Roads named for businesses which no longer exist (there)

[Caps81943]

Comfort Inn Drive in Warrenton, VA has been a Baymont Inn for at least five years

[ErmineNotyours]

The sign for the Highway 99 Blues Club is still up, even though the former Highway 99 Alaskan Way Viaduct is gone.

[planxtymcgillicuddy]

Bendix Drive in Salisbury, NC......I assume where Bendix was is where Power Curbers is now

[roadman65]

Cypress Gardens Blvd in Winter Haven, FL.

[theline]

Bendix Drive in Salisbury, NC......I assume where Bendix was is where Power Curbers is now

Bendix Drive makes a reappearance in the thread! Four years ago, I cited the one in South Bend:

There is a Packard Street between 8 and 7 Mile in Detroit.  There is a crap ton of Oldsmobile (Ave, Street, Road) around the country...Waterford Township comes to mind.  You also have a Studebaker Street in South Bend, IN.

South Bend also has a major street named Bendix Drive, which runs by the former Bendix plant, now Honeywell Aerospace. Studebaker Street doesn't run near the former location of the Studebaker plant, so perhaps the street was named for Clem Studebaker, rather than the company.

[Roadgeek Adam]

There's a very interesting pair in Highland Park, New Jersey (where I grew up) and New Brunswick, New Jersey that are both related to the same business.

Carpender Road in New Brunswick is named after the second half of the Janeway and Carpender Wallpaper Company that used to be on the Raritan River waterfront on the New Brunswick side. The entire complex caught fire on March 13, 1907 and was declared a total loss. They demolished the rest of the structures in May 1907 and moved the bricks over to Highland Park.

In Highland Park, there is a Janeway Avenue at the location of where the firm moved to after the 1907 fire. Unfortunately, the wallpaper company only survived another 24 years. In 1931, with the Depression at its peak and new laws about coal burning, the Janeway & Carpender Wallpaper Company closed its doors for good after going into bankruptcy.

The only remains, especially as development has eaten up the properties, are Janeway Avenue and Carpender Road. I doubt anyone who lives on either street knows the significance that company had to both municipalities.

[D-Dey65]

Again with the railroads. There's a tiny little one-lane road along in Mount Vernon, New York that runs along the northwest side of the Metro-North New Haven Line named "New Haven Railroad Street." I'm debating whether or not I'd like to go there someday.

Didn't somebody mention that road before?

[ethanhopkin14]

What about roads named after a former name of a landmark?  There are a few roads, most notably Decker Lake Road, in the Austin area that are named for Decker Lake.  The lake was re-named Walter E. Long so many years ago, yet none of the businesses or roads carried on the name change.  The lake is still obviously there, just not called that anymore. 

[roadman65]

What about roads named after a former name of a landmark?  There are a few roads, most notably Decker Lake Road, in the Austin area that are named for Decker Lake.  The lake was re-named Walter E. Long so many years ago, yet none of the businesses or roads carried on the name change.  The lake is still obviously there, just not called that anymore. 

What’s in a name anyway?  Some people feel comfortable with old names despite new ones added. Heck look at Route 128 in MA even though it’s I-93 or I-95 depending on location.

Back when I lived in NJ we were still calling Route 495 by Route 3.   Even with signs changed to reflect the true route number, people would say Route  3 into the Lincoln a Tunnel.

[kphoger]

a former name of a landmark?

What's in a name anyway?  Some people feel comfortable with old names despite new ones added.

[ethanhopkin14]

a former name of a landmark?

What's in a name anyway?  Some people feel comfortable with old names despite new ones added.

I am all for that, and in the example I gave, I never cared the name changed.  Until my new boss moved to Austin from Illinois and expressed confusion why there were so many references to Decker Lake around Lake Walter E. Long.  Then it struck me that maybe this is confusing to newbies, especially a city with so many new people coming in daily like Austin. 

[SEWIGuy]

There is a road just off I-94 on the west side of Milwaukee called Theodore Trecker Way.  It runs past a large Quad/Graphics printing plant.

That printing plant formerly was a Giddings & Lewis manufacturing facility (G&L is a now defunct factory automation company.)  G&L acquired that plant in the early 90s when it purchased Cross & Trecker Corporation, a tool and die manufacturing company.  Cross & Trecker was a merger of two companies, one of which was Kearney & Trecker.  Kearney & Trecker was founded by Theodore Trecker in the 1800s, and the company build that plant in the late 70s and had the city name the street after its founder.

So the street is named after someone who founded a company that built a plant, that later merged with another company, was then purchased by another company, and THAT company sold the plant to yet another company.

[1995hoo]

What about roads named after a former name of a landmark?  There are a few roads, most notably Decker Lake Road, in the Austin area that are named for Decker Lake.  The lake was re-named Walter E. Long so many years ago, yet none of the businesses or roads carried on the name change.  The lake is still obviously there, just not called that anymore. 

What's in a name anyway?  Some people feel comfortable with old names despite new ones added. Heck look at Route 128 in MA even though it's I-93 or I-95 depending on location.

Back when I lived in NJ we were still calling Route 495 by Route 3.   Even with signs changed to reflect the true route number, people would say Route  3 into the Lincoln a Tunnel.

Yes! Someone else's autocorrect does this inexplicable and unbelievably annoying thing with inserting an article where one does not belong!

[GaryV]

Calling it by old names:

Cobo Hall

I mean TCF

I mean ... Uh, what's the name going to be after the bank merger?

[Occidental Tourist]

Mervyn's Drive in Fullerton, California for the entrance to a shopping center from which the regional department store Mervyn's long ago departed.

[wriddle082]

Has anybody mentioned Lucent Blvd in Highlands Ranch, CO?  A few years ago, Alcatel Lucent was bought by Nokia.  This road even has an exit off the C-470 freeway.

[kenarmy]

This is the opposite, but There's a delta mart in Jackson, MS. The road it's located on was renamed from Delta Drive to Medgar Evers Boulevard, it was named Delta because US 49 used the road through Jackson. And, well, 49 went to the delta. But it's been rerouted now and Delta mart isn't in too good of a shape.

[Takumi]

Chesterfield County, VA has a Price Club Boulevard. Price Club merged with Costco in the 1990s.

[X99]

Lien Street in Rapid City, SD. Pete Lien and Sons no longer operates the cement plant served by Lien Street, instead operating their offices and a quarry on Universal Drive to the north. The cement plant is assumed to be operated by GCC.

Not necessarily a business, but Sturgis Road, named as such because it was the former route between Rapid City and Sturgis before I-90 existed, runs from western Rapid City to Tilford, ending about 8 miles short of Sturgis.

[ethanhopkin14]

Robert Mueller Municipal Airport in Austin closed in 1999 in favor of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, and ever since, the old airport has been slowly converted to commercial/residential.  I would say now there has been enough development, if someone just moved to town, they would be unaware of the area being a former airport, except one hint being Airport Blvd. that still runs on the south side of former airport.  It can be easily dismissed because you can take Airport from that part of town, down to US-183 that will take you to the current airport.  I am sure this situation exists in the few cities that decided to sh!t can their current airport for a completely new construction.  I say few because most of the time cities take the old airport and keep expanding/renovating to the point that it's extremely confusing to someone who just arrived for the first time.  But hey, it started out a single runway airfield in the 20s and now its a 7 runway international airport!!!

[FightingIrish]

In the Milwaukee area today, the signs are being changed at the baseball stadium. The Miller Park signs are sadly coming down, replaced by ugly American Family Field ones.

Interestingly, the road that runs along the eastern side of the stadium is called Miller Park Way. Most of the road is in the suburb of West Milwaukee, and they have said that there are no plans to change the name of the biggest street running through the village.

SM-N986U1

[Konza]

In Manhattan, Kansas, in 2013, Tallgrass Brewing moved out of its original building into a large new facility on Technology Circle, west of the municipal airport.  They subsequently requested that the city rename the street "Dry Hop Circle", and the city approved the request.

Tallgrass Brewing ceased operating in the fall of 2018.  No successor brewery took over their location on what is still known as "Dry Hop Circle".

[rellis97]

I'm not sure if this counts, but "Steve Yzerman Dr" runs around the south side of the former Detroit Red Wings hockey arena, Joe Louis Arena in downtown Detroit. Steve Yzerman was captain of the Red Wings and played for the team from 1983 to 2006. However, Joe Louis Arena was recently demolished beginning in the spring of 2019 and was replaced by Little Caesars Arena, the new home of the Detroit Red Wings, on the north end of downtown, at Woodward Avenue (M-1) and the Fisher Freeway (I-75).
Although "Steve Yzerman" was not the name of a business, his name is synonymous with Joe Louis Arena and the Detroit Red Wings.

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3254748,-83.0526199,3a,67.1y,100.24h,89t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s0UUNtfE29LDjka8MhV40xw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

[ethanhopkin14]

I'm not sure if this counts, but "Steve Yzerman Dr" runs around the south side of the former Detroit Red Wings hockey arena, Joe Louis Arena in downtown Detroit. Steve Yzerman was captain of the Red Wings and played for the team from 1983 to 2006. However, Joe Louis Arena was recently demolished beginning in the spring of 2019 and was replaced by Little Caesars Arena, the new home of the Detroit Red Wings, on the north end of downtown, at Woodward Avenue (M-1) and the Fisher Freeway (I-75).
Although "Steve Yzerman" was not the name of a business, his name is synonymous with Joe Louis Arena and the Detroit Red Wings.

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3254748,-83.0526199,3a,67.1y,100.24h,89t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s0UUNtfE29LDjka8MhV40xw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Makes me think of Mike McCarthy Way in Green Bay, WI.  Obviously Lambeau Field hasn't gone anywhere, but with McCarthy now the head coach of the Cowboys makes it slightly comical. 

[SectorZ]

I'm not sure if this counts, but "Steve Yzerman Dr" runs around the south side of the former Detroit Red Wings hockey arena, Joe Louis Arena in downtown Detroit. Steve Yzerman was captain of the Red Wings and played for the team from 1983 to 2006. However, Joe Louis Arena was recently demolished beginning in the spring of 2019 and was replaced by Little Caesars Arena, the new home of the Detroit Red Wings, on the north end of downtown, at Woodward Avenue (M-1) and the Fisher Freeway (I-75).
Although "Steve Yzerman" was not the name of a business, his name is synonymous with Joe Louis Arena and the Detroit Red Wings.

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3254748,-83.0526199,3a,67.1y,100.24h,89t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s0UUNtfE29LDjka8MhV40xw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Makes me think of Mike McCarthy Way in Green Bay, WI.  Obviously Lambeau Field hasn't gone anywhere, but with McCarthy now the head coach of the Cowboys makes it slightly comical.

It's weird that around Gillette Stadium there are no former coaches (or current) with roads named for them. However, there isn't any city road grid to speak of near it.

In North Attleboro, about 5 miles away, there is a Ronald C Meyer Dr, which sounds like it was a joke by the builder of a high-end subdivision, since Meyer was in New England for two years and sucked as a coach. The road got made quite famous locally since it's the road Aaron Hernandez lived on.