Old/historic peculiar road names

[TheGrassGuy]

And, in the Milwaukee area is Watertown Plk Rd.  Or so the BGS says on I-41.  Actually Watertown Plank Road, which must have some historical significance with such a name.

Took me several years of occasional travels up there to figure out that "Plk" means "PLANK".  My wife and I would drive by there on our way somewhere north and try to imagine what "Plk" is an abbreviation for.  But (my commentary but I'll stand by it) most people in the Milwaukee area have always lived in the Milwaukee area and would just know, so it probably never entered WSDOT's mind that nobody from beyond Wisconsin would inherently understand what "Plk" means.  Plick? Plunk? Plaque? OK, maybe not the last one.

I saw another questionable abbreviation driving through Helena, MT last month where "Last Chance Gul" was shown on the street sign on a signal's mast arm. Ended up just looking on Google maps to find out that Gul. was short for gulch.

Paterson Plank Rd and Hackensack Plank Rd in NJ, too

[Rothman]

Mormon Hollow Road in...Wendell, Massachusetts.

It passes through a gathering place for Mormons before they headed west.  There's a cemetery along there that has the graves of a few early members of the religion.  The cemetery has been researched extensively by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Passed another Mormon Hollow north of Corning, NY off NY 414 on a road trip yesterday, coincidentally.  Makes more sense than Wendell, MA since it's closer to where The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was established (Fayette).

[nexus73]

SR 38 between Reedsport (US 101) and I-5 is called the Constitution Highway.  There is no political connection or historical connection to go with this name.  The name of the highway is just a little known piece of trivia, even among locals. 

Parade Magazine back in the 1980's rated SR 38 as one of the USA's 10 most scenic routes though! 

Rick

[Max Rockatansky]

Mormon Hollow Road in...Wendell, Massachusetts.

It passes through a gathering place for Mormons before they headed west.  There's a cemetery along there that has the graves of a few early members of the religion.  The cemetery has been researched extensively by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Passed another Mormon Hollow north of Corning, NY off NY 414 on a road trip yesterday, coincidentally.  Makes more sense than Wendell, MA since it's closer to where The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was established (Fayette).

Similarly there is an older spur of the Rim of the World Highway which called the Mormon Road near the interchange of CA 18 and CA 138.  It is a reference to the trail of the same name up Waterman Canyon which was built by Mormon settlers. 

[TEG24601]

Telegraph Rd. and the Mile Roads around Detroit would fall under this descriptor, if I understand correctly, but are well covered territory.


The ones I love are the roads named after the city they are headed to, or go between (even historically).  Examples:
Saginaw Rd. in Flint, MI... goes to Saginaw.
Lapeer Rd. in Flint, MI... goes to Lapeer.
Fenton Rd. in Flint, MI... goes to Fenton
Lapeer Rd. in Oakland County, MI... goes to Lapeer, except in Lake Orion, where the existing route (M-24) that utilizes Lapeer Rd., bypassed downtown, sometime prior to the 1950s.  Lapeer Rd. still runs through town, while M-24 bypasses to the West.
Bow-Edison Rd. in Skagit County, WA... runs between Bow and Edison, WA
Bothell-Everett Highway in Snohomish County, WA... runs between Bothell and Everett, WA
Scholls Ferry Rd. in Washington County, OR... runs to Scholls, OR, formerly via a ferry.


Additionally, Carroll County, IN has a few interesting ones.  Normally county roads are just numbers and cardinal directions, based on their distance from the baseline/center roadway.  There are a few exceptions, including:
Carrolton Rd... travels to and over Carrolton Hill
Towpath Rd... travels along the Wabash River, where horses, oxen, and mules would pull boats up the river to the next section of the Wabash/Erie Canal.


I would be remiss if I forgot my Island's plethora of odd road names...
Fox Spit Rd.
Dead Goat Rd.
Log Cabin Rd.
Triangle Rd.
Zig Zag Rd.

[Rothman]

Transit Road east of Buffalo is supposedly named because it was an early attempt to use surveying methods to design the road.

[1995hoo]

Three Mile Road, a residential street in Glastonbury, CT, is less known than Detroit's 8 Mile Road, but has (possible) local significance. Or not.

....

Heh. I initially read that as "Glastonbury Court," probably because in the 1970s I lived on Glastonbury Court in Annandale, Virginia. 

[TheGrassGuy]

Transit Road east of Buffalo is supposedly named because it was an early attempt to use surveying methods to design the road.

Looked it up on Google Maps. Wow, NY-78 is REALLY ghetto in Lockport.

[fillup420]

there is a road between Apex and Garner, NC called Ten Ten Rd. the NC SR number is, of course, SR 1010

[michravera]

-Boulevard (another Richmond example); never got why it got just "Boulevard" and nothing else

This reminds me of "The Alameda" In San Jose, since Alameda is Boulevard in Spanish.

So it's "(NULL)" Boulevard, and "The" Alameda. Get with the program!

[Finrod]

The road my parents live on was originally just County Road 50 South, and their address was simply Rural Route 4, but at one point it was decided that the road needed a name, and what they came up with was Big Four Arch Road.  This is because the road goes under an arch that was built for an extension off the Big Four railroad, which goes over this road and a creek at the same time, making for a road bridge underneath a railroad arch:

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.0347647,-86.9161432,3a,75y,197.82h,90.09t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sLxeuYHOqCu19VwcMehwrEA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Since then they've ditched that name and nowadays my parents just have an address on W 50 S.

Up until the 1990s sometime the bridge under the arch was this ancient 1-lane wooden deck bridge with iron side trusses; the top deck of the road was seven long planks with gaps between them wide enough to trap a bicycle tire, which made riding one across it a bit challenging.  In the last decade or so of its life there were big orange warning signs approaching it reading WEIGHT LIMIT 2 TONS and UNSAFE BRIDGE, CROSS AT OWN RISK.  Some old pictures of it that I found:

https://bridgehunter.com/photos/39/29/392913-L.jpg
https://bridgehunter.com/photos/39/29/392914-L.jpg

Pictures are from here, which has more: https://bridgehunter.com/in/montgomery/big-four-railroad/

[Route66Fan]

I don't know if this has been posted before, but Missouri has a road called Blue Book Rd, just Northeast of Odessa, MO, which was likely named after the Automobile Blue Books that were in print between 1901-1929. These books predated highway maps & described, turn by turn & mile by mile the different routes that were used at that time. There was one map from the late 1920's-1930's that showed the short section of Blue Book Rd, as well as the other part of the route going through Mayview, MO, to Marshall, MO, as being designated "Missouri State Highway 96". I can't seem to find that map right now & I don't know if it was ever signed as such though. It was probably an error, or a copyright trap created by the mapmakers.
EDIT: The long driveway just West of (To the left of.) HWY O was also part of this routing that has since been bypassed.

Segment of volume 5 of the 1918 Automobile Blue Book that describes this section of road near Odessa, MO.

Link to map on Google Earth.

[skluth]

And, in the Milwaukee area is Watertown Plk Rd.  Or so the BGS says on I-41.  Actually Watertown Plank Road, which must have some historical significance with such a name.

Took me several years of occasional travels up there to figure out that "Plk" means "PLANK".  My wife and I would drive by there on our way somewhere north and try to imagine what "Plk" is an abbreviation for.  But (my commentary but I'll stand by it) most people in the Milwaukee area have always lived in the Milwaukee area and would just know, so it probably never entered WSDOT's mind that nobody from beyond Wisconsin would inherently understand what "Plk" means.  Plick? Plunk? Plaque? OK, maybe not the last one.

I saw another questionable abbreviation driving through Helena, MT last month where "Last Chance Gul" was shown on the street sign on a signal's mast arm. Ended up just looking on Google maps to find out that Gul. was short for gulch.

I know I'm replying to a post from a couple years ago. Sorry. This reminds me of when I moved to So Cal a few years ago. It took me forever to figure out that "Cyn" on a sign was short for Canyon. It's another of those abbreviations that locals have probably known since childhood but the Midwest isn't known for its canyons.

FWIW, many plank roads were private toll roads through swamp/ marshlands or areas where roads would easily get washed out.

[LilianaUwU]

A street in Saint-Jean-Port-Joli in Québec is named "Rue de la Branlette". It may have had another meaning back when it was named, but nowadays, "branlette" is slang for... something else.

[Max Rockatansky]

One that kind of vexes me is former US Route 99 on "The Old Road"  in Santa Clarita.  I think that is a reference to "El Camino Viejo Los Angeles"  which was in the same generally area back the 19th century.  I've never seen any documentation that proves I'm correct or if it is an amusing coincidence.

[Takumi]

A few off the top of my head:

-Old Hundred Road, apparently everywhere in the Richmond area (and sometimes shows up in Maryland)

Hundred Road, Bermuda Hundred Road, and Old Bermuda Hundred Road all refer to the tiny community of Bermuda Hundred at the far eastern end of Chesterfield County. Evidence on the Old Hundred Road on the northwestern side of the county being related to that is ambiguous (I've seen a very old map that indicates the name may have gone all the way across the county at one time), but the separate Old Hundred in Chester is just an old alignment of VA 10.

-Boulevard (another Richmond example); never got why it got just "Boulevard" and nothing else

It was actually recently renamed Arthur Ashe Boulevard, after the famous tennis player who was a Richmond native.

[Hobart]

Something I've always found weird is Harlem Avenue, in Chicagoland.

Like, there's no neighborhood named Harlem in Chicago, the township named Harlem is halfway across the state, and as far as I know, there's nobody named Harlem significant in Chicago history.

More importantly, Narraganset Street arbitrarily changes to Ridgeland Avenue south of 87th Street, and continues to run near Peotone along 6400 West, to the Kankakee County line. Why does it change to Ridgeland? There's no town named Ridgeland, and it wouldn't run into the township named Ridgeland in Iriquois county if it extended south.

It's like the Cook County planners came up with fake place names for some reason, and decided to use them. I just don't get it.

[US20IL64]

Something I've always found weird is Harlem Avenue, in Chicagoland.

Like, there's no neighborhood named Harlem in Chicago, the township named Harlem is halfway across the state, and as far as I know, there's nobody named Harlem significant in Chicago history.

More importantly, Narraganset Street arbitrarily changes to Ridgeland Avenue south of 87th Street, and continues to run near Peotone along 6400 West, to the Kankakee County line. Why does it change to Ridgeland? There's no town named Ridgeland, and it wouldn't run into the township named Ridgeland in Iriquois county if it extended south.

It's like the Cook County planners came up with fake place names for some reason, and decided to use them. I just don't get it.

No they are not fake names. Harlem was once 72nd Av, but then N-S numbered streets were renamed. Cicero IL kept n/s numbered streets.

In old maps, there used to be a place/town called Harlem, where the street name originated. It's now the Mont Clare neighborhood in Chicago. Also part of Elmwood Park suburb.

Ridgeland Av originates in Oak Park suburb, named for the 'ridge' from former edge of Lake Michigan. Used to be 64th Av, btw. Just like Oak Park Av, is the area grid. Within Chicago city*, name changes to Narragansett with the N streets, [also on NW side] since there is already a Ridgeland on SE side of city, and no repeats allowed. Type "Ridgeland Av Chicago" in Google Maps to find it. It is near the Skyway [I-90].

*Also in suburb of Burbank IL, I guess they liked the name?

[kphoger]

Like, there's no neighborhood named Harlem in Chicago, the township named Harlem is halfway across the state, and as far as I know, there's nobody named Harlem significant in Chicago history.

In old maps, there used to be a place/town called Harlem, where the street name originated. It's now the Mont Clare neighborhood in Chicago. Also part of Elmwood Park suburb.

The village of Harlem was incorporated in 1884, thirteen years after the Chicago Fire.  If I have my timeline and geography correct, in fact, the village was still called "Harlem" when the Metropolitan Westside's Garfield Park branch was extended to Des Plaines:  that is to say, the Forest Park blue line station was originally in a place called Harlem.  (Does this mean that there was once a different "fastest way to get to Harlem", other than the A train?)

However, because of the existence of Harlem Township on the north side of Rockford, the village of Harlem was denied application for a post office.  A contest was therefore held, and in 1907 the village officially changed its name from Harlem to Forest Park.  Other portions of the original Harlem are today called River Forest and Oak Park.  River Forest preceded Forest Park by having been incorporated in 1884, and Oak Park lagged behind in 1902.

Bonus, in case you're wondering:  the western part of River Forest was once commonly called Thatcher–hence the name of the street and the park on that side of town.

[SEWIGuy]

Two quick ones:  there's a Three Chopt Road near Richmond, VA too.

And, in the Milwaukee area is Watertown Plk Rd.  Or so the BGS says on I-41.  Actually Watertown Plank Road, which must have some historical significance with such a name.

Took me several years of occasional travels up there to figure out that "Plk" means "PLANK".  My wife and I would drive by there on our way somewhere north and try to imagine what "Plk" is an abbreviation for.  But (my commentary but I'll stand by it) most people in the Milwaukee area have always lived in the Milwaukee area and would just know, so it probably never entered WSDOT's mind that nobody from beyond Wisconsin would inherently understand what "Plk" means.  Plick? Plunk? Plaque? OK, maybe not the last one.

It was literally a plank road -- a road made of wooden planks -- between Milwaukee and Watertown for wagon travel.

I've taken that exit numerous times to get to Froedtert Hospital and never noticed that it says "PLK."  Watertown Plk is on top and Road is on the bottom, it seems like there would have been enough space on the sign to put Watertown on the top and Plank Road on the bottom?

Watertown Plank Road is really the sole remaining name for a series of "plank roads" that were tolled wooden roads that were eventually going to lead to their named destinations.  I believe it was the only one completed of any distance.

National Avenue was once "Mukwonago Plank Road" - there is still a "Plank Road" in Mukwonago.  Forest Home was "Janesville Plank Road" - you can still see Janesville Avenue on the southwest side of Milwaukee County.  And Fond du Lac Avenue, Lisbon Avenue, Appleton Avenue and Green Bay Avenue were all at one point going to be plank roads too.

Eventually railroads were built rendering these rather useless.

[JayhawkCO]

The Paseo - Kansas City, MO.  Not a lot of Latinos in KC at the time it was named.
Jackass Hill Road - Littleton, CO.  Just interesting that in an affluent suburb they kept the name for the park and road that goes next to it.

[Bruce]

I guess this would count as peculiar:

[US20IL64]

Like, there's no neighborhood named Harlem in Chicago, the township named Harlem is halfway across the state, and as far as I know, there's nobody named Harlem significant in Chicago history.

In old maps, there used to be a place/town called Harlem, where the street name originated. It's now the Mont Clare neighborhood in Chicago. Also part of Elmwood Park suburb.

The village of Harlem was incorporated in 1884, thirteen years after the Chicago Fire.  If I have my timeline and geography correct, in fact, the village was still called "Harlem" when the Metropolitan Westside's Garfield Park branch was extended to Des Plaines:  that is to say, the Forest Park blue line station was originally in a place called Harlem.  (Does this mean that there was once a different "fastest way to get to Harlem", other than the A train?)

However, because of the existence of Harlem Township on the north side of Rockford, the village of Harlem was denied application for a post office.  A contest was therefore held, and in 1907 the village officially changed its name from Harlem to Forest Park.  Other portions of the original Harlem are today called River Forest and Oak Park.  River Forest preceded Forest Park by having been incorporated in 1884, and Oak Park lagged behind in 1902.

Bonus, in case you're wondering:  the western part of River Forest was once commonly called Thatcher–hence the name of the street and the park on that side of town.

Thanks! I got Elmwood and Forest Park mixed up.

When Chicago made law that streets keep same name for grid in 1920's, some burbs followed suit, and 64th and 72nd avenues in other areas got Ridgeland and Harlem names. Same with 48th becoming Cicero av. BTW, Harlem is longest continuous named street in Chicago area. [Using map measures]. I grew up near it, and call IL 43/Waukegan Rd near my office, "Harlem".