Somewhat related to threads on strange street names … I was wondering exactly who lives on those streets that have unusual street names. Did the name of the street influence their buying decision, either positively or negatively?
Let’s say you found the perfect house, and it was on Gay Street – a common street name in much of the US. Knowing that people might snicker when they heard your address, would you buy a house there?
What about streets with names that sound ugly by today’s standards, such as female names from the 1920s? Would you choose to buy house on Mildred Lane, Ethel Avenue or Gertrude Street?
What about a street name that is impossible to pronounce, like a good, 14-letter long Polish street name somewhere in Buffalo?
Finally … let’s say you were relocated to Circleville, Ohio. You found the house of your dreams … on Hitler Road. Sold?
What I want in a house is fairly specific and picky–enough so that if I found the right one, I’m not going to let the address change my mind.
I confess I’ve seen street names and felt I’d be embarrassed to live there–not ones that were old-fashioned so much as the ones that seem pretentious or silly. There are some subdivisions around here where all the street names hearken back to Merrye Olde England. I’d be mortified to always be saying “Yes…that’s Sherwood…but put an “e” on the end…we had a creative developer…” or “Turn right on Robin Hood, your second left will be Friar Tuck Lane…” There’s a chi-chi housing development here called “The Polo Fields” which I find hilarious, as there is no polo tradition here. But I digress.
This came up in the Madison area ten years ago. A little town adjacent to Madison called Blooming Grove changed the name of Gay Avenue (believed to be named for a local developer) to Alvarez Avenue (in honor of University of Wisconsin football coach Barry Alvarez, who had led the Badgers to a Rose Bowl victory a month earlier). I was working for a local gay paper at the time and wrote an article about it. I had to bite my tongue more than once while interviewing residents of the street. One of them was like ‘children who grew up there years ago are traumatized by having lived on Gay Avenue and getting teased about it’ but he opposed any type of educational effort to address teasing or anti-gay harassment. Another one was like ‘I was telling people before I moved there I was going to get the name changed because no way was I living on Gay Avenue.’ Bitch.
Yeah, I giggle like a 12-year-old every time I see it. I don’t think I could afford to live on it, unfortunately, but it’d be unreasonably amusing to me if I did!
If you take a right onto Robin Hood Lane, your first right would be Little John Court, your first left would be Friar Tuck…When is your housewarming? grin
Not if I was even considering having a kid that might be in school while I lived there. It’s hard enough being that age as it is. If there were no offspring-related concerns, though, then yeah! It wouldn’t be nearly as good as living on Fangboner Road in Fremont, Ohio, though.
When I was looking for a house, I was hoping I’d find one on Labor-in-Vain Road in Ipswich, MA. Sort of summed up how I was feeling at the time.
How about living in Belchertown, MA?
I’d most definitely live on Gay Street, but I’m holding out for Easy Street. Yes, we really have one here. Coincidentally, it’s the shortest street in town.
I had a hard time forgiving my parents for moving from Forest Avenue (yes there really was a forest) to Humpfer Street (no humping–at least not that summer.)
I live on Gay island. (say it out loud. “I love man”). It actually has a high ratio of homosexuals despite (and I am not sure if this is true) Gays being illegal on the Island.
I wouldn’t care about the name of my street, but it’s definately a pain in your ass to give directions to your house when people keep stealing your street signs - an acquaintance used to live on Weed St, and he’d give you directions and say “And turn by the pole with no sign on it.”
I do love to see great rural street names - my aunt lives on Hardup Road, which used to be seriously country but the city (if one is going to call Albany, GA a “city”) has somewhat moved up on her. And the girl next door my first year of college lived in Lee County, Alabama, where all the roads were “Lee County Road 114” or “Lee County Road 43”, not just with those black county road signs but with green street signs.
“In the town of Alamo, CA, the residents living on a street named ‘Gay Court’ were so embarrassed that they changed the name to ‘High Eagle Court.’ I guess ‘Homophobic Idiot Boulevard’ was already taken.”
Actually I nearly live on Lover’s Leap, and I used to drive over Burpee Road. I love odd streetnames.
