 
Johnlodge
Member
Username: Johnlodge
Post Number: 5435
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 - 3:45 pm: |    |
quote:Out in Commerce Twp, I had some ancestors that lived on a road that didn't get a real name until the 1940s.
I bet they named it "Commerce Road" like all the other roads in Commerce Twp. |
Gnome
Member
Username: Gnome
Post Number: 849
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 - 3:59 pm: | |
Carey road, actually, but I get what you mean.
I love driving east on South Commerce road until I get to Commerce road. Those folks deserve their traffic jams, talk about some bassackwards people. |
Skylark
Member
Username: Skylark
Post Number: 28
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 - 4:00 pm: | |
Groesbeck was also a governor of Michigan. He was from
Warren, Michigan and is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery on Woodward between 7 & 8 Mile Roads.
Many of the people that our streets are named for can be
found at Woodlawn Cemetery. It's a fascinating place for
Detroit history buffs. |
Johnlodge
Member
Username: Johnlodge
Post Number: 5438
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 - 4:02 pm: | |
Ah yes, Carey road. That road is still dirt in some places. Used to deliver pizza out that way years ago. |
Johnlodge
Member
Username: Johnlodge
Post Number: 5439
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 - 4:04 pm: | |
Oops, actually it's part of Cooley at the Northern end of Carey that is still dirt. |
Evelyn
Member
Username: Evelyn
Post Number: 151
Registered: 02-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 - 4:17 pm: | |
Books.google rocks- thanks for the link, Mikeg!
Deteamster- That fact makes me very happy, for some reason.
Alan55- I think you’re right. Lucky guy had two streets named after him.
Elmwood cemetery also has its share of infamous Detroiters. Around Halloween, they offer really neat tours.
One street name I’ve often wondered about: Sproat, near downtown. |
Stinger4me
Member
Username: Stinger4me
Post Number: 198
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 - 4:25 pm: | |
Was Elmwood named after the cemetery or vice versa? |
Gnome
Member
Username: Gnome
Post Number: 851
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 - 4:29 pm: | |
JL-
Yes, that's the road, maybe you delivered pizza to the old family home. It's still there and down in the creepy michigan basement is a handprint in the cement of one of my dead relatives. yr 1881
now, back to your regularly scheduled thread ... |
Soulhawk
Member
Username: Soulhawk
Post Number: 334
Registered: 04-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 - 4:37 pm: | |
The Detroit Almanac has a good section covering street names and how they came to be. The Almanac should be required reading for this forum. |
Xd_brklyn
Member
Username: Xd_brklyn
Post Number: 365
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 - 4:54 pm: | |
Per Mikeg's link, found an interesting reference to an ancestor that had Messmore Road named after their farm on that road, but it was then later changed to 18th Street with another part changed to Linwood.
Funny how many of the streets on the west side were renamed to 3rd, 4th, 5th and so on, while the east side didn't get hit with the renaming of streets into numerals. Must be some obscure bit of history with that. |
Detroitnerd
Member
Username: Detroitnerd
Post Number: 1978
Registered: 07-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 - 5:21 pm: | |
Originally, all these streets, especially close to downtown, were a messy patchwork of north-south roads, based on those old "ribbon farms." In other words, these property claims were deeded by the King of France in the 1700s. What a mess.
Now, take a look at claim maps of old Detroit: The east side has almost been entirely claimed by farms that go north by northwest, west by northwest, etc. There must have been no way to try to reorder that into numbered streets.
But the west side's private claims all faced the same way, roughly north-south. Indexing those streets by numbers was likely easier to do, and I'll bet that's why they did it there.
But I'm just guessing. Anybody know the origin of our numbered west-side streets? |
Patrick
Member
Username: Patrick
Post Number: 5254
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 - 5:22 pm: | |
Tyrone Street off of Moross was named after the Dave Chappelle character. |
Detroitnerd
Member
Username: Detroitnerd
Post Number: 1979
Registered: 07-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 - 5:26 pm: | |
Some of the old names are more fun.
Plaza Drive used to be Jones Street.
Temple Street used to be Bagg Street.
Mack Avenue near I-75 used to be Rowena Street.
And, of course, Martin Luther King Boulevard (no Jr.?) was once Myrtle.
Anybody remember what Berry Gordy Jr. Boulevard used to be called.  |
Evelyn
Member
Username: Evelyn
Post Number: 152
Registered: 02-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 - 5:43 pm: | |
An aside... the spokewheel-like design of downtown was based on Pierre L'Enfant’s city designs for Washington D.C. Early proposals for downtown Detroit look a bit like pinwheels instead of streets. |
Ray1936
Member
Username: Ray1936
Post Number: 2816
Registered: 01-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 - 5:44 pm: | |
Buchanan Street was named for the 15th President of the United States. Up around where Lawton crosses it lies a small parallel street north of Buchanan. It is Breckenridge, named for Buchanan's Vice President.
For some reason that always fascinated me. |
Hornwrecker
Member
Username: Hornwrecker
Post Number: 1992
Registered: 04-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 - 6:16 pm: | |
Junction used to be called Lover's Lane. |
Pussygirl313
Member
Username: Pussygirl313
Post Number: 67
Registered: 08-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 - 6:48 pm: | |
The streets in Indian Village are named after Indian Tribes. I think.
Seems like most streets were named after someone.
This tread is fun. |
Leoqueen
Member
Username: Leoqueen
Post Number: 1883
Registered: 07-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 - 7:14 pm: | |
Does anyone know the history of Snowden street on the West side? |
Neilr
Member
Username: Neilr
Post Number: 667
Registered: 06-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 - 7:24 pm: | |
In the 1950's, in a nod to Detroit's French heritage, the new streets in Lafayette Park were given French names: Joliet, Nicolet, Cherboneau, Chateaufort, and Navarre Place. |
Novine
Member
Username: Novine
Post Number: 461
Registered: 07-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 - 7:35 pm: | |
Gee, so did the developer of the Chateau Novi Mobile Home Park:
Rousseau
La Roi
Pierre
La Fleur
Charlemagne
Miquelon
Marquant |
Yaktown
Member
Username: Yaktown
Post Number: 318
Registered: 02-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 - 7:44 pm: | |
Johnlodge, I grew up in Commerce and am really getting a kick out of all these replies. It used to be a nice quiet place to live until the M-5 mess. I think Commerce Road intersects with...Commerce Road. Must be the nexxus of the universe. |
Hpgrmln
Member
Username: Hpgrmln
Post Number: 374
Registered: 06-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 - 8:08 pm: | |
My favorite is still Boner Rd in southwest St.Clair County. Its about a mile south of and parallel to-..yup!.. 69!
Ok, immature, I know. But still my favorite.
And for all of you whos minds are in the gutter, check out Hiscock street in Ann arbor.And Ill spare you the bad puns. |
Jimaz
Member
Username: Jimaz
Post Number: 4711
Registered: 12-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 - 8:12 pm: | |
How big was that beaver anyway?  |
Downriviera
Member
Username: Downriviera
Post Number: 70
Registered: 02-2008
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 - 8:17 pm: | |
In Lincoln Park is the intersection of Dix Rd. and Champaign Street. A popular saying in these parts is, I knew a girl who lived on Champaign and Dix. |
Thoswolfe
Member
Username: Thoswolfe
Post Number: 31
Registered: 11-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 - 9:00 pm: | |
I wonder if 16 Mile Road was ever Big Beaver in Sterling Heights? It would have crossed Mound Road then. |
Otter
Member
Username: Otter
Post Number: 29
Registered: 12-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 - 9:10 pm: | |
What about Cadieux? |
Neilr
Member
Username: Neilr
Post Number: 668
Registered: 06-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 - 10:12 pm: | |
Field Avenue is named after Moses Wheelock Field, as is Wheelock on the west side. He named Kercheval after his wife, Mary, and Agnes after his daughter. His mid-1800's house still graces Field Avenue.
Hurlbut Street and the Hurlbut Memorial Gate at Waterworks Park are named after Chauncey Hurlbut, an early Water Commissioner. |
Professorscott
Member
Username: Professorscott
Post Number: 1146
Registered: 12-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 - 10:32 pm: | |
The wife and I saw Bare Naked Ladies a few years ago and the singer did a monologue about how marvelous it was as they were coming down I-75 that not only do we have a "Big Beaver Road" but that somehow it managed to be Exit 69. |
Alley
Member
Username: Alley
Post Number: 49
Registered: 02-2008
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 - 10:35 pm: | |
Otter: I found this, I don't know if it's the absolute answer, but...
"Grosse Pointe Farms, Wayne County. The present Grosse Pointe Farms and Grosse Pointe City comprised one village, so incorporated in 1880; the City broke off on the liquor issue in 1893, and the Farms was incorporated as a village in 1893 and a city in 1949; given a post office as Grosse Pointe Farms on Dec 28, 1898, with Frank R. Cadieux as it's first postmaster" |
Gistok
Member
Username: Gistok
Post Number: 6401
Registered: 08-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 05, 2008 - 12:27 am: | |
Don't know how true this is, but I remember reading somewhere that Territorial Judge Augustus Woodward claimed that he named the main thoroughfare that way because it was heading into the woods... hence Woodward... how convenient! |