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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
Coral Gables is a posh city in Florida, and a restaurant and bar in East Lansing, Michigan. The restaurant has (or had, back in the day when I frequented the place) a tropical flair, and I've always assumed that it was named after the famous Floridian city. But from where did the city get its name?
I finally scratched that itch via a TV show recently. The program reviewed the history of the city, and explained the origin of the name.
Coral Gables was established by a landowner as a residential development, and the landowner's family home was located near the site of the development. That home, designed and built by the family, was constructed of coral rock, a locally plentiful resource. The front elevation of the house presents a double gable, and hence the house was known as coral gables, and the city took its name from that house.
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
Rego Park--where my current home is, (and home to maus and to spiderman--well the grandparents, in both cases!) is also a made up name.
until WWI most of queens was pretty rural (the 'feild of ashes' from chapter 2 or 3 of the great gadsby is just east of rego park--Its now called Flushing Meadow park (and was home to NYC 2 worlds fairs)--but before WWI this area was considered the hinderlands.
after the subways and elevated trains were built, the areas in central queens developed, slowly at first then rapidly.
Rego Park was an area of chinese truck farm--supplying fresh produce to NY (manhattan's) china town. The REal GOod Real Estate company bought up much of the land, and 'developed it' --with a mixture of 6 story apartment building- for the most part (the are the other side of the major local road --Queens Blvd.
there were a smatterning of 1 and 2 family homes before the development, and some where build at between the wars, and some more after WWII.
Rego park is from REal GOod...
(my building wasn't built till post WWII--) there are still several large parcels of land --now used as parking lots) in the area while awaiting development projects.
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
REal GOod Real Estate company
I din't know that. Makes TriBeCa and SoHo sound positively literate.
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Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 500
addict
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addict
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 500 |
Quetico Provincial Park takes its name fro the QUEbec TImber COmpany. And I believe Algoma Region, where I live, was similarly named, although I don't know what the original corporation was.
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
SoHo and Tribeca (South of Hudson, and the Triangle Below Canal), aren't bad.. they are some what decriptive. (tribeca used to be the old cast iron district in NY--but many of the old cast iron building have been torn down--or stolen (but that's another story).
DUMBO ( Down Under (the) Manhattan Bridge Overpass)--is one of the stranger areas
especially since the manhattan bridge has overpasses on both the brooklyn and manhattan side--so DUMBO can reference areas in both boroughs!
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819 |
Didn't the Dakota apartment building in New York get its name from being so far removed from the city when it was originally built? Or is that just a myth?
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
That's the story I was told to tell, when I moonlighted as a double-decker bus tour guide.
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
South of Hudson
I allus think it were South of Houston.
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
yes--i went brain dead for while there.. it is south of houston.. (all the way down to Canal...)
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379 |
Nolita, which has moved to this neighborhood, takes its name from Northern Little Italy and the nymphettes (sp?) who came with it.
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 48
newbie
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newbie
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 48 |
Now I'm concerned there may be some connection between names that end in 'ita' and nymphettes.
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
aren't guidettes?
(some sort of feminine form of Guido--which is the usual ethic epitat for a young, beefy italian guy -often percieved as having more muscle than brain--the feminine version has more hair than brain.)or is Guidette reserved for the girl from the outer boro's?
Little italy is quickly disappearing.. manhattan's china town, (which now is much more multi ethnic than in the past) is growing faster and making serious inroads.
Main Street, Flushing has more chinese residents and business, (census data) and is really more of a little Asia--with Koreans and japanese as well as chinese in residence. (judging by the school populations and the street signs)
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
TEd
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