What are your cities zero points?

[Bickendan]

Portland: Burnside St over the Willamette River

[epzik8]

My street's block number (it's a short cul-de-sac with only nine houses on it) is based on the distance from the center of Bel Air, Maryland, a Baltimore suburb and the seat of Harford County. Bel Air's zero points are the intersections of the northbound-only Main Street and Pennsylvania Avenue and the southbound-only Bond Street and Pennsylvania. Address numbers start counting up on Main north of Pennsylvania and Bond south of Pennsylvania. Main and Bond streets carry U.S. Route 1 Business and Maryland Route 924 through downtown Bel Air.

[Rothman]

My street's block number (it's a short cul-de-sac with only nine houses on it) is based on the distance from the center of Bel Air, Maryland, a Baltimore suburb and the seat of Harford County. Bel Air's zero points are the intersections of the northbound-only Main Street and Pennsylvania Avenue and the southbound-only Bond Street and Pennsylvania. Address numbers start counting up on Main north of Pennsylvania and Bond south of Pennsylvania. Main and Bond streets carry U.S. Route 1 Business and Maryland Route 924 through downtown Bel Air.

Ah, you've reminded me of Utah.  Salt Lake City's zero point is Main Street and South Temple (not at Eagle Gate, I do not believe).  However, its grid extends very far south into other incorporated communities, (e.g., Draper, where you have 14000 "140th" South; looks like it goes out to 150th South on the other side of I-15), but not as far north (2300 "23rd" North?).  I believe Salt Lake City's zero point is the zero point for many of its suburbs in the Salt Lake Valley on the grid (at least it works out where my relatives live, including the stubbornly independent White City).

[silverback1065]

My street's block number (it's a short cul-de-sac with only nine houses on it) is based on the distance from the center of Bel Air, Maryland, a Baltimore suburb and the seat of Harford County. Bel Air's zero points are the intersections of the northbound-only Main Street and Pennsylvania Avenue and the southbound-only Bond Street and Pennsylvania. Address numbers start counting up on Main north of Pennsylvania and Bond south of Pennsylvania. Main and Bond streets carry U.S. Route 1 Business and Maryland Route 924 through downtown Bel Air.

Ah, you've reminded me of Utah.  Salt Lake City's zero point is Main Street and South Temple (not at Eagle Gate, I do not believe).  However, its grid extends very far south into other incorporated communities, (e.g., Draper, where you have 14000 "140th" South; looks like it goes out to 150th South on the other side of I-15), but not as far north (2300 "23rd" North?).  I believe Salt Lake City's zero point is the zero point for many of its suburbs in the Salt Lake Valley on the grid (at least it works out where my relatives live, including the stubbornly independent White City).

Wow i thought state st was the e/w divider

[noelbotevera]

For my town, it's Main Street at the Lincoln Highway. Yup.

[WillWeaverRVA]

Richmond, Va oddly enough has TWO zero points and I run into non-locals all the time who gets confused about this:

North of the James River it's at the intersection of Main and Foushee, which even though is downtown, it's actually more towards the western part of downtown.

South of the James River it's a lot more confusing... there is no N-S dividing line, only E-W. The zero point is Hull Street at the James River itself, and Hull (travelling, of all directions, westbound from here) creates the line of E-W until the junction will Midlothian Tpk, which takes over the dividing duties. The block numbers on these streets and the few that actually parallel them increases as one drives further away from the James. The most confusing part of all is the fact that both roads run East-West themselves, even though the cross streets are divided as East and West... in other words, if one was on Southside's 30th street, E. 30th would be actually south of Midlothian while W. 30th is north of Midlothian.

Adding to the madness is the fact that the city has two completely unrelated sets of numbered streets.. north of the James they are labeled N-S while south of the James they are labeled E-W.

Confused yet? 

The street grid used in Richmond south of the river is actually the old Manchester street grid, whose zero point is indeed Hull Street at the south end of the Mayo Bridge. What gives away the zero point's location is that there are businesses on Mayo Island, but they have South 14th Street addresses and are therefore on North Richmond's grid.

[roadman65]

Rahway and Linden in NJ both use the former PRR (now the Amtrak NE Corridor) for the E-W in the former and N-S in the latter.  However, Linden has Wood Avenue as the E-W changing point.

So interesting that both cities are neighbors yet where Rahway streets that use E-W are parallel with Linden's N-S.

Then what always fascinated me was Hillside, NJ used North Broad Street and never had a South Broad Street. They used neighboring Elizabeth that has a North, a South, an East, and plain Broad Street as North Broad in Elizabeth ends at Hillside's border, so they just used it for continuity purposes.

Also Fanwood, NJ uses the NJ Transit Raritan Valley Line to divide North Martine from South Martine Avenues that is the only road there that uses a N-S identifier.

[Rothman]

My street's block number (it's a short cul-de-sac with only nine houses on it) is based on the distance from the center of Bel Air, Maryland, a Baltimore suburb and the seat of Harford County. Bel Air's zero points are the intersections of the northbound-only Main Street and Pennsylvania Avenue and the southbound-only Bond Street and Pennsylvania. Address numbers start counting up on Main north of Pennsylvania and Bond south of Pennsylvania. Main and Bond streets carry U.S. Route 1 Business and Maryland Route 924 through downtown Bel Air.

Ah, you've reminded me of Utah.  Salt Lake City's zero point is Main Street and South Temple (not at Eagle Gate, I do not believe).  However, its grid extends very far south into other incorporated communities, (e.g., Draper, where you have 14000 "140th" South; looks like it goes out to 150th South on the other side of I-15), but not as far north (2300 "23rd" North?).  I believe Salt Lake City's zero point is the zero point for many of its suburbs in the Salt Lake Valley on the grid (at least it works out where my relatives live, including the stubbornly independent White City).

Wow i thought state st was the e/w divider

Just rechecked and it is indeed Main St.

[jlwm]

Houston has no set zero point for the whole city. The closest thing for N/S streets in and near downtown would be Buffalo Bayou. That's where Main St. turns into N. Main; at the top of the bridge over the confluence of Buffalo Bayou and White Oak Bayou where the University of Houston-Downtown is. Further west outside 610, Westheimer Rd. is used as the zero point for many N/S streets. In the East End, streets like Rusk, Commerce, and Harrisburg as used as the zero point for those N/S streets. Around the Downtown/Midtown area, the E/W streets have varying zero points; typically located where the street grid alignment changes. North of Downtown, Yale St. is the clearest zero point, as you can see the streets switch from E. xxxx to W. xxxx as they cross Yale. South of Downtown, E/W streets typically use Main St. as the dividing point from Alabama St. down through the Texas Medical Center to Holcombe/W. Holcombe. Further south, Almeda Rd. and even 288 are zero points from some E/W streets like Bellfort and Anderson Rd.

[frankenroad]

Dayton, Ohio's is Main St. & 3rd St.  Looks like Vine St. is the east/west divider for Cincinnati, but no N/S divider.  Everything goes upward starting at the river.

Correct about Cincinnati.  What makes it weird is that, of course, the river is not straight, so some north-south streets have odd  things happen to them to make the "grid" work.   For example in Hyde Park, streets like Paxton and Grace jump from the 1300 block to the 3400 hundred block when they cross Observatory.   In Finneytown, Daly Rd jumps from the 6700 block to the 7900 block, just south of Galbraith Rd.

[Buffaboy]

Because certain streets in Buffalo have been cut off by poorly planned buildings (Genesee, Niagara, etc.), I don't know what the "zero point" is. I assume it is where an imaginary Niagara St extension meets Main St and Erie St, or Niagara Square.

[DandyDan]

Mason City IA is easy, State St. for N/S and Federal Ave. for E/W.  I believe at one point in the distant past, the intersection of State and Federal was where US 18 and US 65 met.

Omaha's is where Dodge St. meets the Missouri River, which allows for streets that end in East up by the airport.

One interesting zero point I have read about is the one for both Dakota and Washington County in Minnesota.  It's the state capitol, which is in St. Paul, which is in Ramsey County.

[KEVIN_224]

I thought City Hall was the dividing point for Philadelphia? It seems to be in Center City, especially with Broad Street/PA Route 611 running N/S and then Market Street/PA Route 3 (west of City Hall) running E/W?

[jeffandnicole]

I thought City Hall was the dividing point for Philadelphia? It seems to be in Center City, especially with Broad Street/PA Route 611 running N/S and then Market Street/PA Route 3 (west of City Hall) running E/W?

City Hall is basically the center of Center City (or City Center, as Google Maps like to say and thus causes a lot of visitors to think Philly has an area called City Center, which wouldn't make sense to locals).  And addresses North and South of Market do have North 293 5th Street, South 290 Broad Street, etc., as the base street is Market Street.

However, going East and West, there is no East 756 Samson Street, or West 2794 Shunk Street.  It would simply be 756 Samson or 2794 Shunk, as the base street is Front Street near the Delaware River.

There is a small district in the city called East Market east of City Hall, but think of it as a marketing term and nothing more.  It's not the address for Market Street.

[Darkchylde]

For Kansas City, MO (at least, the Jackson County portion), the zero point appears to be where Main Street would intersect the Missouri River - if it made it that far. Main's definitely the divider for east and west, where it runs. (Like a lot of KC's street grid, it's discontinuous in places.)

South of I-435/US 50, Wornall Road takes over as the east-west divider for pretty much the remainder of what's within city limits.

[silverback1065]

For Kansas City, MO (at least, the Jackson County portion), the zero point appears to be where Main Street would intersect the Missouri River - if it made it that far. Main's definitely the divider for east and west, where it runs. (Like a lot of KC's street grid, it's discontinuous in places.)

South of I-435/US 50, Wornall Road takes over as the east-west divider for pretty much the remainder of what's within city limits.

that's a weird one, it's not even downtown

[michravera]

What are your cities zero points? does anyone live in a city with bizarre ones?  I used to live in indianapolis, and their's are straight forward, rockville and washington street for N/S and meridian for E/W.  I live in carmel now and main st is the N/S and rangeline is E/W for it's downtown area, but outside of the 31 keystone wishbone (and south of 116th st), it changes to the indy system.  What's interesting is that there's so such thing as south in hamilton county because of this. does anyone live in a city with weird zero points?

San Jose: Santa Clara and San Pedro
Campbell: 1st and Campbell
Milpitas: Milpitas and Main
Fremont: In downtown OAKLAND (Embarcadero, I think)! The North-South adresses are basically the number of meters from that point.

[lepidopteran]

Toledo, OH has an unusual grid setup.

Downtown Toledo is on a diagonal grid.  The southeast zero is the Maumee River.  The southwest zero is Washington St. (first in a series named for presidents, followed by Monroe, Jefferson, Madison, Adams, and Jackson -- in that order.)  There are also streets numbered from the river, but only from 10th St. to 23rd St.  The only other numbered streets in town are in Point Place, a peninsula on the Maumee Bay (Lake Erie); they start at 101 going northward and 282 going eastward, and have no rhyme or reason with regard to addresses.

The rest of Toledo uses a regular gridiron, mostly.  The north-south zero is Hill Ave., a road interrupted by a large railroad yard while the numbering remains consistent.   But the east-west zero is Franklin Ave., which is not only discontinuous, but part of it is a blink-and-you'll-miss-it residential street.  Most Toledoans have probably never heard of that road.

Note that Monroe St. (SR-51, formerly US-223) maintains its downtown angle while running straight as an arrow through the rest of the city.  It also retains its address scheme the whole way.  Many older (and not-so-older) maps depict the intersection of Monroe and Detroit Ave. (US-24) as being a sort of main crossroads in town, but it's neither downtown nor any kind of "zero" address.

Additionally, there's East Toledo on the east side of the Maumee River.  Despite there being an actual Main St. there, the zero for both directions appears to be the river, since it runs at an angle.

Confused yet?

[kphoger]

For Kansas City, MO (at least, the Jackson County portion), the zero point appears to be where Main Street would intersect the Missouri River - if it made it that far. Main's definitely the divider for east and west, where it runs. (Like a lot of KC's street grid, it's discontinuous in places.)

South of I-435/US 50, Wornall Road takes over as the east-west divider for pretty much the remainder of what's within city limits.

that's a weird one, it's not even downtown

I like to think of KCMO as having two downtowns–the modern one and the historic one  Modern downtown KCMO was not within the boundaries of the city when it was first founded.  Below is a map showing the boundaries of KCMO in 1850, the year of its incorporation.  The green star represents the location Darkchylde identified as the zero point for KCMO addresses.  I can't think of a more reasonable location for the zero point to be in a newly founded river city than where Main Street hits the river, right in the heart of town.

A mile or so south of that is where your mind takes you when you think of "downtown KCMO"–and is represented on the map by the cluster of tall buildings.  But that was not part of the city till the railroad arrived a couple of decades later and the city enjoyed its subsequent cow town boom.

[TEG24601]

Portland: Burnside St over the Willamette River

Not to mention the negative addresses on both the east and west side, and the 5th Quadrant.




My city has no 0 point, it has a 100 point.   The Intersection of First St., Second St., and Cascade Ave..

[Darkchylde]

For Kansas City, MO (at least, the Jackson County portion), the zero point appears to be where Main Street would intersect the Missouri River - if it made it that far. Main's definitely the divider for east and west, where it runs. (Like a lot of KC's street grid, it's discontinuous in places.)

South of I-435/US 50, Wornall Road takes over as the east-west divider for pretty much the remainder of what's within city limits.

that's a weird one, it's not even downtown

I like to think of KCMO as having two downtowns–the modern one and the historic one  Modern downtown KCMO was not within the boundaries of the city when it was first founded.  Below is a map showing the boundaries of KCMO in 1850, the year of its incorporation.  The green star represents the location Darkchylde identified as the zero point for KCMO addresses.  I can't think of a more reasonable location for the zero point to be in a newly founded river city than where Main Street hits the river, right in the heart of town.

A mile or so south of that is where your mind takes you when you think of "downtown KCMO"–and is represented on the map by the cluster of tall buildings.  But that was not part of the city till the railroad arrived a couple of decades later and the city enjoyed its subsequent cow town boom.

(image snipped)

There's also the fact that Kansas City itself covers parts of four different counties. North of the river, from what I can extrapolate from Google Maps, the street grid is the reverse of the Jackson County portion, using the river as the zero point for N/S again but counting upward as you go north instead of south, again using Main as a E/W (or in this case, NE/NW) divider for the most part where it either runs or would run. In that sense, it still makes sense to be using the river as the zero point even though it's not in downtown.

[Buck87]

Looks like Cleveland's is Public Square/Ontario St in the immediate downtown area, and then goes by whether it's east or west of the Cuyahoga River starting a little bit south of downtown.

There is one spot where an extension of E. 9th Street comes within a block of the southern portion of W. 3rd Street down in the low lying area under the I-90 bridge.

[Bickendan]

Portland: Burnside St over the Willamette River

Not to mention the negative addresses on both the east and west side, and the 5th Quadrant.




My city has no 0 point, it has a 100 point.   The Intersection of First St., Second St., and Cascade Ave..

Not very many negative addresses on the East side; they're very much a feature of the West side though :lol:
North Portland shares its zero with the Burnside and river point. The grid warping and bending in St Johns is pretty cool, and a similar instance happens as the grid warps in NW making Yeon Ave/St Helens Rd a pivot axis.

[Chris19001]

I thought City Hall was the dividing point for Philadelphia? It seems to be in Center City, especially with Broad Street/PA Route 611 running N/S and then Market Street/PA Route 3 (west of City Hall) running E/W?

City Hall is basically the center of Center City (or City Center, as Google Maps like to say and thus causes a lot of visitors to think Philly has an area called City Center, which wouldn't make sense to locals).  And addresses North and South of Market do have North 293 5th Street, South 290 Broad Street, etc., as the base street is Market Street.

However, going East and West, there is no East 756 Samson Street, or West 2794 Shunk Street.  It would simply be 756 Samson or 2794 Shunk, as the base street is Front Street near the Delaware River.

There is a small district in the city called East Market east of City Hall, but think of it as a marketing term and nothing more.  It's not the address for Market Street.

Correct on all counts.  Front Street's E/W axis really only comes into effect once you get north of Center City.  Follow Front Street to Lehigh Ave and you will notice the West and East designations appear on all blocks to the Montgomery County border.  The neighborhood names are another story though.  West and East Oak Lane in terms of where you are in relation to of Oak Lane.  "Northeast" Philly generally follows Tacony Creek as a western border, but it is relatively close to Front St.  Market East is just a urban renewal term for a section of formerly depressed buildings east of City Hall that was redeveloped with a new tagline. 
By all means, City Hall is the heart of Center City and is a great central location for orientation, but it isn't what the address structure is based off (unlike something like Temple Square in SLC).

[jeffandnicole]

I thought City Hall was the dividing point for Philadelphia? It seems to be in Center City, especially with Broad Street/PA Route 611 running N/S and then Market Street/PA Route 3 (west of City Hall) running E/W?

City Hall is basically the center of Center City (or City Center, as Google Maps like to say and thus causes a lot of visitors to think Philly has an area called City Center, which wouldn't make sense to locals).  And addresses North and South of Market do have North 293 5th Street, South 290 Broad Street, etc., as the base street is Market Street.

However, going East and West, there is no East 756 Samson Street, or West 2794 Shunk Street.  It would simply be 756 Samson or 2794 Shunk, as the base street is Front Street near the Delaware River.

There is a small district in the city called East Market east of City Hall, but think of it as a marketing term and nothing more.  It's not the address for Market Street.

Correct on all counts.  Front Street's E/W axis really only comes into effect once you get north of Center City.  Follow Front Street to Lehigh Ave and you will notice the West and East designations appear on all blocks to the Montgomery County border.  The neighborhood names are another story though.  West and East Oak Lane in terms of where you are in relation to of Oak Lane.  "Northeast" Philly generally follows Tacony Creek as a western border, but it is relatively close to Front St.  Market East is just a urban renewal term for a section of formerly depressed buildings east of City Hall that was redeveloped with a new tagline. 
By all means, City Hall is the heart of Center City and is a great central location for orientation, but it isn't what the address structure is based off (unlike something like Temple Square in SLC).

I guess I should point out also, if Broad Street was a numbered street, it would simply be 14th Street.