Los Angeles has Century, Victory, Imperial and Olympic, to name just a few. Can you beat that?
As for the dullest, Columbus, Ohio has to be right up there. Main, Town, High, Broad… It almost puts you to sleep, until you happen upon Gay Street.
Then there’s the mostly-numbers scheme of Salt Lake City. 1600 West and streets like that. So functional, yet so boring.
You can’t beat San Francisco’s Latin American Dictators of Castro and Noriega…
New Orleans by a mile. Bourbon, Tchoupitoulas, Royal, Burgundy and dozens of others are not only famous but require someone to know about history to give the correct pronunciation. Street names are lesson in American, French, and Spanish history in that city.
Agree with New Orleans, for sure.
Drinking a sazerac on Rues Iberville, Bienville, Carondelet, Gov. Nichols, Conti, etc., etc., etc. is an American History lesson par excellance…
Madison, Wi has downtown streets named for early American historical figures. Names such as Washington are too ordinary and don’t give away the scheme. It’s the other historic figures whose names are largely overlooked such as Pinckney, Baldwin, Doty, or Bassett that fill out the street grid. Many were delegates to the Constitutional Convention and/or signed the Declaration of Independence.
A Wisconsin Historical Society article on the topic.
Bow before the might of St. Louis, with Hydraulic, Sulfur, Iron, Industrial, Foundry, Arsenal, Commercial and Terminal Row.
As much as I hate to say it, it’s probably Salt Lake City. When you are given an address you can actually find where it is you want to go. You don’t have to “know” the city.
Save cute, original names for pets.
Atlantic City’s street names read like a Monopoly board, there has got to be something said for that.
It doesn’t qualify as a major city but many of the streets in my old hometown of Plattsburgh, NY have women’s names. There’s Catherine Street, Cornelia Street, Margaret Street, Lorraine Street, Elizabeth Street, Helen Street, Caroline Street, Grace Avenue, Sally Avenue, Sandra Avenue, Sharon Avenue, Erin Avenue, and Marcy Lane.
The south side of Plattsburgh is the location of the old military base (Army, Navy, and finally Air Force). The streets in that area are named after states: New York Road, Arizona Avenue, Idaho Avenue, Nevada Oval, Montana Drive, Mississippi Street, Massachusetts Street, Maine Road, Kentucky Street, Louisiana Avenue, Connecticut Avenue, Iowa Circle, Illinois Drive, Indiana Drive, Kansas Avenue, Ohio Avenue, and Tennessee Road.
And there’s a little street called Ag Way because everyone loves a good farming pun.
Whoosh?
Columbia Md
Lame Beaver Ct
Wedding Ring Way
Satan Wood Dr
Broken Lute
Catfeet Ct
Sweet Hours Way
Weather Worn Way
Monopoly was based off of Atlantic City, so many of the streets are the same.
San Diego has the alphabetical tree series and the state series.
I never did figure out how the states were arranged…
Riddle: What are the three streets in Chicago that rhyme with a woman’s genitalia?
Deloris, Regina and Fabia?
Well, there’s Paulina and Melvina … What’s the third?
Prurient minds think alike: I opened this thread just to add these three streets.
Regina, Paulina, and Lunt
BA-DUM-BUM!
CRASH!
I like those a lot, but they don’t seem to be major streets. You can find interestingly named streets in almost any big city if you look long enough.
I’m still going with Los Angeles. I also like New Orleans, but I’ll take 20th-century optimism over 18th-century eclecticism.
I know. That’s why I posted.
In Nashville, down by the river, there is a stoplight that has a sign that looks like:
<- Church St. Gay St. ->