Street Name Etymology

If we're going to re-name the street with something rebranded to reflect the Red Sox, and also be historically accurate, it could be named Sold At Low Price Street. That's pretty cumbersome, I know, so they could do it as an acronym: SALP Street, with little plaques under each street sign to explain the acronym to tourists.

However awkward the name might look, it does accomplish the following:
1) It's accurate to the history of the Sox and the City and how the two have handled this street.
2) It's not racist.
3) It would help with the branding of the Red Sox, along the lines of: "you're going to get financially gouged paying to get in this park, and you're going to get financially gouged by vendor prices after you're in, so you may as well be reminded of how you got gouged by the transaction to sell this "street" on the cheap back in 2013.
 
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I just saw "Jimmy Fund Drive"

It's cheesy but I kinda like it.
 
Could someone remind me of what the Big Book of Boston Streetname Origins is actually called, and where it can be found?

This is about Pinckney Street, which Wikipedia says is named for Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, a Federalist from South Carolina, nominated as Adam's Veep in 1800 and then nominated for President in 1804 and 1808. His Wikipedia entry claims the street, but would the street history claim the man? (the timing and politics are perfect for getting a street on then-new Beacon Hill, but the Pinckneys were a multi-generation, multi-cousin dynasty)

But yeah, totally a product of slave trading and plantation slaving.

If you had to rename the street after his less-controversial mother (Kinda like renaming the Fitzgerald Expressway after Honey Fitz's less-controversial daughter, Rose Kennedy, or renaming Brown things after only Moses Brown), it is hard to come up with a better slaver/planter than his mother Eliza Lucas Pinckney, who had the idea and made a business of introducing indigo planting to the colonies. (Note the source says "single handedly launched the indigo industry" which is an unfortunate way of describing a woman who had many slave hands)
 
Maybe it's time to rename all streets as either letters or numbers. Letters and numbers never hurt anyone.
 
Shepard said:
Maybe it's time to rename all streets as either letters or numbers. Letters and numbers never hurt anyone.
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On the whole, I'd say "we" (the political process) is doing a good job of sorting this all out. I think most people can hold in mind several semi-contradictory principles:

1) People are memorialized when they are, in some way, "better" than their era (or just happen to own the land being subdivided)

2) It is an important task of civilization to remember the past and benefit from it, through inspiration (Washington) or don't-let-this-happen-again (Holocaust Memorial)

3) Some memorials were advanced for the exact reasons that we now see as conspicuously wrong, or lifting up people who were "better" for something we now view as clearly worse (e.g. Nathan Bedford Forrest, slave dealer, confederate general, and KKK's first Grand Wizard). Strip those away and N.B.Forrest is, at best, a good-looking rich guy who may have had a change of heart late in life--really not enough to offset his "because" I'd call these the "because" monuments. Nathan Bedford Forrest was memorialized *because* he was the slaver, traitor, and supremacist we now reject, not because of "well-stocked plantations" and his "broad shoulders, full chest, and symmetrical muscular limits."

There seem to be 3 tiers:
"Because" monuments, which I say we're free (even obliged) to take down

"Purposely Overlooking" monuments, like Tom Yawkey getting the racism he exhibited in his business purposely overlooked in memorializing him for not much more than his business. Nobody would say Tom Yawkey got a Way *because* he was a racist. These are tough. I'd like everyone to attempt more finesse in navigating these, but I'd say they often need something like a Jean Yawkey or an Eliza Pinckney to increase the teaching value and decrease the purposeful overlook.

"Oustanding" (for a reason we don't strongly disagree with) or "On Balance" monuments, like to the Founding Fathers, where they advanced an important project (democracy) that is still important to us while otherwise fully-embedded in the flawed past, that we can acknowledge without endorsing, as we would any foreign culture.

I'm inclined to give the early, corrupt Irish mayors their monuments because they at least spoke for the powerless of their age, and gross patronage and corruption were a very "all of society" thing
 
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tobyjug said:
KKK, KGB, NAZI, CPSU...?
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I was thinking sequential numbering/lettering, but yes - thanks for pointing out that certain combinations of letters may spell out words or acronyms that trigger people. It's a strange and not wholly understood property of letters, that.
 
A belated answer to the question of Mass Ave:

Arlington said:
So have Boston/Camb/Arlington(then W. Cambridge)/Lexington always agreed on its name, or was "Mass Ave" overlaid on a patchwork of local names, like when Middlesex Turnpike's franchise expired? Or as a nod to DC's Mass Ave, perhaps upon return from the Civil War (that's when and how Arlington (town) got its name).
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The name was overlaid on local streets (see below) in 1894. Based on WardMaps and Wikipedia, here are the former streets most recently preceding the renaming:

Boston:
South of Harrison: East Chester Park
Harrison-Shawmut: Chester Park
Shawmut-Tremont: Chester Square
North of Tremont: West Chester Park

Cambridge:
South of Lafayette Square: Front Street
Lafayette Square-Harvard Street: Main Street
North of Harvard Square: North Avenue

Arlington:
Border to border: Arlington Avenue

Lexington:
South of the Common: Main Street
North of the Common: Monument Street

This Cambridge Chronicle article from 1920 has more information (along with info on many other streets in the city).
More information on Mass Ave in Boston.
 
I saw that Boston has a Jan Karski Way and that it is being extended

Jan Karski was the Polish intelligence officer who, at great personal peril, reported on what he saw in the Warsaw Ghetto and camps across Europe.
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His in-person witness provided the basis for the Polish Republic's report on the ongoing mass extermination of Polish jews.
page1-220px-The_Mass_Extermination_of_Jews_in_German_Occupied.pdf.jpg


I like it as a larger remembrance that the Poles, despite their early military defeat, provided key assistance to the Allies (the other being physically stealing enough Enigma machines and being the ones to first break its code and help Bletchley Park keep up with subsequent upgrades).
 
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Arlington said:
I saw that Boston has a Jan Karski Way that is being extended

I like it as a larger remembrance that the Poles, despite their early military defeat, provided key assistance to the Allies (the other being physically stealing enough Enigma machines and being the ones to first break its code and help Bletchley Park keep up with subsequent upgrades).
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Named such due to this being on the edge of the historic "Polish triangle" area of Dorchester which South Bay Center continues to encroach upon.

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Myopia as a road name, exists in Boston, Roslindale, Winchester, and Stoneham. What's up with that?
- Opthomalogists moolighting as real estate developers?
- Street namers admitting they have "no imagination" / "no vision"

Technically it means "shut eye" so maybe it was supposed to evoke restfulness of the early rural burbs?
 
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I forgot about this thread - I found an interesting one last month! Not sure how well-known this one is or isn't...

Netherlands Road in Brookline/Central Village is named after a particular house on the street.

The house was originally built to be an exhibit for a Dutch cocoa company for the Chicago World Fair in 1893, and was modeled after a Dutch town hall. A wealthy man from Brookline 'bought' it, had it taken down and rebuilt in Brookline brick-by-brick, and the street name followed.
 
Arlington said:
Myopia as a road name, exists in Boston, Roslindale, Winchester, and Stoneham. What's up with that?
- Opthomalogists moolighting as real estate developers?
- Street namers admitting they have "no imagination" / "no vision"

Technically it means "shut eye" so maybe it was supposed to evoke restfulness of the early rural burbs?
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My first thought from that was Myopia Hunt Club up on Cape Ann, which led me to Myopia Club in Winchester, " founded in the 1870s by four brothers with poor vision". That's definitely where the Winchester one comes from.
 
A discussion in the Transit Planning $h!tposting thread led me to be curious about the origin of MBTA subway station names. Here are the non-obvious ones on the Red and Orange lines:
  • Alewife: named for the creek, which is named for the fish species.
  • Davis: Davis Square is named for Person Davis, a businessman and local politician who lived there
  • Porter: Porter Square is named for Zachariah B. Porter and his Porter Hotel (which may or may not be the namesake of the porterhouse steak). The station was unofficially known by that name prior to the 1896 naming of the square.
  • Harvard: Harvard University is named for the Puritan clergyman John Harvard. He was not the founder of the university, as many assume, but his bequest funded much of its creation.
  • Kendall: Kendall Square took its name from the Kendall Boiler and Tank Company, named for its founder Edward Kendall.
  • Charles/MGH: Prince (later King) Charles named the Charles River for himself. The native name for the river may have been Quinobequin, though it appears that was more a descriptive name than a proper name.
  • Park Street: As best as I can tell, the street was simply named for its proximity to Boston Common.
  • Andrew: Andrew Square is named for John Albion Andrew, politician and abolitionist.
  • Savin Hill: the hill was named for Savin (juniper) trees.
  • Fields Corner: different sources claim the area is named for Zechariah Field (an early resident) or Isaac and Enos Field (who had a general store there)
  • Shawmut: The Shawmut Peninsula, derived from the Algonquian Mashauwomuk, is where Boston is located. When the Old Colony Railroad combined its Melville Avenue and Centre Street stations in 1884, the new station was named Shawmut. How the station got the name isn't entirely clear - it may simply be for its location on the Shawmut Branch Railroad. It's not clear why the railroad was named that either.
  • Ashmont: named for Ashmont Street, which was named after a native.
  • Butler: named for Butler Street, of unclear origin. It first appears in the 1874 atlas.
  • Milton: the town is named for Milton Abbey in Britain; that name appears to be a shortening of "Middletowne".
  • Capen Street: unclear origin; street was laid out between 1888 and 1905. Plausible namesakes include Norfolk County sherriff Samuel Capen, writer and publisher Nahum Capen, politician Elisha Capen Monk, and Tufts College president Elmer Hewitt Capen.
  • Mattapan: native name for the locale
  • Wollaston: the neighborhood got its name from Richard Wollaston, a pirate and sea captain, who brought a group of colonists to the area.
  • North Quincy and Quincy Center take their names from the city, named for John Quincy, local politician and grandfather of Abigal Adams
  • Quincy Adams takes its name from president John Quincy Adams, born nearby
  • Braintree is named for the city, named for the English city whose name is of uncertain origin.

  • Oak Grove: The station had the name at least as early as 1859. There are some newspaper advertisements for an "Oak Grove in Malden Centre" in 1851, apparently named for (surprise) the oaks on the property, so I assume that's where the station name came from.
  • Malden Center: Malden is named for Maldon, England, whose name originated with the Anglo-Saxon words for "monument hill"
  • Wellington: the neighborhood took its name from local farmers Jacob and Isaac Wellington
  • Sullivan: Sullivan Square is named for James Sullivan, former governor of Massachusetts
  • Tufts Medical Center: Tufts College (now University) was named for Charles Tufts, a brick factory owner who donated the land for the campus
  • Massachusetts Avenue: the Commonwealth is named for the Massachusett people; the name means "at the great hill" and refers to Great Blue Hill.
  • Ruggles: This one is a mystery. Various sites claim Ruggles Street was named for Edward Ruggles (possibly a slaveowner), David Ruggles, Timothy Ruggles, and Nathaniel Ruggles. None give any sources for the claim.
  • Roxbury Crossing: Roxbury was originally "Rocksberry" due to its rocky soil.
  • Jackson Square: the origin and naming of the square is unclear, but it may be for the Revolutionary War general.
  • Stony Brook: named for the now-mostly-hidden stream which paralleled the railroad. It was "Boylston Street" as a commuter rail station and during planning; "Stony Brook" was decided in 1985.
  • Green Street: the street was named for early residents.
  • Forest Hills: it's not quite clear at first look, but both the station and neighborhood seem to have gotten their names from the Forest Hills Cemetery.
 
Green Line trunk:
  • Medford/Tufts: the origin of the city's name is unclear - it may have been "meadow by the ford" in the Mystic River, or one of two towns in England.
  • Ball Square: the square is named for John Nichols Ball, a businessman and politician who had a factory there
  • Magoun Square: the square is named for John Calvin Magoun, a local farmer and town assessor.
  • Gilman Square: the square is named for Charles E. Gilman, town clerk.
  • East Somerville: the name "Somerville" was apparently chosen arbitrarily and not in honor of anyone specific.
  • Union Square: the square was long known as "Sand Pit Square" and briefly as "Liberty Pole Square"; it was renamed in 1861 both as a pro-reunification gesture and a nod to the Revolutionary War history.
  • Lechmere: the square was named for Richard Lechmere - slave owner and Loyalist
  • Science Park: this name for the museum site was apparently coined by Governor Dever. The Museum never actually took that name, though, so it's not clear why the MTA used it.
  • Boylston: Boylston Street is named for Ward Nicholas Boylston, merchant and philanthropist
  • Arlington: the alphabetical Back Bay streets were named for English earldoms. The Earl of Arlington title comes from Harlington, London, from an Anglo-Saxon personal name. (Interestingly, the town of Arlington was named for Arlington National Cemetery, which is probably descended from Arlington, Gloucestershire, England, which comes from a different Anglo-Saxon personal name.)
  • Copley: Copley Square is named for painter John Singleton Copley.
  • Hynes Convention Center: the venue is named for mayor John Hynes. Definitely one of the most recent origins.
  • Kenmore: Kenmore Square was named in 1930 for tiny little Kenmore Street. That street name may have originated with Olmstead's 1880 plan for extending Commonwealth Avenue. Ipswich and Jersey also appear on that map, though where Charlesgate East and West were built. They seem to be an extension of the Back Bay peerage alphabet, which was proposed to include many streets in the Fenway. "Kenmore" then comes from an apparent misspelling of the Earl of Kenmare. Valentine Browne, 4th Earl of Kenmare, was Lord Chamberlain at the time.
 
FWIW, my understanding is that "Arlington" means "Town of the kin of Arl", Arl being an Anglo-Saxon name for presumably the local clan chief. Similar for other "-ington" names. The town, as you say, renamed itself in a spate of patriotism after the Civil War and in the runup to the Centennial (made official in 1867) being West Cambridge before that (since 1807), and "Menotomy" as a village when part of Cambridge.
 
brazile said:
FWIW, my understanding is that "Arlington" means "Town of the kin of Arl", Arl being an Anglo-Saxon name for presumably the local clan chief. Similar for other "-ington" names. The town, as you say, renamed itself in a spate of patriotism after the Civil War and in the runup to the Centennial (made official in 1867) being West Cambridge before that (since 1807), and "Menotomy" as a village when part of Cambridge.
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Upon further look I found this: https://arlhist.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/2003-4-Spread.pdf

It notes that some Arlingtons in the US were definitely named for the earl, mostly pre-Civil War. More were named after the war for Arlington Cemetery, which can be conclusively traced to Arlington Plantation. However, it's unclear if the plantation was named for the earl or for Arlington, Gloucestershire (both are plausible, and it's also speculated it was in honor of both), which have different etymologies.
 
  • Blandford Street: unclear about the exact route, but everything Blandford seems to trace back to Blandford Forum in England. Its name apparently comes from being a ford where blay (bleak) fish are found. The town of Blandford, Massachusetts, is named for the ship HMS Blandford, itself presumably named for the town.
  • Boston University East: the city of Boston is named for Boston, England, itself named for St Botolph. (There's a St Botolph Street that parallels Huntington from Copley Place to NEU).
  • Amory Street: the street is named for the Amory family that lived in Cottage Farm.
  • Babcock Street: the street is apparently named for farmer George Babcock who lived there
  • Packards Corner: Another one where there's some debate. The Packard's Sales Stable and Riding School was there from 1895 to 1920, and the (unrelated) Packard Motor Car Company building beginning in 1909. Given that the name doesn't show up until the 1940s, I'm inclined to say it's after the car company. Interestingly, both "Packards" and "Packard" appear fairly commonly.
  • Griggs Street: the street is named for a family that settled there in the 1700s (thanks to this BAHS page for many of these)
  • Allston Street: the neighborhood and street are named for painter and poet Washington Allston.
  • Warren Street: the street is named for the Warren family - specifically William Warren II, Brighton town clerk
  • Washington Street: the street is named for George Washington, president and slave owner
  • Sutherland Road and Chiswick Street: the streets are among those named for British and Scottish places
  • Chestnut Hill Avenue: originally Rockland Street due to the topography, it was renamed Chestnut Hill Avenue in 1872 after the village, which took its name from the hills near the reservoir.
  • South Street: South Street originally ran west into Newton to Ward Street; when Commonwealth Avenue was laid out in 1895, it took over most of South Street. It appears to have gotten the name for being at the south end of Brighton.
  • Boston College: the College was in the South End from 1863 to about 1913. It kept its name when it moved to Newton.
 
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