Even numbers should always be on one side of the street, and odd on the other. Common practice is to place even numbers on the north and west sides of streets and odd numbers on the south and east sides of streets although that seems to be opposite of common practice in Fort Wayne. Street Naming and House Numbering Systems at the American Planning Association.
Major Interstate routes are designated by one- or two-digit numbers. Routes with odd numbers run north and south, while even numbered run east and west. For north-south routes, the lowest numbers begin in the west, while the lowest numbered east-west routes are in the south. By this method, Interstate Route 5 (I-5) runs north-south along the west coast, while I-10 lies east-west along the southern border. Interstate System Design at the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration. Exits are numbered from South to North, and West to East. A 4 in front of highway number when it bypasses a city, and a 2, 6, or 8 in front is a spur.
1976 street signs in front of the old St. Mary's Catholic Church.
There may have been a newspaper article about the confusion resulting from having so many highway routes on one sign.
Street names have been listed in the Fort Wayne City and Allen County Directories since the first issue in 1858. Fort Wayne was officially built in 1794 by General Anthony Wayne at the confluence of three rivers where the Miami Indian village Kekionga already existed. Indian trails often followed animal trails and/or high ground winding and weaving along the path of least resistance around large trees, rocks, and natural obstacles in the native landscape through the primeval forest that was often year-around swamp and wetlands. Indian trails were originally foot trails that naturally enlarged over time as more people used them for horseback then wagon roads as the European settlers arrived. Some trails kept Indian names as they became roads, other roads were named for the early explorers and settlers who opened new trails, settled and/or owned the land, sometimes creating the first roads as needed along and through their land to carry on their livelihood. Roads that traverse mostly straight north-to-south or east-to-west were likely created after townships lines and maps were drawn when Allen County was formed in 1824.
New Harrison toll house. L-R Sophia (Trittschuh) Nease with baby in arms, Cora Nease (daughter, died at age 10), John Nease, Hazel (Nease) Long (daughter, seated on horse). [ Ohio ] from Toll Gates: A Forgotten Part of Darke County History David Nilsen fourth & Sycamore blog.
One night in August 1900, more than two dozen men planted dynamite in a small wooden toll road house along the Lexington and Burlington Turnpike in Carroll County, Indiana, and blew it up. A sketch of the ruined building appeared two days later in the Indianapolis News. The story appeared in papers nationwide.
The destruction was part of a long-simmering dispute among county officials, business owners, and farmers over private toll roads and the authority of local governments. Read the whole story of the Toll Road War in Bruce Monroe's "The Lexington and Burlington Turnpike and Indiana's Toll Road War," in the September 2019 issue of the Indiana Magazine of History, available free online through IU ScholarWorks:
The Logansport and Burlington Turnpike, and Indiana’s Toll Road War [ AbstractOn April 3, 1900, a mob of masked men blew up a toll house along the Logansport and Burlington Turnpike in Carroll County, Indiana. The story made news across the state and the nation. Bruce Monroe examines how a fourteen-mile “local road” turned into “a weapon in the commercial rivalry” between two towns in western Indiana. Across the Midwest in the late nineteenth century, toll roads—many built by counties to allow farmers better access to local markets—gave way to free gravel roads, railroads, and, by the turn of the century, interurban lines. The competing interests of county commissioners, business owners, developers, farmers, and taxpayers created disputes that played out in local newspapers and sometimes issued in violence. ]
Below, the sketch from the Indianapolis News, August 23, 1900.
Address Number Changes
Early city street names and addresses changed over time as the city and county developed, including number changes in 1902 and can be found in the city directories and newspaper articles. One example is the John Sollberger saloon at 232 W. Main in 1900 and 1901 but at 916 W. Main in 1902. As the early town expanded, streets with one name were often connected with existing county roads that already had names. Some street names changed over time as they were extended and merged with other existing streets, and/or sometimes eliminated when buildings were torn down or expanded, and bridges were built over creeks, rivers and low flood plain land not possible without modern technology in the pioneer days. Different government jurisdictions of city, county, and township can also create naming conflicts. Finding maps for the years street names were used co-ordinated with the same city directory years should help determine the location of older street names. The 1953 book Streets of Fort Wayne shown below could also help. See the September 26, 2017 discussion on You are positively from Fort Wayne, if you remember... Archived group only visible to existing members on Facebook.
Street Name Changes
Page 6 of the online book History of the Fort Wayne Fire Department : extracts from Fort Wayne, Indiana, newspapers by Weber, Donald Allen states: Listed below are the names of some of the streets taken from the newspaper articles that have been changed since that time. The new names as we know them today are also listed. Water Street is now — Superior Street. George Street is now — West Brackenridge Street. Hamilton Street is now — Masterson Street. Dawson Street is now — Williams Street. Holman Street is now — East Brackenridge Street. Montgomery Street is now — East Douglas Street. Griffith Street is now — Fairfield Avenue. Duryea Street is now — Poplar Street. Pritchard Street is now — Lavina Street. Erie Street is now — East Berry Street. Thomas Street is now — Bowser Avenue. Walton Avenue is now — Anthony Blvd.
Fort Wayne Daily News of 9 December 1897 article “The Names of Many of Our Thoroughfares to be Changed Next Month.” stated: “Last night the committee on streets and rules and regulations, a special committee appointed to change the names of all streets and avenues where the same name appears twice in the city streets, met and concluded it labors. Several new streets were names and some streets and avenues which were continuous or extensions of other streets, all experience changes of names.” from Fort Wayne Street Name Changes by Richard M. Simpson, III,10/19/1967 – 01/22/2021, 7 July 2020 on Indiana Transportation History. His article 1878: A Fort Wayne Street Guide is based on our City Directories of Fort Wayne page.
Street name changes create confusion for genealogy researchers and modern travelers and can lead to lively discussions on social media such as the December 30, 2018 discussion on You are positively from Fort Wayne, if you remember... Archived group only visible to existing members on Facebook. At first it would seem easy to just change a street or road to one name. It is easy if no one has a business or home address recorded anywhere using the existing names and addresses. As any long-time genealogist soon learns, it is not unusual to have that one ancestor who seems impossible to locate until the researcher discovers that the ancestor lived somewhere for a long time without moving, but the government entity whether township, county, or even state boundary lines moved because of early survey or border line disputes that were settled once and for all in a court settlement during or even after their lifetime. Documentation for that ancestor will then be found in whatever government archive entity that claimed jurisdiction over their land for that specific time period. Modern street name changes create similar complications and potential expenses. Costs start with changing street signs, contacting mapping entities whether print or digital, billing and delivery problems can occur for address changes with the post office, various government agencies, package delivery companies, even long ago contacts that use old addresses until made aware of name changes resulting in undelivered items and unintended consequences. These potential costs and complications often lead to simply leaving the existing street names to avoid complications not worth the expense and grief of making those changes.
If you find sources of reliable documentation of local street names and address changes please Contact Allen INGenWeb.
TA DA!!! It's Wall of Fame Wednesday!!! Come on down to 203 W. Wayne Street Suite 316 to check out this vintage wooden street sign [Lafayette ] found in the garage attic of company founder A.K. Hofer! It's an experience you will never forget, and we will get your picture!
