Streets named for a town they point in the direction of

[hobsini2]

Chicagoland

IL-21, aka Milwaukee Av, from central Chicago to Gurnee IL, part of old trail to MKE.

IL-131 Green Bay Rd, used to connect to Clark St in Chicago, another old trail to WI.

IL-19, used to be called 'Chicago-Elgin Rd', now starts as Chicago St. in Elgin and Irving Park Rd, through burbs into city.

IL-58, Golf Rd, used to be known as 'Evanston-Elgin Rd'.

Old US-66, Joliet Rd before bypasses.

Don't forget Vincennes Rd, Michigan City Rd, Lemont Rd and Plainfield Rd.

[jmacswimmer]

U.S. 1 north of Washington is Rhode Island Avenue (an extension of its D.C. name), then Baltimore Avenue north to the north edge of Laurel, then Washington Boulevard most of the way to Baltimore.  Then Southwestern Boulevard then Wilkens Avenue.  Headed north from Baltimore, U.S, 1 is Belair Road starting in the city and keeps that name most of the way to Bel Air.  Approaching Bel Air, Belair Road turns off onto Business U.S. 1 as it gets close to Bel Air suddenly becomes Baltimore Pike.

For added fun, U.S. 1 becomes Conowingo Road (probably in honor of the town that disappeared beneath the waves of the reservoir created when Conowingo Dam was built across the Susquehanna River) north of Bel Air.

For even more added fun: once across the border into PA, the old alignment of US 1 is also known as Baltimore Pike (and US 1 later returns to Baltimore Pike beyond the northeast end of the Kennett Oxford Bypass).

[roadman65]

Albany, GA has Old Dawson Road that doesn't reach Dawson but head towards it as it at one time was US 82 that does head there.

Alabama has a bunch of roads named out of cities that never reach their named cities, but head there. Montgomery Highway in Birmingham comes to mind.

[paulthemapguy]

This happens way too commonly to try and make an exhaustive list.  For starters, search for any instances of "Chicago St/Ave/Rd" in the Chicago suburbs.  You can probably search for any instance of [big city] Street in the suburbs of that city.

[US20IL64]

Chicagoland

IL-21, aka Milwaukee Av, from central Chicago to Gurnee IL, part of old trail to MKE.

IL-131 Green Bay Rd, used to connect to Clark St in Chicago, another old trail to WI.

IL-19, used to be called 'Chicago-Elgin Rd', now starts as Chicago St. in Elgin and Irving Park Rd, through burbs into city.

IL-58, Golf Rd, used to be known as 'Evanston-Elgin Rd'.

Old US-66, Joliet Rd before bypasses.

Don't forget Vincennes Rd, Michigan City Rd, Lemont Rd and Plainfield Rd.

And while there is Naperville Rd in Wheaton IL heading there. In Elgin, near Villa Olivia, is another "Naperville Rd", far from that 'ville'.

[hbelkins]

I forgot one not too far from where I live. Prestonsburg Street in West Liberty, Ky. US 460 does go to Prestonsburg, but it goes through Salyersville and Paintsville first.

[DenverBrian]

US 36 in metro Denver is known as the Boulder Turnpike. (It WAS a turnpike back in the day, but wonder of wonders, it was actually paid off.)

[US20IL64]

SW Chicago suburb, Midlothian, has a 'free' Turnpike named for the town,

[plain]

SW Chicago suburb, Midlothian, has a 'free' Turnpike named for the town,

As does VA, though I didn't count it in my post earlier because the VA one isn't a town.

[RoadRebel]

My favorite example of this in my region are the various roads named for Camden, South Carolina, some of which are very old routes (Great Wagon Road) that pass by Revolutionary War historic sites. For example: If you drive south on South Tryon Street from Trade Street in Charlotte, you reach a fork in the road. Tryon goes right, Camden Road goes left. It is named that because it really did go all the way to Camden, but has long since been chopped up, rerouted, and renamed in many places.

[Route66Fan]

Carrollton, MO has a Chillicothe Rd, which goes North\South. Chillicothe, MO is about 30mi North\Northwest of Carrollton, MO. According to some old Carroll County, MO plat maps, from 1914, this road once went North out of Carrollton, MO & was mostly replaced by US 65, which also goes to Chillicothe, MO.

SM-S102DL

[sandwalk]

US 36 in metro Denver is known as the Boulder Turnpike. (It WAS a turnpike back in the day, but wonder of wonders, it was actually paid off.)

....but now contains a mix of free and toll lanes!

On another note, Santa Fe Drive in Denver may work for this thread. It's US-85, but the road in Denver and its southern suburbs does not actually make it to Santa Fe....some 400 miles away. Could this be the furthest city distance example?

[DenverBrian]

US 36 in metro Denver is known as the Boulder Turnpike. (It WAS a turnpike back in the day, but wonder of wonders, it was actually paid off.)

....but now contains a mix of free and toll lanes!

On another note, Santa Fe Drive in Denver may work for this thread. It's US-85, but the road in Denver and its southern suburbs does not actually make it to Santa Fe....some 400 miles away. Could this be the furthest city distance example?

I'm thinking that road was named for the Santa Fe Railroad, not the town in NM. But I could be wrong.

[dvferyance]

For example, Milwaukee Street in Madison: https://www.google.com/maps/@43.1002123,-89.2842053,2065m/data=!3m1!1e3

It points in the direction of Milwaukee as it goes eastward out of the city.

How common is this naming scheme?

Likewise Waukesha has Madison Street which goes west out of the city in the direction of Madison. Milwaukee has Green Bay Road which goes north towards Green Bay and Fond Du Lac Ave with goes northwest towards Fond Du Lac. Also Beloit Road which goes southwest in the direction of Beloit. Cleveland has a Lorain Ave which goes west towards Lorain.

[ilpt4u]

This is pretty common in Southern IL, as well

And typically, the road is named *town* Rd, but is referred to commonly as *town* Blacktop

Ava Rd, Herrin Rd, Johnston City Rd, Pyatt-Cutler Rd, Cambria Rd, Corinth Rd, Pittsburg Rd, Stonefort Rd, Elkville Rd, Royalton Rd, Cypress/Dongola Rd...to name a few. At least some of those have the suffix changed to "Blacktop"  in common speech

[zzcarp]

On another note, Santa Fe Drive in Denver may work for this thread. It's US-85, but the road in Denver and its southern suburbs does not actually make it to Santa Fe....some 400 miles away. Could this be the furthest city distance example?

I'm thinking that road was named for the Santa Fe Railroad, not the town in NM. But I could be wrong.

I recall Santa Fe Drive being in reference to the trail. Either way, it points to the city. There's also a Santa Fe Avenue in Fountain, Colorado that also fits the category. Just to the north of there is Las Vegas Street in Colorado Springs/El Paso County that points south towards Las Vegas, New Mexico.

Another Denver example is Brighton Boulevard. It begins in Denver and dead ends along the west side of US 6-85/Vasquez just south of I-76. This is not to be confused with Brighton Road which picks up on the east side of US 6-85/Vasquez and does head north to Brighton.

Finally, a point of personal privilege from my hometown of Wakeman, Ohio. There is a road named Florence-Wakeman Road. Its north end is in Florence at OH 113, but it ends about 1.5 miles north of the village limits.

[bing101]

Folsom Blvd in Sacramento because it was the previous alignment for US-50 before it moved to the El Dorado freeway and it heads to the Folsom city limits.


Napa-Vallejo Highway in American Canyon and Napa areas are where the route would lead to CA-29 to Vallejo.




Benicia Rd in Vallejo, CA leads into the Benicia city limits and is parallel to I-780.

[michravera]

I wonder if the OP had a slightly different idea in mind for this thread. His example merely points towards Milwaukee, and it doesn't come anywhere close to reaching it. Most (if not all) of the other examples don't really fit that description. Perhaps this thread would be more interesting if we only regarded examples that don't reach the place they are named after.

An example of this would be Beaumont Highway on the east side of Houston. It points towards Beaumont, but doesn't reach it.

Just in Sacramento, we have:
Franklin Blvd
Folsom Blvd
Auburn Blvd
Florin Rd
Fruitridge Rd
Jackson Rd
Sutterville Rd
Old Placerville Rd

... and that's not to include the roads that are named for their endpoints like:
Elk Grove-Florin Rd
Thornton-Franklin Rd
Hood-Franklin Rd
Florin-Perkins Rd

[bing101]

Ventura Blvd in Los Angeles because the street used to be part of US-101 before the route moved to the Freeway.
Santa Monica Blvd in Los Angeles  goes in the direction of Santa Monica.Beverly Blvd  from Los Angeles to Beverly Hills.
San Fernando rd is parallel to I-5 and was  part of US-99 at one point before the Golden State Freeway was completed.


San Pablo Ave  is CA-123 on the west side of Contra Costa and Alameda Counties is the former alignment of US-40 before the Eastshore Freeway was co signed with I-80 and I-5w in the Bay Area.

[SeriesE]

Long Beach, CA: Anaheim Street
Costa Mesa, CA: Santa Ana Avenue, Tustin Avenue, Orange Avenue
Los Angeles: Compton Avenue, San Pedro Street

[andrepoiy]

This is quite common in Southern Ontario.

Kingston Road

Aurora Road

just two out of the many

[Hobart]

I know exactly one example in Milwaukee that for sure goes to where it points to.

Fond Du Lac Avenue branches off of I-41 when I-41 curves to run straight south Northwest of Milwaukee, maybe by Germantown?

Pretty much, if you extend Fond Du Lac Avenue to the northwest, it actually hits Fond Du Lac.

[DenverBrian]

On another note, Santa Fe Drive in Denver may work for this thread. It's US-85, but the road in Denver and its southern suburbs does not actually make it to Santa Fe....some 400 miles away. Could this be the furthest city distance example?

I'm thinking that road was named for the Santa Fe Railroad, not the town in NM. But I could be wrong.

I recall Santa Fe Drive being in reference to the trail.

Looks like it's named for A Santa Fe Trail, but not THE Santa Fe Trail. From Wikipedia:

Santa Fe Drive follows the path of an old trail from Denver to Santa Fe, New Mexico. This was called the Santa Fe Trail, although it is not part of the more well-known Santa Fe Trail leading to Missouri. From CO 470 to the I-25 interchange, Santa Fe also carries U.S. Route 85.