If you find yourself taking a road trip someday and you happen across Smashed-In Buffalo Head Road in North Dakota, don’t be afraid to take a second look.
Similarly, if you happen across the intersection of Nixon and Bluett roads in Michigan, Lonesome and Hardup roads in Georgia, or Bangher and Leever in New York, go ahead and give them another glance.
Don’t worry about Psycho Path in Michigan or Divorce Court in Pennsylvania. After all, they’re just more prime examples of odd, yet original, street names in the United States.
The country is filled with odd handles such as these, and Eau Claire is no exception, with names such as Fear Street, Mappa Street, Necessity Street, Pansy Lane and many more.
“Some are quite logical,” retired highway design worker and long-time Eau Claire resident Richard Feeney said, “and some aren’t logical at all.”
The process
Scott Kramer, a civil engineer for Kramer Land Design Studio, said there’s actually not that much thinking behind naming streets.
“It’s usually something developers hate to do . it’s actually surprising to me,” he said. “Some of them don’t really care for the task . but that varies based on the developer.”
When a landowner subdivides lots of land, a developer will typically give a street its name on what’s called a plat, said Brian Amundson, director of Public Works for the city of Eau Claire.
The plat gives layout specifications and documents street names, he said. Then the plat is approved by the Land Commission and City Council to make sure there’s no confusion or repeated names for emergency response personnel, Amundson said.
Kramer has named a few streets in his career including Quetico Court, after a place where he loves to canoe in Canada, he said.
Perhaps the most memorable of Kramer’s street names, however, is Never Street.
“The city of Eau Claire actually made me put that street in,” Kramer said. “It’s in an already-developed area and I was quite angry that the city made me put the road there.
Naming it Never Street was my last little bit of teen angst so I wrote it in to spite the city.”
What’s in a name?
When Tom and Margaret Hudson, of Hudson Homes, were charged with the task of naming streets, they came up with Erica Court and David Drive.
The names are simple and could likely be found in neighborhoods across the nation because, like thousands before them, the Hudsons decided to dedicate these streets to their children.
“It’s not unusual for (people) to memorialize their family members and kids,” Jeff Halloin, president of Landmark Company, said. “That’s why you see first names all over the place.”
In one such instance, in the north side of Eau Claire, Diane Willer lives on Diane Lane.
“I thought it was kind of cool at first,” she said, “but it gets old pretty quick.”
People make comments to her almost every time when she gives out her address, she said. These comments often range from, “Oh, so you’ll never get lost” to “So, someone named the street after you, huh?” Willer must respond to both of them with a resounding “No.”
In addition to relatives, Kramer added that streets can even be named after dogs.
Another common feature in street names is geographic features such as trees, flowers and bodies of water.
“Topography is pretty popular,” Halloin said, adding that some of the recent streets he helped name, such as Village Terrace Court, followed just that.
Dave Fitzgerald, broker owner and developer at Klevin Realtors Inc., said he has named streets based on geographical features several times.
In a few wooded areas of town, Fitzgerald coined Forest Knoll Court and Drive as well as White Birch Court and Street.
But on the cul-de-sac where his family lives, Fitzgerald chose his oldest daughter’s name, Katelyn.
Fitzgerald added that he also likes to name sets of streets in a similar nature to give them a theme, such as Springfield and Summerfield drives.
Street themes are the most common way of naming streets, Amundson said, and Eau Claire has its share of themed areas.
On the south side, Putnam Heights has American historical figures such as Eisenhower and Patton. In Princeton Valley, there’s Yorktown, Boston and Freedom, just to name a few. Right off of Clairemont Avenue there’s Beverly Hills Drive, London Road and Fairfax Street. And, just like hundreds of other towns, Eau Claire has a tree and flower theme.
Some of the more unusually themed neighborhoods in Eau Claire include an area near Highway F named after Jeffrey Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales,” a “Holiday Acres” subdivision that includes Jingle Court, and, on the northeast side of town, a solar system theme.
“One of the great points of confusion is what about the people on Pluto? Does the city vacate it or what?” UW-Eau Claire alumnus Rick Wold said laughingly referring to the recent decision to remove Pluto from the list of planets.
Wold has lived on Moon, Avenue that is, since 1985 and likes to tell people he was one of the first to be on Moon, he said.
“We also tell people that we live on the dark side of Moon,” Wold said.
But the people Wold really feels sorry for, he said, are the people living on Uranus.
“We don’t say much to them because it has probably all been said before.”
Names matter
A street’s name can emphasize whether or not an area is exclusive, corporate or informal, Halloin said.
“Names do matter and can really hurt or help a property’s perceived value,” he said.
Aaron Brunette, sales manager for Haselwander GMAC, agreed.
“Perception is key,” he said, citing areas in Eau Claire such as Princeton Valley where people tend to expect high-end homes. “(The naming of streets) does play quite a bit of a role,” he said. “Reputations precede certain areas.”
Brunette said streets named for trees tend to be thought of as old and potential homeowners shy away from them. Similarly, he said, people expect to find farms on county roads and lots of traffic on Main Street.
“People tend to look for something new and refreshing . something you don’t normally see,” Brunette said.
Jim Callahan, who has lived on Bird Lawn Road since 1996, said he enjoys the street’s name so much that it’s the license plate on his car – BRD LWN.
“It’s kind of unique because you don’t see many streets named Fish Bowl or Dog House or something like that,” he said.
Plus, it’s not just a clever name since hundreds of birds, from robins to crows, flock to the lawns of Bird Lawn Road residents, he said.
Similarly, on Badger Avenue, adjunct assistant professor Gloria Hochstein said she likes her street because it’s different from a person’s name or a tree. But in a city so close to the Minnesota border, Gophers fans may not appreciate the title.
“I actually had a neighbor for a number of years who was a Minnesota Gophers fan,” she said, “but didn’t seem to mind it because it’s the state animal.”
Would the Packers fans who live on Viking Place feel the same?
If you’re not into the whole brevity thing .
“When I’m naming streets,” Fitzgerald said, “I’m going to be selling homes on the street so I pick a name that people can be comfortable with and that’s easy to pronounce.”
Carol Allen, a dean assistant in the Dean’s Office, lives on Lamplighter Court on the edge of the city.
“The name is really kind of fun,” she said. “It gives you kind of a nice image . takes you back to a time where things were a little more simple.”
But living on Lamplighter Court isn’t always fond reminiscing, she said, because the name is long and cumbersome making it hard to give directions and fill out forms.
Meanwhile, Don Nelson has lived on Alf Avenue for five years and likes the brevity of his street’s name.
“I like it because it’s short and easy to spell,” he said.
Nelson said he has a different problem because Alf Avenue is often confused with the little magical folks who dwell in trees or with Santa Claus. No one en route to Nelson’s home, however, has made reference to the popular ’80s TV show featuring a cute, furry alien, he said.
So as the years go by and construction continues in cities across the nation, drivers-by can only hope for more unique street names that catch their eye. Feeney, a local historian of sorts, said he notices more and more each year.
“I’ve seen a lot of streets made right out of the woods,” he said of Eau Claire. “And (developers) keep adding to them every day.”
