City Streets
Why Two Streets Named Washington?
The great street name purge of 1920s left in place the duplication of Washington names.
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The great street name purge of 1920s left in place the duplication of Washington names. Back to the full article.
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You don’t mention the two Pierce streets, but given their locations, I would assume both predate the drive to eliminate duplicates. Were they also spared?
W. Pierce Street on the South Side and N. Pierce Street in Riverwest?
Steve, you are correct. West Pierce was named in 1853 for Franklin Pierce who was elected president the previous year. North Pierce was named in 1857 for developer Jonathan Pierce. Strangely, the city engineer’s recommendations did not mention the Pierce streets.
I was standing on Humboldt and North one evening, and a “lost couple” drove up and asked how to get to Humboldt Park.
I wanted to laugh, but i kept my composure.
Or the two Arlington’s on the Eastside. One going South and one going North. If you don’t know there are two and what is on each, you can easily get lost. I have had to show many people the way to where they are going.
@Mark, I met some German tourists at the lakefront who were looking for Lakefront Brewery.
@Lee, The two Arlingtons are the same street, just out of alignment at Brady Street. It can be confusing.
The City of Boston, 2where I lived for 37 years, has at least fourWashington Streets within its corporate limits–Washington Street, which runs from downtown south-southwestward to the city limits; North Washington Street, which is separate from the aforementioned street; Washington Street Brighton several miles to the west of downtown, and Washington Street Dorchester, several miles to the south of downtown. This does not include Boston’s many suburbs. Similarly, there are several Beacon Streets around the city. Bostonians had a tendency to name many streets in city and suburbs South Street and Winter Street, in the fashion of the early colonists. Confusing to all but long-time Bostonians, who used to say that “if you don’t know wheah you ah, you shouldn’t be heah!”
I’ve often wondered if out-of-towners get confused by Clybourn and Kilbourn.
I was walking near the Marcus Center some years ago, and a confused couple asked which building was the Marcus. They were dressed in Harley gear, so after asking who they were going to see, I figured out they wanted the Marcus Ampitheater, nor the Performing Arts venue.