Growing up in a town where Main Street actually was the primary downtown commercial street, I've always found it amusing how "Main Street" in many West Coast cities (Seattle, Portland, San Francisco) isn't anything particularly special today. It doesn't have the same cachet when there are multiple major commercial districts. We much prefer Broadway and Market 'round these parts.
My favorite story along these lines is Lawrence, KS. Lawrence was founded by 19 abolitionists, who moved from the Boston area to KS. The street names are labeled, east to west, as the states of the US in the order they came in the Union. The "main" street in the downtown is Massachusetts Ave.
Can a city get credit for being the first plagiarizer? The town of Lancaster, 60 miles west of Philadelphia, was the first population center in the colonies not located on the coast. Its original street names include lemon, Walnut, Chestnut, Orange, Vine, and Mulberry.
Lancaster had an extremely close economic relationship with Philadelphia. It got all its imported goods through Philadelphia and sent out important exports, especially animal skins to Europe. This trade was so robust that Lancaster became an early center for wagon building and developed the Conestoga Wagon, which later played a major role in the development of the country under its better known name, the covered wagon.
Actually, I don't think Penn deserves very much credit for the grid plan, which was the latest thinking in Europe, inherited from founding of new cities in Hellenistic and Roman times. Check out Karlsruhe for real innovation.
Actually, I am astounded by the overwhelming task faced by cities that do not use number and letter streets. Where I presently live in Houston TX, they have to come up with a name for every single new street. That’s a lot of mental labor. For instance, I live on Du Barry Lane, probably named after Madame Du Barry, The long time mistress of Louie XV . I used to call her the Monica Lewinsky of the 18th century, but that joke has gotten kind of stale.
Interesting - I wondered why so many Pennsylvania boroughs, cities, etc. had "Market" and "Broad" for major street names. I can't say if Pennsylvania's only town, Bloomsburg, has either. I have only been through the portion Interstate 80 goes through.
I also had not considered that Southern cities would model themselves after Alexandria with street naming. Thankfully, Alexandria is in a sense, rejecting some Southern street naming by eliminating Confederate inspired street names. That's going to be a long process though.
I don't actually know which Confederate names there were in Alexandria - the ones I'm familiar with are the noble ones - Duke, King, etc. I don't know the origin of that pattern or where else it was copied.
Growing up in a town where Main Street actually was the primary downtown commercial street, I've always found it amusing how "Main Street" in many West Coast cities (Seattle, Portland, San Francisco) isn't anything particularly special today. It doesn't have the same cachet when there are multiple major commercial districts. We much prefer Broadway and Market 'round these parts.
Haha, I’ve BEEN on Race street in Urbana and wondered what the heck that was about. (UIUC grad)
My favorite story along these lines is Lawrence, KS. Lawrence was founded by 19 abolitionists, who moved from the Boston area to KS. The street names are labeled, east to west, as the states of the US in the order they came in the Union. The "main" street in the downtown is Massachusetts Ave.
Can a city get credit for being the first plagiarizer? The town of Lancaster, 60 miles west of Philadelphia, was the first population center in the colonies not located on the coast. Its original street names include lemon, Walnut, Chestnut, Orange, Vine, and Mulberry.
Lancaster had an extremely close economic relationship with Philadelphia. It got all its imported goods through Philadelphia and sent out important exports, especially animal skins to Europe. This trade was so robust that Lancaster became an early center for wagon building and developed the Conestoga Wagon, which later played a major role in the development of the country under its better known name, the covered wagon.
Actually, I don't think Penn deserves very much credit for the grid plan, which was the latest thinking in Europe, inherited from founding of new cities in Hellenistic and Roman times. Check out Karlsruhe for real innovation.
Actually, I am astounded by the overwhelming task faced by cities that do not use number and letter streets. Where I presently live in Houston TX, they have to come up with a name for every single new street. That’s a lot of mental labor. For instance, I live on Du Barry Lane, probably named after Madame Du Barry, The long time mistress of Louie XV . I used to call her the Monica Lewinsky of the 18th century, but that joke has gotten kind of stale.
Interesting - I wondered why so many Pennsylvania boroughs, cities, etc. had "Market" and "Broad" for major street names. I can't say if Pennsylvania's only town, Bloomsburg, has either. I have only been through the portion Interstate 80 goes through.
I also had not considered that Southern cities would model themselves after Alexandria with street naming. Thankfully, Alexandria is in a sense, rejecting some Southern street naming by eliminating Confederate inspired street names. That's going to be a long process though.
I don't actually know which Confederate names there were in Alexandria - the ones I'm familiar with are the noble ones - Duke, King, etc. I don't know the origin of that pattern or where else it was copied.
It's found in Williamsburg which only almost certainly precedes Alexandria, And it's also found in Lancaster.