#37862
08/07/2001 4:58 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
CK in his post about his travels point out that small town in america love to intall traffic signals.. the more the merrier..
I noticed that traffic signals have become a sourse of names.. In Stonybrook NY-- the college town, there is a town called "Blinking Light Road"-- which is located conveniently enough, at a blinking traffic signal..
another "land mark" road on Long Island is "Hot Water Street"-- i am not quite sure how it gots it name.. but i am I am sure i would not want to live on it.
any other strange names streets in you area?
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#37863
08/08/2001 11:03 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 771
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 771 |
In Lake Oswego, Oregon: Chow Mein Lane
In Edina, Minnesota: Lois Lane (and that surely can't be the only one...)
In Amherst, Massachusetts: Juggler's Meadow Road
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#37864
08/08/2001 12:01 PM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
When the estate of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, which used to lie along the side of The Strand in central London, was sold off in the C18, the new owners turned it into streets of very pleasnt houses. In order to preserve the name of the Duke, the streets were named, "George St," "Villiers St," "Duke St," and "Buckingham St." (they are still there, if you wish to visit!)
Between Duke St and Buckingham St there is a narrow lane which used to be called "Of Alley."
Unfortunately, some bureaucrat in the early part of the C20 decided that was too odd a name, and it was renamed (can't remember what, and haven't my A-Z handy)
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#37865
08/08/2001 12:06 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
St. John's is a great place for funny names. My current favourites are Ropewalk Lane - there is a grocery store there, which we just refer to as "Ropewalk" Hill O' Chips - I kid you not! This one is downtown, and is indeed a hill. Why it is O'Chips - I do not know! 
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#37866
08/09/2001 2:51 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
i suspect Ropewalk lane once housed a ropewalk-- St John's is a sea faring town-- ropes would have been a big business, and rope walks take up a lot of space.
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#37867
08/09/2001 8:20 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
A few years ago I lived not far from Dulles International Airport, on Frying Pan Road near Horse Pen Road. Frying Pan Road was named for a small pond of that shape. In Colonial days the local Indians had an enclosure for their horses surrounded by a circular hedgerow of saplings too closely spaced for horses to escape.
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#37868
08/09/2001 9:23 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
In Rye NH, in the 1940s-50s lived a man named John ... he was very slender and quite tall and everyone in town referred to him as "Long John"! Why he was so called is no longer recalled in local lore.
Long John lived on the Rye end of a *very *long road which ran from Portsmouth to Rye. All the locals called the Rye end of Sagamore Road "Long John Road." Just before the turn of the millenium the "Powers That Be" gave up their intransigence and named the southerly section of Sagamore Road as "Long John Road."
Cap K (a sweetie) and SWMBO (a smart, handsome and forebearing lady by the way) were taken to get their first taste of fried clams via Long John Road! They enjoyed them.
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#37869
08/10/2001 11:30 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
i suspect Ropewalk lane once housed a ropewalkHmm...Never thought of that. It now houses two giant grocery stores, two giant parking lots, a bowling alley, and a pop bottling plant. No visible ropes!  The street itself is only about, oh, two feet long. (Well, about one city block.) You must imagine what an odd name that was to someone who grew up thousands of kilometres from the nearest sea!
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#37870
08/10/2001 11:43 AM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
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#37871
08/10/2001 12:02 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
Well, Thousands isn't quite right.  Apparently it's 1007 km as the crow files from Winnipeg to Churchill (on Hudson's Bay). So only one thousand!
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#37872
08/11/2001 5:56 AM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819 |
Lake Oswego, Oregon: Chow Mein Lane
Let's not forget that the original white man's name for the lake was Sucker Lake; the town was named Oswego after the town in New York. However, the real estate hucksters found the name not to their liking, for some reason...
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#37873
08/11/2001 11:13 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
Real estate people are so picky! they forced Bear Swamp Road to change to Bronx River Road-- over 100 years ago.. somehow, they couldn't intrest people to live anywhere near the Bear Swamp..
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#37874
08/12/2001 3:28 AM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605 |
Real estate people: The town of Carol Stream, Illinois has no stream anywhere near it. It was named for the daughter of the real-estate developer, a Mr. Jay Stream.
P.S. I'm changing my profile from attorney to "real estate attorney". Since this thread is lampooning real estate people, I'll ask whether anyone has done a thread for attorney jokes?
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#37875
08/12/2001 8:38 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 427
addict
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addict
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 427 |
A friend of mine in Madrid lives in what translates as "Street of the Girl with the Bunch of Roses." Sure, the name comes from the title of a famous zarzuela or Spanish light opera, but even in Spanish it is a long address, and one which always makes people ask.
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#37876
08/12/2001 5:42 PM
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
My street name is singularly boring, consisting only of numerals, but as if to make up for it my traditional housename goes into Welsh raptures: it translates as Cross of the VirginsCome up and see my etchings...
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#37877
08/13/2001 1:15 AM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
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#37878
08/13/2001 11:39 AM
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
theirs to bearCan never decide, Max - it's a source of crucifriction: theirs to bare theirs, too bare there's two, bare theirs too, bear!
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#37879
08/13/2001 12:56 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
Now i understand "Hot Water Street"-- here i was for years thinking it was named for something that came out of a a tap-- now i know it come for the what the residends get into.. do you have many realitives here in the US?
there are very few houses in the US with names.. a few estates, but very few names..the most common name for a house is the previous owner. I have owned my house almost 22 years.. but its still called the Scott house-- it won't become the Griffin house till i move out..
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#37880
08/13/2001 5:10 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289 |
When we lived in Verona, we walked downtown on Via Tolosette Farinati degli Uberti, which is the longest street name I ever encounted prior to yours. I never did find out who TFdU was.
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#37881
08/13/2001 8:44 PM
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
The local lovers' lane was called Firestone Drive when I was a kid. No, not because of the hot rocks, but because it's there that the rubber meets the road.
TEd
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#37882
08/14/2001 11:49 AM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
local lovers' lane was called Firestone Drive
There was a story connecting a recent president of the Philipines with a lovers' lane; the punch line was "Sweetheart, not here!" "¡Corazón! ¡Aquí no!"
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#37883
08/14/2001 12:07 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Of all the streets that I have lived on, my favorite has to be the one in Santa Fe, NM that I lived on in the summer of '64.
Camino sin Nombre.
Which obviously wasn't the name of the street, but it *was what it was called and it *was what was on the street sign.
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#37884
08/14/2001 1:00 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 427
addict
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addict
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 427 |
Bob, in Spanish it's Calle de La del Manojo de Rosas, La del manojo de rosas being the title of the zarzuela ... So yes, a bit longer
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#37885
08/16/2001 10:50 AM
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Joined: May 2000
Posts: 679
addict
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addict
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 679 |
When the estate of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, which used to lie along the side of The
Strand in central London, was sold off in the C18, the new owners turned it into streets of very
pleasnt houses. In order to preserve the name of the Duke, the streets were named, "George
St," "Villiers St," "Duke St," and "Buckingham St." (they are still there, if you wish to visit!)
Between Duke St and Buckingham St there is a narrow lane which used to be called "Of Alley."
Unfortunately, some bureaucrat in the early part of the C20 decided that was too odd a name,
and it was renamed (can't remember what, and haven't my A-Z handy)
Fascinating! It happened in Dublin, too.
The main thoroughfare in this capital is called O'Connell Street (a sad sight these days) and has been since the 1920s. It's original name was Sackville Street and surrounding streets are still called Earl Street, Henry Street and Marlborough Street after Henry Sackville, Earl of Marlborough. As in RC's posting there was an of Street but this has been renamed. I can't recall its new name at the moment.
As with all old cities in the UK and Ireland there are quite a few strange names for streets but not in the same vein as the New World. Dublin is a viking/Norse city and a lot of the city's street names still bear the same names almost 1200 years on. Examples are:
Fishamble Street where the Fish markets or shambles were located. It's more famous now for the site where Handel's Messiah was first performed.
Skinner's Lane, Chancery Lane
Werburgh Street and Audoen Street are examples of Old English saints' names.
Smock Alley and Poolbeg Street the meaning of which I have not yet found out.
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