2000-11-10
Cleveland was originally laid out randomly and streets had common names.
House numbering started at one end and proceeded in low numbers until it
reached the other end and stopped. A house on a street numbered as 8 might
be right behind a house on the next street numbered 17. There was no rhyme
or reason to it.
Then about 1905 everything changed to a standardized numbering system. A
line was drawn on a north-south axis running through public square. All
north-south streets east of the line were numbered and renamed in a pattern
following a grid and preceded with the word "east". All north-south streets
west of the line were numbered and renamed in a pattern following the same
grid and preceded with the word "west". Thus you have West 100-th street
and East 100-th street.
All east-west streets retained their names. This system extends into the
suburbs to cover the whole county. However, some of the north-south streets
revert to names in some suburbs. When I was a child the street I lived was
first called West 121-st street in Parma, Ohio. When I was about 6 or 7
years old, it was renamed Ann Arbor Dr. For some reason, the suburbs didn't
want to be linked with Cleveland in this respect.
As far as house numbering goes, north-south follows the same grid as
east-west, but since all the east-west streets are names, house numbers are
hard to find. But, if you live on an east-west street your number follows,
the street names somewhat. 12110 would be the first or second house west of
West 121-st street or east of East 121st street.
This system helps determine who is officially an east-sider or a west-sider.
John
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On
Behalf Of Dennis Brownridge
Sent: Friday, 2000-11-10 15:17
To: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:9114] RE: North American urban grids
The North American urban grid systems (street naming and house numbering
systems) originated in several eastern cities platted in the late 18th
century, notably New York and Philadelphia. These systems were reportedly
inspired by ancient Roman grid systems as well as Cartesian coordinates. In
the Western states, the most highly standardized system is found
in the many
cities and towns founded by the Mormon church.
In grid-street cities, street addresses (house numbers) are usually 100 per
standard block. When, as was often the case, streets were platted every
furlong (10 chains, or 8 streets per mile), a house number therefore
represents 0.1 chain or very close to 2 m. If house lots are a typical 1
chain wide, houses are thus numbered by tens (5200, 5210, 5220, or 5205,
5215, 5225, etc.), with even numbers on one side of the street and odd
numbers on the other, by convention. In large metropolitan areas
laid out in
this system, one sometimes sees house numbers as high as 20000. In this
case, the house number tells you you're 2000 chains (or 2000 / 80 = 25
miles) from the "origin" of the city.
(Note: 1 Gunter's chain = 66 feet = 1/80 mile = 4 rods = 1/10
furlong = 20.1
m, so 0.1 ch = 6.6 ft = 2.01 m).
