# Skid Row Question
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skid-row-question/337329
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 27, 2005, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skid-row-question/337329 "2005-12-27T05:33:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@cclewis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cclewis)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2005, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skid-row-question/337329/1 "2005-12-27T05:33:42Z")
Where does the term "Skid row "come from?\*\*
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### Author:  [@Critical\_Mass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical_Mass)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2005, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skid-row-question/337329/2 "2005-12-27T05:42:55Z")
No need to yell.
From [this site.](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=skid+row)
> [@](#):
>
> 1931, from skid road “track of skids along which logs are rolled” (1851), from skid (n.). The sense was extended to “part of town inhabited by loggers” (1906), then, by hobos, to “disreputable district” (1915).
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### Author:  [@inkleberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/inkleberry)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2005, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skid-row-question/337329/3 "2005-12-27T05:43:01Z")
Whoa, easy on the super-size fontage.
“A far cry from Park Avenue, Wall Street, and even Main and High Streets is Skid Row, a synonym for poverty since 1931. Skid Row or Skid Road was a common name in 19th century America for logging roads paved with logs or timber. The claim that the original Skid Row was in Seattle is false—the earliest known use is from the Adirondack region of New York. The metaphorical sense stems from the wild and wooly logging camps found along such roads.” [Cite](http://www.wordorigins.org/AWWW/Vol04/AWWW062405.html)
"This term for a run-down area of a town where the unemployed, vagrants, alcoholics, tend to congregate is American in origin, dating to about 1931.
It comes from an older term, skid road, referring to a logging road paved with tree trunks, or skids. This usage dates to around 1880. An area of a town where loggers hung out was usually a rough neighborhood and/or the red-light district, a place where vagrants and bums could also be found in numbers.
It is often claimed that the original skid row was in Seattle. The available evidence, however, does not support this claim. The earliest known use of skid road is from the Adirondack region of New York." [Cite v.2.0](http://www.wordorigins.org/wordors.htm)