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The
Developer's Daughter
Road
Names in Virginia
Back
in March 2006, this column explored the conventions
naming interstates, state and county routes in the
Old Dominion ("Finding
One's Way: Signs of Virginia," March 20, 2006).
But there is another level of street names that has
a more colorful history.
In
the commonwealth’s earliest towns, such as Williamsburg
and Alexandria, streets tended to be named for landmarks,
topographic features, directions or symbols of
power. ("History
of Street Names and Street Naming in North
America"). Thus, you have Duke of
Gloucester Street in colonial Williamsburg
and streets named Queen, King, and Prince in Alexandria. There are a number of Church Streets scattered
throughout Virginia towns, including one in
Lynchburg on which there are no longer any houses of worship.
Other common early names for streets were Market,
Monument, Canal, Wall, Court, Hill and Water. After
the American Revolution, streets named Washington
and Jefferson
became common.
At
first the term “street” was not a part of a
byway’s proper name. It was considered just a
descriptor, since streets were considered parts of
towns. Roads not in cities were often not named at
all. Early references in more urban areas might
refer to “Hill street” or “King street.”
There
were a few exceptions to these early naming
patterns. William Penn was ahead of his time by
laying Philadelphia out in a grid pattern and naming
some of the streets after trees in the late
18th-century. Tree names didn’t become popular in
other areas of the country until the 1850s as a
result of a new movement that affected all the arts,
including landscape and urban design. The romantic
and more picturesque Gothic Revival style of
architecture replaced the classical and orderly
Greek Revival school. There was also a Rural
Cemetery Movement that started to replace crowded
church graveyards with “parks.” The most popular
tree names for streets in the mid-19th-century were
Elm, followed by Maple, Pine, Walnut, etc.
In
Richmond, it would be 100 years before the city’s streets
required names.
Finally,
in the mid-18th century, Richmond adopted a grid system similar to the
Philadelphia model. Streets that ran east to west were
alphabetized and north-south streets were numbered ("Discover
Richmond: History Behind Many of Richmond's Street
Names"). By the 1780s, as the city grew,
new naming patterns evolved. For example, “A”
street became “Arch” because of an arch over it;
“B” street became “Byrd” for the city’s
founder and “C” became “Canal” for the
nearby waterway.
After
the end of the Civil War, urban areas exploded and
private real estate developers created
“additions.” New subdivisions began to develop
with names such as “Raymond H. Chase’s Addition
to the City of Springfield.” This is the beginning of the use of surnames
for streets and roads.
The
descriptors evolved, as well. Around 1880,
“avenue” became used much more than
“street.” The
City Beautiful Movement in the late-nineteenth
and early 20th century gave rise to new
descriptions, such as “boulevard,” “park”
and “court.” By the 1920s, “drive” had
replaced “avenue” and in the 1960s, it was
unusual to see any names other than “drive” in
most subdivisions. Floral names, suffixes such as
“wood” and “land” became popular, as did
famous colleges and universities, English counties,
world cities -- any name that would attribute a
positive image to a development.
In
the 21st century, getting street name approval is a
bit more complicated than a century ago. It varies
from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but is a part of
the zoning and planning process a developer must
follow.
For
example, in Fredrick County, Va., a request for a
road name must be submitted by a single landowner or
developer with sole control over the road or by a
petition from adjacent landowners. There must be at
least three existing homes with a right-of-way on
the street before the name request can be submitted.
Among other requirements: no road name can be
abbreviated; no road name can include punctuation;
no road names are accepted if the first name matches
a road name in use ("Request
for Approval of a New Road Name," Frederick
County, Va.).
Spotsylvania
County also has restrictions on names that are similar and
with punctuation, but also restricts roads named
after businesses, individuals (except historical)
names longer than 24 characters ("Spotsylvania
County Road and Street Naming Policy").
Still,
despite the best intentions of urban planners or
local bureaucrats’ rules and regulations, some
strange street names have survived. If you are ever
in Charlottesville, you may want to explore Pinch’em Slyly Place or
should you find yourself in Virginia Beach, cruise down
Witchduck Road, named after Grace
Sherwood, the only woman in Virginiaever convicted of witchcraft.
It
would take quite a creative developer to beat those
street tags!
NEXT:
Riffles and Cascades: Waterfalls in Virginia
--
July 21, 2008
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