around the valley. It's just another south-north street.

[Quillz]

Don't know if it applies, but I hate generic, corporate, word-salady road names

Some examples near me include streets like:

Premier Resorts Blvd
McLeod Health Blvd
Drs Bruce and Lee Foundation Blvd
Burroughs & Chapin Blvd

Also, street names like 'Development' or 'Technology' are obnoxious as well.

Near by work is the "Howard B. Drollinger Parkway." The street name is longer than the street.

[SEWIGuy]

College Avenue on the south side of Milwaukee has never been near an actual college. It was named because Downer College initially planned to build its permanent campus there, but eventually chose an east side campus on the site of what is now UW-Milwaukee.

[Quillz]

I have never been able to see the Northern Lights on Northern Lights Boulevard in Anchorage, AK.

[Rothman]

Don't know if it applies, but I hate generic, corporate, word-salady road names

Some examples near me include streets like:

Premier Resorts Blvd
McLeod Health Blvd
Drs Bruce and Lee Foundation Blvd
Burroughs & Chapin Blvd

Also, street names like 'Development' or 'Technology' are obnoxious as well.

Near by work is the "Howard B. Drollinger Parkway." The street name is longer than the street.

I desire my name to be honored in such a fashion.

[US 89]

Don't know if it applies, but I hate generic, corporate, word-salady road names

Some examples near me include streets like:

Premier Resorts Blvd
McLeod Health Blvd
Drs Bruce and Lee Foundation Blvd
Burroughs & Chapin Blvd

At least they aren't corporate, but Atlanta has a habit of renaming streets after the full names of political or civil rights leaders, or adding their names onto already-existing street names. It has a similar effect. We have mouthfuls like Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway, Joseph E. Lowery Boulevard, Ivan Allen Jr. Boulevard, Andrew Young International Boulevard, John Lewis Freedom Parkway, and so on. Local spoken usage for names like this varies - sometimes they prefer the original name without the person's name attached, sometimes just the person's last name, and sometimes the whole thing. Depends on the street.

In my opinion, if you're going to totally rename a street instead of just attaching a new honorary name that nobody is going to use, it needs to be limited to last name only simply to keep things clear and concise.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Anywhere in MN that uses Atlantic Ave or Pacific Ave. (I assume these are railroad related somehow.)

[Streetman]

Since it opened, I've thought Clemaline Boulevard in Fairfax County has an overdone, pretentious name. It's not a "boulevard" in any normal sense of the word. It's an access road that primarily serves Wegmans.

Fairfield Blvd. in Wallingford CT is a quarter-mile long two lane dead end serving seven industrial buildings.

[Streetman]

Now that  in Florida, Cypress Gardens is currently Legoland, the street that serves the former park, is no longer making sense to have that name to it. Cypress Gardens Blvd. that is FL 540 in where Legoland is located on the site of the historic botanical theme park.

There was a previous topic on streets named for businesses no longer near them: https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=18246.0
In my original comment I said that streets named for things that were or are near them are logical.

[pderocco]

How about the Beeline Highway, NE of Phoenix? Odd name for a winding road.

[LilianaUwU]

Chemin de l'Hôpital in Fatima on the Magdalen Islands in Québec likely never had a hospital.

[US 89]

Chemin de l'Hôpital in Fatima on the Magdalen Islands in Québec likely never had a hospital.

I guess someone really liked evaluating limits of indeterminate forms...

[jay8g]

Seattle has an E North St, an Eastern Ave N, a Western Ave, and a S/SW Southern St. None of those are anywhere near one another, and the only one that seems to have a logical reason for its name is Eastern Ave N (the easternmost avenue within the N zone before you get into the NE zone).

[roadman65]

Irvington, NJ has a 40th Street that has no numbered street themes with the township. 40th is alone with no other numbers running parallel to it.

[mgk920]

College Avenue on the south side of Milwaukee has never been near an actual college. It was named because Downer College initially planned to build its permanent campus there, but eventually chose an east side campus on the site of what is now UW-Milwaukee.

And Downer College eventually became part of Lawrence College in Appleton (the city's main street is called 'College Ave').  It is now 'Lawrence University'.

Mike

[kkt]

Chemin de l'Hôpital in Fatima on the Magdalen Islands in Québec likely never had a hospital.

I guess someone really liked evaluating limits of indeterminate forms...

The integration rule was from someone's last name, so the street may be named after a person in the family as well?

[US 89]

Chemin de l'Hôpital in Fatima on the Magdalen Islands in Québec likely never had a hospital.

I guess someone really liked evaluating limits of indeterminate forms...

The integration rule was from someone's last name, so the street may be named after a person in the family as well?

Apparently Guillaume de l'Hôpital wanted nothing more than to become famous and remembered in math, a field he was fascinated by, but his intellect was not quite up to the leading thinkers of the day. However, he did have one advantage and that was that he was very rich. So he called up his tutor Johann Bernoulli, a truly brilliant mathematician, and offered a handsome sum of money in exchange for the exclusive right to publish all of his discoveries. Bernoulli, tempted by the francs waving under his nose, reluctantly agreed. L'Hôpital then wrote a differential calculus textbook containing the first publication of what came to be known as l'Hôpital's rule. So for better or worse, he did get his wish.

At least, that was what my partial differential equations professor told us a number of times. Some of that is probably a little embellished, but it makes for a good story nonetheless. Perhaps he or another l'Hôpital wanted to be remembered in Canada and bought a street name.

[LilianaUwU]

Chemin de l'Hôpital in Fatima on the Magdalen Islands in Québec likely never had a hospital.

I guess someone really liked evaluating limits of indeterminate forms...

The integration rule was from someone's last name, so the street may be named after a person in the family as well?

That wouldn't make sense, since no one with that last name ever lived on the Magdalen Islands. I was told the name may be derived from an antiquated other definition for the word, but I can't remember the definition. In any case, perhaps there was some sort of religious clinic way back then, but it's long gone if it ever existed.

[Bruce]

Main Street in Lacey, WA is totally misplaced. It's not in the historic city center (or what remains of it) and is just a starter street for a development that never got off the ground.

[J N Winkler]

That wouldn't make sense, since no one with that last name ever lived on the Magdalen Islands. I was told the name may be derived from an antiquated other definition for the word, but I can't remember the definition. In any case, perhaps there was some sort of religious clinic way back then, but it's long gone if it ever existed.

Could it be hôpital in the sense of hospice (what is now called EHPAD in France and assisted living in the US)?