[Genealib] Street Names

[Susan Scouras]

For older single streets, town and county histories will probably be
most helpful.  For sections and subdivisions of towns that were laid out
all out once, sometimes looking at an overview of all of the names
reveals patterns.  In one town where I lived, in the "flats" section of
town, all the streets running one way were named after U.S. presidents,
and all of the cross streets were named after trees.  The town also
presents a "chicken or the egg" situation to anyone who is unfamiliar
with the town's history:  School Street School is located on School
Street.  There was a very early "academy" located on a rough roadway
that became known as School Street, probably after it was lengthened,
paved, and other homes and buildings grew along it.  Long after the
academy faded away, an elementary school was built there and named after
the street location.
 
In my hometown of Lexington, KY, horse and racing themes predominate.
Subdivisions may have streets named after horse farms, jockeys, racing
and horse paraphenalia or terminology (stirrup, saddle, bridle, horse
shoe, winner's circle, trifecta, etc.) and/or race horses.  When farm
owners succumb to the economic and development pressures to sell all or
part of their land, the subdivision (or shopping area combined with
offices and residences) will usually be named after the farm itself,
with the streets named after the famous horses bred, raced or at stud
from that farm.  For example, that explains why Hamburg Place, a huge
commercial and residential park built on the grounds formerly part of
Hamburg Place Farm, has a Pink Pigeon Parkway.  Pink Pigeon was a
broodmare on the farm, and is buried in the farm's horse cemetery with a
headstone.  
 
If a street name is not in sync with its current surroundings,
investigate what used to be in that area.  In downtown Charleston, West
Virginia, Capitol Street is blocks away from the current Capitol
building, but was the location of an earlier Capitol that burned and not
rebuilt in the same location.  Some towns have streets with names such
as "Water Street" or "Town Branch Road" where there is no sign of water
today, but where the streets used to run alongside creeks that have long
since dried up, been diverted, or are out of sight running through
underground culverts. For names such as this, try to find old maps and
photos that will show the stream.  Same holds true for "Lake" names.
Small artificial or natural recreational lakes used to be quite common
in some areas before the advent of swimming pools or the ability to
travel very far to larger resort areas.  As the need for land suitable
for residential sites grew, the spring feeding a lake or pond was
capped, the basin filled in, and houses built on top of the former lake
bed.  "Ferry" and "Mill" and "Furnace" and "Pike" abound in road and
street names, even though the structures or services themselves are long
gone for the most part.  Gazetteers can be useful in learning about
these businesses, as well as railroad stops that became "Scott Depot" or
"Midway Station." "Station" also was a term used for a pioneer
settlement, and may indicate the site of an early community or small
fortification, not a former railroad stop.
 
"Johnson Road" may have been the road to the Johnson family's farm, and
retain the name even though no Johnsons live in the area now.  The same
holds true for today in rural areas where 911 systems have led to the
formal naming of every road and alley, with the property owner allowed
to choose the name, with the result that many have been named after the
family or a member of the family that owns the land the road runs
through.  Names like "Alfred Z. Brown Road" are not uncommon.  Some
streets that one assumes were purposely named after founding fathers or
first families of a town actually may have been called that all along,
simply because that was the road to their property.  Searches of maps
and deed or census records will probably show the connections. 
 
This is just one more area of local history and genealogy that does not
have clearcut answers and ready resources for finding answers.  It
requires research, intuition and often educated guesses, just like
everything else we do.  But I love the hunt!
 
Susan Scouras
Librarian
WV Archives and History Library
The Cultural Center
1900 Kanawha Blvd. East
Charleston, WV  25305-0300
(304) 558-0230, Ext. 742
 

	-----Original Message-----
	From: genealib-bounces at mailman.acomp.usf.edu
[mailto:genealib-bounces at mailman.acomp.usf.edu] On Behalf Of Pat
Carpenter
	Sent: Tuesday, June 13, 2006 12:28 PM
	To: 'GENEALIB'
	Subject: [Genealib] Street Names
	
	

	In Englewood, Florida , the names of many of the streets
originally platted were taken "en masse"  from the developer's (Ira
Nichols and his brothers) original home town of Englewood, IL.  This may
be a pattern that other developer/pioneers used.  

	 

	Pat M. Carpenter, MLS

	Research Associate

	Law Offices of John W. Carpenter, Esq.  

	 

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