I was talking with some friends last night, one of them a woman from Ohio. During the conversation, she referred to the land between the sidewalk and the curb in a residential area, which, while usually maintained by the homeowner, is usually a city easement, as the Devil’s strip.
We’d never heard that term, and, while she said it was common usage where she grew up, she had no idea as to its origin. Anybody?
From where in Ohio did she come?
In the Cleveland area, I have always heard it called the treelawn, which was the same term we used in Metro Detroit. Google turned up a single hit on “devil’s strip treelawn” (the final entry on this page). I had originally intended to make a smart-assed remark about it coming from “those Southerners” in Akron and Canton, then I removed “treelawn” from my search and came up with this hit. (On the other hand, it still seems to be a pretty localized usage.)
I haven’t been abl;e to find an origin, per se, but it appears to be a very localized usage, mainly Northeast Ohio, especially the area in and around Akron:
By removing the apostrophe, I got back to our old friend, The Word Detective, who had this to say about the devil strip:
(BTW, I will take issue with the Word Detective on one point. He points out usages such as shoulder, berm, tree bank, right of way and green strip, but I would challenge “shoulder” and “berm.” In my experience, the treelawn/devil strip/green strip/etc. refers to the area between the curb* (or the shoulder if there is no curb) and the sidewalk. The shoulder or berm is dirt or gravel while the treelawn or devil strip is generally grassy.
Right of way can apply, but it is actually a legal term indicating the area held by the government, not the property owner, where utilities may run their pipes or cables, regardless how the land appears.)
Yeah, yeah! I know…you need to hear from the guy who lives in Akron.
While most of your sources so far are correct, they’re only correct as far as they go.
Using the modern magic of digitized historical newspapers, I can now reveal to the world that in Elyria(Cleveland suburb), in 1907, an application to build a “street railway” (interurban?) in said town says that the space between the rails was commonly referred to as the “Devil Strip.”
I know that this doesn’t relate to the “tree lawn” etc. meaning, but I’m working on it.
I’m almost sure that you have to use “Devil” rather than “Devil’s” if you want to find out the history.
I’ll report back.
And, I’m back as promised.
The origin is…Canadian. 
[sub]blame Canada[/sub]
Seriously, I’ve just read two uses of the term in the Mannitoba papers from 1907, and they referred to the strip of land next to the railroad tracks where a passenger might stand while waiting for the trolley, as “Devil Strip.” In both articles it was used in a manner that couldn’t be misconstrued.
And the search continues.
As a former city employee, I can tell you that the city regularly got flak from people about their treelawns. The treelawn was city property and the city had an urban forestry project to add diversity to the trees along any stretch of street, so that a plague, like Dutch Elm disease, couldn’t come in and denude whole streets as it had done in the past.
So only the city was allowed to plant trees on that strip, or else the homeowner had to consult with the city to choose from among a certain set of species. In addition, the city could take down a tree at any time for any reason.
This did not make people happy.
But I still never heard anyone use the term devil strip. Worse, maybe, but not that term. And I’m less than 250 miles from Akron.
When you are talking about the use of the term for the strip of grass in front of a persons house, I can only find cites from the 1950’s or so. And only in the Akron/Cleveland area. It would seem that this virus was contained somehow. 
BTW, we’re gonna have to meet halfway for dinner sometime.
This post reminds me of the tale I heard saying that the reason it was bad luck to walk under a ladder, is because that is one of the few places the devil can come out in the real world. No idea of the validity of that–but assuming it is true, for some reason it makes me think that these are related items.
Perhaps the idea being that anywhere you can probably walk and be safe, still is only probably safe.
I grew up in Cuyahoga Falls. We always called it the Devil’s Strip.
I’ve seen one of those “Don’t part on this devil’s strip” signs. It was in Cuyahoga Falls, last year. Cuyahoga Falls is a municipality immediately adjacent to Akron, OH.
It doesn’t appear to be the dominant term in my neighborhood in Akron, though.
Not much help with the etymology, I’m sure, but in my home town the city street right-of-way extends (widthwise) to the midpoint of the sidewalk, leaving the “treelawn” or “Devil’s strip” (Ohio street, not Manitoba railway, usage) in the city street easement. A hunch: “Devil’s ___” was apparently the occasional usage for land whose title was controverted; the application of “Devil’s strip” to the between-sidewalk-and-street area may derive from this.
I had never heard “devil’s strip” while living in Shaker Heights, but treelawn was frequently used. I wonder how it changed from devil’s strip to treelawn in the space of 45 miles. Where is the dividing line? Twinsburg?
Anything new happening at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?
Some researchers at Harvard did a study on various dialect terms. Their page on this item. Devil’s strip wasn’t a choice unfortunately, but “other” was quite high (10%) so that means they missed some choices. Most people don’t have a term for this.
Great link. “I have no word for this” was the response of about 68 % of the people.
I grew up in the 1940’s-60’s in Arlington Virginia. I had no word for that strip. When I moved to Akron in 1971, “devil strip” was what they called it. Who was I to speak up?
Oh, yeah! And they called it “pop.” Can’t believe they didn’t know it was “Coke.” :smack:
What part of metro Detroit? I ask not to stalk you, but I’ve never heard it called “devil’s strip” nor “treelawn” here. It’s just an “easement” as far as I’ve ever heard.
For some reason people in Utah called them Boulevards. at least the people in my area.
Which part of Akron are you in? I never heard it referred to as anything but that while growing up in Goodyear Heights.