Evening star., 1901-08-07
Formal Action Respecting Thorough
fares Outside City Limits.
UNIFORM SYSTEM ESTABLISHED
Certain Highways to Be Named
for Distinguished Americans.
NUMBERS AND LETTERS

OuehfareS outside of the city limits Inc
Commissioners are without authority at
present to extend their system into the city
proper. but believe that Congress Will take
some action looking to that end in the near
future. provided of course, the national
legislators look upon the step as advisable.
The plan of naming the new streets In the
county and of changing the names of those
now existing north of the boundary to con-
form with the new thoroughfares has here
tofore been detailed in The Star. The for
NAL orders issued on the subject today oy
the Commissioners are as follows:
"ITnder AUTHORITY of section of the act
approved March @ 1893, to provide per-
manent system of highways for the Dis
trict of Columbia the Commissioners OF the
District of Columbia are authorized 10
name all streets, avenues, alleys and reser-
vatiOns laid out or adopted under the pro
visions of this act, and under authority or
the following clause in the District appro-
priation act, approved June 30. 1898: That
the Commissioners of the District or CO.
lumbia shall hereafter have the power and
authority to change the name OF any street,
road. avenue other highway whenever
any two of such highways have the same
name the following system of naming Is
adopted for the highways in the District OF
Columbia outside of the limits of the city
of Washington:
North and south streets will be desig-
mated by numbers, the present city system
being extended into the county.
East and west streets will be named for
distinguished Americans. Taking East
Capitol street a dividing line. and run
ming north names of one syllable will be
used. arranged in alphabetical order. Upon
completion of the one-sylable series two
syllable series will begin and upon COM
pletion of this threesyllable series, until
the northern limit of the District of Colum-
bia is reached.
The Alphabet Employed.
East and west streets in the county south
Of the line of East Capitol street viii be
named with the letters of the alphabet.
Upon completion of this a series of one
syllable names of American cities or prom
inent geographical objects. arranged in al
phabetical order, will be started and so on,
until the southern limit of the District Of
Columbia is reached.
A minor place street will be designated
a place and will bear the number or ini-
tial of the nearest parallel main street be-
tween il and the Capitol.
The broad diagonal highways will be
designated avenues and will be named after
the states and territories of the Union
Streets which are irregular in direction,
or curved to an appreciable extent, will
be termed roads and will be named after
some prominent local feature in their
vicinity, other distinguishing deSigna-
ton.
"A map will be prepared. showing the
names for highways adopted under this
order which, when approved by the COM
missioners of the District of Columbia,
will be recorded in the office Of the sur
veyor of the District of Columbia.
"A list will also be printed for general
distribution, showing the names If high
ways as they now exist and the new names
adopted in lieu thereof under this order.
The new names shall take effect on the
date the map above referred 10 IS recorded
in the office of the surveyor of the Dis
trict- of Columbia.
Proposed List of Names.
Mr.. W. P. Richards. the assistant engi-
neer in charge of street extension matters,
has prepared a list of names to be used
under the new system of nomenclature. A
provisional list has been in mind some time
and has been printed in The Star. 1t con-
tains the names of practically all the most
eminent Americans since the founda ton OF
the republic. There has been one import
ant change In the list heretofore under
consideration. 1t was suggested by Com
missioner Macfarland that in the two-syl
liable division there should be street
named for former Governor Alexander
Shepherd OF the District. The other Com
missioners readily agreed to this. and what
was to have been Sherman street, will now
be designated as Shepherd street. The
thoroughfare named for the Districts for
mer governor, who Is now a resident of
Batopilas, Chihuahua, Mexico, will be one
of the finest in the northern section of the
District and will extend as a broad band
from the east to the west boundaries. 1t
will take up a number of existing streets,
all being merged into this one thorough
fare.
The Commissioners, and the residents of
the District in general, have sought for
some time some means of perpetuating the
name of Governor Shepherd in some Dis
trict institution. 1t was suggested that
school building might be named for him.
but the Commissioners were bound down
by the precedent of naming school build
ings only for those prominent residents of
the District who had been called from
Sfa1
that circle in the city might be named
for him. The action OF the Commissioners
In applying his name to one of the prin-
cipal thOroughfares under the highway eX-
tension system, it is believed will meet
with general approval TIE street will
stand as an indestructibe monument to
Governor Shepherds work in the capital
Of the nation.
Object In View.
The Commissioners, in replacing the name
of Shepherd for that of Sherman, have no
intention. it is stated, of sighting In the
least degree the memory of that famed SOL
dier. His fame has been made secure In
many ways in the capital, not the least of
which is the great bronze statue now being
nodded for erection i'm the plot of ground
just south of the treasury building An
important intermediary street will be
named for General Sherman also. What is
now known as Sherman avenue in the
northern section of the city will become a
part of 10th street extended under the new
system.
Explaining the working of the new sys-
tenn more explicitly, it may be stated that
what Is now street north will become
Ames street once the limits of the city are
crossed. In time the Commissioners hope
to have their system of one-syllable names
extend into the city for all streets north
OF East Capitol street and the correspond
Ing line In the western section of the CITY
In this way the designations Of northwest
and northeast would be done away with. 1t
would simply be necessary to state the
number of Ames street, and add as a pre-
fix or suffx "east" west" In the case
OF Ames street there would be no West
Ames street. better example might be
cited in II street, which, under the new
system, would become Hayes street. There
will be both an East Hayes and West
Hayes street IL the plan is ever adopted by
Congress for application to the city. South
of East Capitol street and in the southwest
also the lettered system would be MAIN
tanned. Under this scheme the prefixes
north and south would no longer be neces-
sary. But this feature of the case has
not yet been reached, and the Commits
sioners, while laying proper foundation
for the future use of the names in the city
itself. are confning their attentions to the