When you hear “East Cleveland,” you would naturally think they’re talking about the east side of downtown Cleveland. Nope. It’s a city that separate from Cleveland.
Another common naming habit is that the streets in well-off sections of cities get names that sound well-off. I remember reading about this in the novella “Goodbye, Columbus” by Philip Roth. About five pages into it (depending on the edition you read), the main character, who isn’t from a rich family, goes to visit a girl who definitely is from a rich one, and notices that the street’s “names were those of eastern colleges, as though” the people there wanted to let outsiders know that their children would be going to Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.
I’m pretty sure my mother decided on our house in PA because it was on Vasser Rd., connecting to the main street via Lawrence Ln. and Radcliffe Rd. They weren’t all that well known names to the general public, the snob appeal was rather limited.
It’s Vassar Road, of course. If they had named it Vasser Road, that would be really ironic. Then the people naming it would be trying to boast about going to a top college even though they couldn’t spell very well.
ooooo! I have to nitpick. The Office was set in Slough, not Staines. However, Ali G. was from Staines so the principle still applies
Vassar of course. I can hear my mom’s exasperation.
Palo Alto has a lot of streets named for famous writers. But it is Palo Alto.
Constantia is one of the weathiest suburbs of Cape Town. The neighbouring suburb of Plumstead has a considerably less affluent reputation. Real estate agents have started rebranding part of Plumstead as “Plumstantia” to make it sound more posh.
Another estate agents’ confection in London is that an unlovely area of Deptford along the river north of Greenwich (formerly wharfage, warehouses, light industry and social housing, but now acquiring posh residential development) was being called the Deptford Riviera, but that seems to have been laughed away.
And some upper-crust (or would-bes) moving into Stockwell and Streatham (pleasant but ordinary middle-class residential areas) took for a time to referring to them as though they were idyllic country villages - St. Ockwell and St. Reatham. I don’t think that lasted long, either.
It’s funny. My subdivision is in Rockville and you can tell where Rockville ends and Potomac begins because that’s where the sidewalk ends and there’s a small sign saying, “End County Maintenance.” Otherwise, it’s identical on either side of the line. Same selection of home models and everything.
Hyde Park is a neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, which is home to the University of Chicago and the Museum of Science and Industry.
It was first created and named in 1853, by a real estate speculator; at that time, it was not within Chicago’s city limits, and the developer named it after London’s Hyde Park, in order to attract affluent businessmen to buy a home there.
The Toronto suburb of The Beaches has a Kew Gardens possibly for a similar reason.
What is puzzling is the “Sharon Chinese School” is in the Canton High School, no “less glittering” academic reputation school. The “Russian School” is in a former KFC restaurant, opposite a Walmart.
No cause you took all of mine! I sometimes get mail that says North Potomac though I’m firmly in Gaithersburg, even my street signs say Gaithersburg on them.
Didn’t they just rename the White Oak Metro stop to North Bethesda as well?
Around these parts, trailer parks/mobile home parks for some reason are often named “Estates”. Sunset Valley Estates, Denny Estates, etc.
Yes, but it was White Flint, not White Oak.
Oh yeah, there’s a White Oak here too and I got them mixed up. I try to avoid that area as much as possible.
It had that freestanding Sears that was there for forever until it closed last year. Used to go there all the time.
That’s where we usually bought clothes for our kids, as well as appliances. We’d probably still shop there if it stuck around.
About five miles down the road from Hollywood you will find California, Maryland, which was named for the state.