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

[Big John]

I grew up on Careful Drive - named after the farmer who sold the land.

[Alps]

street names are intended to facilitate navigation first, and foremost.

With all due respect, says who?

Actually, in most places, street names seem to be intended for 911 response.

[WichitaRoads]

Wichita has a Hydraulic Ave. - semi-majorish arterial. Used to be the hydraulic mill that has been gone 120 years.

Isn't it also parallel to a large storm drain that runs through the middle of the city?

Yes and no... it runs roughly parallel to Chisholm Creek, which is now channelized into the Canal. However, the road is anywhere from 4 to 6 blocks from it most of the time. It wasn't named for the creek or canal. The old mill, however, was fed long ago by the creek, whose very old bed may have run close to the street near 1st or 2nd.

ICTRds

[gonealookin]

Minden, NV has a fairly major residential street called "County Road".  It's not "County Road 1A" or "County Road 666" or anything like that, just "County Road".

A few miles west you can find the ever-popular "Goa Way".

[J N Winkler]

Yes and no... it runs roughly parallel to Chisholm Creek, which is now channelized into the Canal. However, the road is anywhere from 4 to 6 blocks from it most of the time. It wasn't named for the creek or canal. The old mill, however, was fed long ago by the creek, whose very old bed may have run close to the street near 1st or 2nd.

Where'd you find out about the old mill?

I've found it hard to guess why some arterials in Wichita have the names they do.  Ridge and Hillside may have to do with their being the approximate boundaries (west and east respectively) of the Arkansas River floodplain, McLean Boulevard is named after a banker, Maize Road goes to Maize, and Tyler Road goes to the unincorporated community of Tyler (since swallowed up by Wichita).  I think Amidon was another banker, and Womer boils down to a choice between two brothers, one of whom built houses on the west side while the other worked as an architect primarily on the east side.  But I don't know how Harry, Maple, Lewis, Oliver, West (which is not very west these days), Grove, Woodlawn, Edgemoor, Rock, Webb, Greenwich, and Springdale came by their names.

Before the zoo was relocated from Riverside to its present location near the Big Ditch, the boulevard leading to it, now Zoo, was known as Bickel.  I do not know who or what Bickel was.  Kellogg Avenue originally existed only east of the Arkansas River (and, per 1930's 7.5' topographic maps, was not the original routing of US 54, which entered Wichita on Central); the western part of what is now Kellogg was built much later and was originally called Brockway Boulevard.  I have no idea who or what Brockway was.

[Scott5114]

I assume Kellogg was not named for the guy who thought corn flakes were an anaphrodisiac?

[J N Winkler]

I assume Kellogg was not named for the guy who thought corn flakes were an anaphrodisiac?

Nope.  It is also not connected to the Kellogg-Briand Pact.  (BTW, cornflakes Kellogg was actually the brother of the Kellogg who advocated circumcision for hygienic reasons and as a way of discouraging boys from masturbating.)  As far as I know, Wichita's Kellogg Avenue has nothing to do with the road of the same name in Cincinnati, which carries the US 52 designation and is a two-lane minor arterial for much of its length.

Wichita's Kellogg Avenue is named after Milo Bailey Kellogg, a Civil War veteran and the city's first civilian postmaster:



He didn't stay around long--when Wichita's city historian (working out of the public library) set about collecting records relating to him in the early 1970's, it was discovered he had moved quickly on to Fresno and then to Seattle.  The materials found included his application for a war disability pension, on the basis of heatstroke sustained while a prisoner at Andersonville.  I don't know whether it was granted, but he did finish his final year at the Washington State Soldiers' Home in Orting.

[froggie]

any place where Foo Drive yields branches of Foo Circle, Foo Court, Foo Terrace, etc.  there are so many available names.

similarly is where they get all cute and have Foo Mountain Road, Foo Creek Road, Foo Valley Road, Foo Meadow Road all within several blocks of each other.

In other words, like Atlanta's fetish with Peachtree...

[empirestate]

street names are intended to facilitate navigation first, and foremost.

With all due respect, says who?

Actually, in most places, street names seem to be intended for 911 response.

Modern rural ones, yes, which probably cover most of the U.S. by area. But most places (towns, cities etc.) predate the 911 system, so I'm inclined to look for a different rationale behind their street naming.

To put it another way, Boston.

[Scott5114]

Why would you need to name a street except to help find something on it? (Other than masturbatory politician memorial naming practice, but such names are never actually used for anything.)

[1995hoo]

Why would you need to name a street except to help find something on it? (Other than masturbatory politician memorial naming practice, but such names are never actually used for anything.)

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."

[Henry]

Perhaps it would be a perfect time to change Saturn Parkway in Spring Hill, TN, since its namesake GM brand doesn't even exist anymore.

[1995hoo]

Perhaps it would be a perfect time to change Saturn Parkway in Spring Hill, TN, since its namesake GM brand doesn't even exist anymore.

See my prior comment above about the Friendly Village of Dulles!

[agentsteel53]

Wichita has a Hydraulic Ave.

Wichita has roads called "Such-and-Such Trafficway".  that sounds awful.  were "Congestionland", "Accident Alley", and "Utter Shit" taken?

[J N Winkler]

Wichita has roads called "Such-and-Such Trafficway".  that sounds awful.  were "Congestionland", "Accident Alley", and "Utter Shit" taken?

Wichita isn't Trafficway territory--that is northeast Kansas and western Missouri.  As I believe NE2 mentioned in another thread, the trafficway term goes back to the 1910's, long before there would have been any problems with motor vehicle congestion.

[WichitaRoads]

Yes and no... it runs roughly parallel to Chisholm Creek, which is now channelized into the Canal. However, the road is anywhere from 4 to 6 blocks from it most of the time. It wasn't named for the creek or canal. The old mill, however, was fed long ago by the creek, whose very old bed may have run close to the street near 1st or 2nd.

Where'd you find out about the old mill?

I've found it hard to guess why some arterials in Wichita have the names they do.  Ridge and Hillside may have to do with their being the approximate boundaries (west and east respectively) of the Arkansas River floodplain, McLean Boulevard is named after a banker, Maize Road goes to Maize, and Tyler Road goes to the unincorporated community of Tyler (since swallowed up by Wichita).  I think Amidon was another banker, and Womer boils down to a choice between two brothers, one of whom built houses on the west side while the other worked as an architect primarily on the east side.  But I don't know how Harry, Maple, Lewis, Oliver, West (which is not very west these days), Grove, Woodlawn, Edgemoor, Rock, Webb, Greenwich, and Springdale came by their names.

Before the zoo was relocated from Riverside to its present location near the Big Ditch, the boulevard leading to it, now Zoo, was known as Bickel.  I do not know who or what Bickel was.  Kellogg Avenue originally existed only east of the Arkansas River (and, per 1930's 7.5' topographic maps, was not the original routing of US 54, which entered Wichita on Central); the western part of what is now Kellogg was built much later and was originally called Brockway Boulevard.  I have no idea who or what Brockway was.

A mixture of colloquial knowledge and books by the late Dr. Craig Miner. Also, here is a link about it: http://www.historicpreservationalliance.com/WichitaHPA/Hydraulic_Mills.html

Also, at the Wichita Library, Downtown Branch, there is a book (can't remember the name) that lists all of Wichita's streets, and where the name came from exactly. It's in Geneology, in the basement. I'm here today for work, but can't really get down there to research. From what I know:

Amidon: Col. Samuel Amidon, a lawyer and Democratic party WAG (close friend of Woody Wilson)
Harry - named after an early stage driver Harry Hill (can be found in Tihen Notes)
Maple - the tree
Lewis - named after Col. Hiram W. Lewis, a prominent early citizen.
Oliver - surname of a pioneer family of Wichita; specifically Mark Oliver, who had options on the land that the road now edges.
West - served as western city limit for decades.
Grove - needs verification, but could be named after the grove of trees that stood along the old Chisholm Creek, near East High, where Grove was close to it.
Woodlawn - Named for Woodlawn Heights, a planned community in 1923 that eventually was absorbed to become was is now known as Eastborough.
Edgemoor - Unsure, but served as eastern citiy limit for decades in the 1900s... "Edge" could be indicator there.
Rock - named for town of Rock, KS, located on US 77 between Douglass and Winfield, north of K-15 junction. Sections of the road were once part of an old alignment of K-15.
Webb - Needs research, but a Webb Street existed for a short distance under present-day Century II, verified by 1954 city map. It ran along a short section of track, and was named after Col. A.H. Webb, the MoPac Superintendent. Name may have been transferred, but the road was known by the name as early as 1948, while Webb Street didn't cease until 1968.
Greenwich - Named for unincorporated village of Greenwich Heights, swallowed up by Wichita.
Springdale - Named for unincorporated village of Springdale, now just housing developments (not usally used; just 143rd St East now).

Bickel became Zoo on March 9, 1972. I didn't know about Bickel until a year or so ago when I read the thread on Wichita expressways. Can't find a name source currently. Needs more research. As for Brockway, it was named after P.L. Brockway, a city engineer, named on Feb 21, 1949, from the old Wichita and Western right of way. The same day, K-15 was named Southeast Blvd., and K-42 was named Southwest Blvd. The name was dropped on Dec. 30, 1952, in favor of West Kellogg to avoid confusion for drivers using the new US 54 alignment under construction.

I need to do more research when I can. The Tihen Notes are a wonderful trove of Wichita history info, fully searchable. Dr. Tihen read and summarized every daily paper (Eagle, Beacon, and Eagle-Beacon) between the first papers in the 1870s and his death in 1991. Obviously, he read backward, having been born in the 1920s. You can look here: http://specialcollections.wichita.edu/collections/local_history/tihen/index.asp

And a side note: Greenwood Street, until 1940, was known as Fannie Street. [CORRECTION] Fannie was related to Lulu, Laura, Pattie, and those other streets in the area. They were all female relatives of the landowner, A. A. Hyde. Kids started mocking the street name, and so out of 1940s-style sensibilites, they changed the name to a nearby county.

ICTRds

[Kacie Jane]

street names are intended to facilitate navigation first, and foremost.

With all due respect, says who?

Actually, in most places, street names seem to be intended for 911 response.

As 1995hoo points out, facilitating navigation and 911 response amount to the same thing.  Facilitating navigation for ambulance drivers.

[J N Winkler]

WichitaRoads--many thanks for this information; I will see if I can find the book on Wichita streets the next time I am at the downtown library.  I ran across the Tihen notes as part of an earlier attempt to research freeway openings in Wichita (not just Kellogg, but also I-235, I-135, and K-96), but haven't yet drilled through them.

And a side note: Greenwood Street, until 1940, was known as Fannie Street. Fannie was a sister of Lulu, Laura, Pattie, and those other streets in the area. They were all daughters of the landowner, Hiram Lewis. Kids started mocking the street name, and so out of 1940s-style sensibilites, they changed the name to a nearby county.

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

[kphoger]

But I don't know how ... Greenwich ... came by [its name].

I just always assumed it was due to the town of Greenwich.

Why would you need to name a street except to help find something on it?

The question implies that people throughout history have purposefully set out to name their streets.  Without doing research into the history of street names, I don't immediately believe that to be the case.  It is quite easy for me to imagine, for example, that many streets simply came by their names based on who lived on them, what businesses were located on them, what geographical landmarks were nearby, etc., etc.–and came by them organically rather than decidedly–which only afterwards turned out to be useful for navigation.

[empirestate]

Why would you need to name a street except to help find something on it?

Ah! I think I see now where our thinking diverges...you're thinking of "facilitating navigation" to destinations on the street, not necessarily the street itself. You're saying that you'd name a street to identify it as the correct one, so that one could then look for a destination along it. I was taking "facilitate navigation" to mean that the street's name would help you locate the street itself, which is a common practice in the U.S. but a relatively new one.

In other words, yes, if you know your destination is on Jones Street, then seeing a sign for "Jones Street" would tell you you're at the right place to start looking, but it won't tell you how to find Jones Street in the first place. You need further directions for that. But as for grid naming systems such as "2300 South Road" or "West 215th Street", absolutely those names facilitate navigation by helping you find the road even if you don't have directions to it.

In fact, in the old days often knowing destinations would help you find the street instead of vice versa: if your destination was on Mill Road, and you were already familiar with the mill, you'd know that your destination was on that same road as the mill. (You'd probably say something like "my farm is two miles down the mill road.")

[MDOTFanFB]

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

[cpzilliacus]

I think I shared this image before in a different context, but it seems relevant to this thread, from Caroline County, Maryland: 

[kphoger]

Why would you need to name a street except to help find something on it?

The question implies that people throughout history have purposefully set out to name their streets.  Without doing research into the history of street names, I don't immediately believe that to be the case.  It is quite easy for me to imagine, for example, that many streets simply came by their names based on who lived on them, what businesses were located on them, what geographical landmarks were nearby, etc., etc.–and came by them organically rather than decidedly–which only afterwards turned out to be useful for navigation.

To expand on my point, I grew up in a county that didn't name its rural roads until after 2000.  Back when I lived there, people would sometimes refer to roads by "name" even though they had no official names.  For example, you might give someone directions by telling them to take "the old highway" for three miles; ideally, it would have later gotten the name "Old Highway", but unfortunately it's now something like "Road M".  But my point is that people didn't go and decide to name it "the old highway" but, rather, it ended up with that name (or should have) simply by being the old highway.  Facilitating navigation just happened to be later-received benefit.

Similarly, there is no town of Rudaville in Rawlins County, Kansas.  Yet, if I tell someone from Rawlins County that so-and-so lives three miles east of Rudaville, they'll know exactly where I'm talking about.  It's three miles east of where the Ruda family has historically owned farmland.  It's easy to imagine that a road running through that area would end up being called "Rudaville Road", whether or not someone actually made a conscious decision to name it that for the sake of navigation.

[agentsteel53]

Ah! I think I see now where our thinking diverges...you're thinking of "facilitating navigation" to destinations on the street, not necessarily the street itself. You're saying that you'd name a street to identify it as the correct one, so that one could then look for a destination along it. I was taking "facilitate navigation" to mean that the street's name would help you locate the street itself, which is a common practice in the U.S. but a relatively new one.

that would certainly be nice.

but even if the street names were completely arbitrary, it helps to have them be not easily confused.  having "Pacific Hwy" be the frontage road for "Pacific Highway" is just utter madness.

[Quillz]

I live right off a "Valley Circle Boulevard." It runs in a (mostly) straight line and in no way attempts to circle the valley.