The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-09-18
NAMING OF STREETS.
The System Advocated by Mr..
H. H. Dearborn.
LOCALITIES CLEARLY DEFINED.


Avenues North and Streets South Of
Yesler Avenue-Names TO He AR
ranged Alphabetically.
There have been one or two criticisms
OF my proposal for remaining the streets o
Seattle" said Mr.. III. H. Dearborn TO q
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES reporter yesterday,
but they seem to me aside from the point.
The objection is mainly to this name
a. inappropriate, or to that one as UNI
musical. Now, don't stick for particular
names. Ali urge is the system. We GER
tainiy should have better system of street
nomenclature. remember years ago going
10 Philadelphia and starting out TO find .
house. had supposed il would be easy
enough, Tor had been told that Philadel-
phia was the most metaodically arranged
city in the world. but ! found that while
the streets running one way were ali right,
those running the other were named with
out any apparent order. Since that time /
have looked At the system Of street nomen-
ciature OF nearly every city have visited.
and SO have made something Of study of
the subject
My own belief is that good system OF
naming streets would do as much for
Seattle as the 100000 in bonds we are
shortly to issue could do. 1t would actu-
ally add to our moneyed posses
sions. Every one knows that dur
ing the months following the
ire We lost thousands Of dollars worth of
trade simply because men couldn't find
each other. Take stranger who comes
here with . limited length OF time
to stay. II he can find places
readily he may do a good deal Of
buying here, but If he spends hours hunt
ing for shops or houses, he may go away
before he has bought half of what he
wants, and do the rest of his shopping
elsewhere.
Then there Is the general saving of time,
trouble and temper that is possible in
city conveniently named III Seattle were
80 that atotal stranger of any intelligence
could within half an hour find
any house here, he would he
much more favorably impressed with the
town. This is a matter not Tor the fifty
thousand now here, but for the hundreds
OF thousands soon to come The incon-
venience TO which We would be sub.
jected by the change is a tri6e
compared to the Inconvenience to
which thousands and thousands in
in all years to come will be subjected if we
do not make the change. Then, too, the
alteration can bother US but q few months
at most.
Seattle is divided into two pretty dis
tinct parts by Yesler avenue. The LAYING
out OF irregular additions makes it hard to
get any good system. but whatever one we
have must recognize the division. Now |
believe that we can avoid the trouble
of having First street north.
and First street south, upon which
strangers are very likely to get mixed by
calling all the streets north Of Yesler
avenue avenues. and all south of that line
streets. Front street north of Yesier. /
should call First avenue, Second street
north. Second avenue, and SO on up the
hill and ont to Lake Washington. To the
streets running at right angles should
give names with initials arranged alpha
betically- Belmont avenue, Cedar avenue.
Diadem avenue. Eagle avenue, and SO on
down through all the letters of the alpha
bet. When you have reached z, begin
over again, only taking names of certain
class. / suggested for this northern dis
trict names suggested by bodies of water
and water courses. Atlantic avenue, Baltic
avenue, Celtic, etc. SO q man having the
name could soon tell what part of the city
it was in.
South of Yesler avenue I should name
Commercial street First street, change South
Second to Second street, South Third to
Third street, and SO on. To the cross
streets should give names alphabetically.
the same as in the north end, Andrews
street, Burke street, Collins street, Dear
born street, etc. Then when the list is
gone through. call your second set from
names of trees, Alder street, Birch street.
Cherry street. etc. A man can thus tell by
the ending street or avenue which end
of Seattle he ought to go, and he can count
up by the letters of the alphabet how far
he has to 60.
People object to taking an old name
from street on account of the associa-
tionsl When try to keep the associa-
tons by transferring the name to its
proper street by the alphabetical plan.
then they talk of the confusionl But the
confusion will soon be done away with. for
the city is growing so fast We can keep
the names of prominent citizens or men
interested in certain parts of the city yery
easily, and you can see have done that
in number of cases. Jackson is pre-
served by my system, but transferred to a
street running through Jackson's addition.
Il believe that the more people study
the system the more complete the satisfac-
ton it will give, and we must have some