The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1906-07-05
MANhATrAN STREETS
they Have Names VvIth Reason
Names without Reason.


Names without Reason
Manhattan Island has displayed
little system in naming it, stl
They have names with reason
without reason. and IN most g
where there have been reasons
march OF Improvement and lapse
memory have neariy buried them
Of sight.
Great Broadway, the largest
mercinl thoroughfare in the world.
good reason for its name, though l
city now has broader ways, but III l!
early days OF New Amsterdam II W.
the broadest OF them oil and the mos
important leading as 1t did throu.
the length of the island and into u
far country Of the north. Then Broa
street was quite properly so called 10
1t Is broader than Broadway, thouEi
quite Insignificant In length, being
formed somewhat like the Dutchmh
who laid it out.
You may well wonder why Beaver
street is so called. for there is no cyl
dence of the beaver there, as there was
when it was named. 1t was once only
a beaver path leading to a swamp now
covered by Exchange place. And tx-
change place suggests it's baptism, Tor
on the bank of that swamp the early
settlers met for barter, and afterward
on that site were erected houses for
exchange and sale which have been
continued to this day.
So it is with Wall street, a little far
ther north. The wall erected for pro
lection in 1858 by the Dutch, who fear
ed foray OF New Englanders, long
ago disappeared. but the name remains
not only to designate the street, but to
describe matters financial.
Again, farther north, we find no reA-
son for Maiden lane. The maidens who
made the path ON their journey back
and forth with laundry from the
stream that flowed where Gold street
now is have long ago been forgotten
but their memories have been presery-
ed in the name of the street. And Gold
street? There never was gold there,
but the street did run along the foot of
an elevation known as Golden hilF'
because of the profusion OF yellow wild
flowers that crowned it In the spring.
Then there IS Bowling Green. There
Is nothing present TO suggest the name,
but there was n little more than 200
years ago, when Hans and Fritz played
bowls there and called 1t Bowling
Green" Close by IS Battery place,
with no Indication of n battery or thir-
ty-two Founders, excepting the open
ings yet remaining in the Aquarium.
Go on up to Canal street, and you VIII
find no canal other than huge sew er
under the street paving that marks
where once was canal that drained
Collect pond, ON the site OF the TOmbs,
through trcacherous swamp into the
North river.
There was bit of poetry and senti-
ment In the old names and their asso-
Citations Soon these were mostly drop
ped, n little sentiment being preserved
| in streets named after individuals, sug-
gested 10y Hudson, Aston, Roosevelt.
| Clark. Franklin. Fulton, Clinton, CooT~
err and SO on. Though Moore NGhr
be mistaken for n PERSONS name, 1t
was originally Moor, then mooring
place.
Then came the entirely prosaic age,
when streets were numbered and let
tered, beginning in an arbitrary fash
ON. First street is not first any place
excepting the first north of Houston
street, being mile and half from the
Battery, where ii might have been
with some reason. SO with First ave
aue and Avenue Anew York Herald.
| r,-r,, nrTo