Street Name Origins

[US75Guy]

I'm looking for the origins of some of the street names in town. Who were they named for? I know some of the obvious, but was looking for others. Do you know any others?

Obvious:

Preston Road-named for the Preston Trail which brought cattle down from Oklahoma to the trains here in Dallas.
Bryan St- named for John Neely Bryan, the founder of the city.
Marsalis Ave- named for Thomas Marsalis who re-named Hord's Ridge to Oak Cliff


Mystery:

Cedar Springs- Where were these springs? Are they still around?
McKinney Ave and Greenville Ave-Im guessing at one point these roads took you there.
Zang Blvd.- Who was Zang?
Skillman- Complete mystery to me

[RobertB]

We've previously discussed Skillman -- it was originally called Lindbergh Ave:

Bankers are less complicated civic honorees than aviation pioneers. Case in point, Skillman Street, which has long been a major traffic artery and a point of reference for destinations in east and northeast Dallas. But Skillman Street was originally named Lindbergh Boulevard in honor of Charles A. Lindbergh, who made the first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic in 1927. Lindbergh also visited Dallas the same year in his plane, The Spirit of St. Louis. But his politics did not sit well with Dallasans. As WWII loomed, Lindbergh expressed sympathy for the German people and urged U.S. neutrality. In the late 30s, Lindbergh Boulevard was re-named Skillman Street in honor of W. F. Skillman, a Dallas banker. Lindbergh, of course, went on to fly 50 combat missions in WWII...for the U.S.A.

That and a bunch of other Dallas trivia turned up here:
http://gilglover.com/Dview3.htm

Here are the other street name notes from the page:

Why is there both a street and a park called "California Crossing" in northwest Dallas? The 1849 California gold rush brought droves of fortune seekers through the growing community of Dallas. Upon leaving town in well loaded wagons, the travelers had to cross the Trinity River to move on westward. A spot north of town offered both an easy crossing and a detour of several other tributaries west of Dallas. This route was so well traveled it became known as "the California crossing," pictured here as it looks today. The 49ers would have loved the bridge.

Central Expressway took its name from the old Houston & Texas Central Railroad route through Dallas.

Who the hell was Harry Hines? And why did they name that big ol' wild, crazy Dallas street after him? Harry may or may not have had anything to do with the wildness on Harry Hines Blvd., but he was a successful Dallas oilman, what else? Hines also was Texas Highway Commission Chairman from 1935 to 1941.

[US75Guy]

That's a very fun site. Good suggestion!

[RobertB]

I don't have time to extract the good parts, but here's a discussion from 2002 on another forum on the subject. If someone could pull out the details, it would be great:

http://www.dallashistory.org/cgi-bin/webbbs_config.pl?read=5902

[tamtagon]

Cedar Springs- Where were these springs? Are they still around?

There's a plackard in Craddock Park (Lemmon @ Tollway) noting the historical location of Cedar Spring.

[US75Guy]

....and now underneath six lanes of expressway......very Dallas indeed. At least there is a park left.....

[Haretip]

From Dallas Historical Society Forum:

It was named for/by John F. Zang, but growing up there we called it Zangs. Maybe because it was Zang's Boulevard!

[trolleygirl]

....and now underneath six lanes of expressway......very Dallas indeed. At least there is a park left.....

Every city in the country is guilty of building roads over their waterways.

[US75Guy]

Bridges are one thing. Sealing, capping and/or diverting into a drainage ditch because a developer wants to build a strip center......that's very Dallas.

Just look at the Trinity.

[Lakewooder]

A lot of people say "Samuell's" instead of Samuell. Even for the high school.

[Insidetheloop]

Cedar Springs are still visible after a long wet period. I forget the exact cross street, but they are still pumping.

In Far North Dallas, just about 100 yards west of Preston Road just north of Keller Springs Road is an active spring. It looks like a small pond, not much larger than a swimming pool or two. I believe it's right off of Westgrove. This was a major watering hole on the Shawnee Trail/ Chisholm Trail/Preston Military Road. It was about 1/2 day's ride from Dallas and wagon trains would often stop there for lunch or stop for the night before pushing into Dallas.

[RobertB]

Cedar Springs are still visible after a long wet period. I forget the exact cross street, but they are still pumping.

In Far North Dallas, just about 100 yards west of Preston Road just north of Keller Springs Road is an active spring. It looks like a small pond, not much larger than a swimming pool or two. I believe it's right off of Westgrove. This was a major watering hole on the Shawnee Trail/ Chisholm Trail/Preston Military Road. It was about 1/2 day's ride from Dallas and wagon trains would often stop there for lunch or stop for the night before pushing into Dallas.
I've driven by there pretty often, and wondered why the lot hasn't began blossoming with McMansions. So, the hydrology makes it difficult to build. Cool. That would explain why it hasn't been paved over and turned into a housing development... yet.

In East Texas, you still see fading billboards telling Ozarka to get out. That spring water you buy in the bottles may have a picture of a scenic waterfall on it, but it comes from big pumps in wells that are upstream from the springs... which then dry up.

One more springy note: the glass bottom boat tour at the Aquarena Center (http://www.aquarena.txstate.edu/) at Texas State University at San Marcos (the nom du jour) should not be missed. The springs are impressive, even under 50 feet of crystal-clear water. You hardly even miss the mermaids, or Ralph the Swimming Pig (http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/1997/02/17/editorial4.html).

[tyson]

According to Wikipedia: Harry Hines Blvd is named for Harry Hines in honor of his work helping to get roads paved in this part of the state. Harry Hines served on the Texas Highway Commission from Feb. 15, 1935 to April 11, 1941 and for the first two years as its chair according to the records at the Texas Department of Transportation.

[RobertB]

According to Wikipedia: Harry Hines Blvd is named for Harry Hines in honor of his work helping to get roads paved in this part of the state. Harry Hines served on the Texas Highway Commission from Feb. 15, 1935 to April 11, 1941 and for the first two years as its chair according to the records at the Texas Department of Transportation.
Good info -- welcome to the forum!

[dfwcre8tive]

I've always loved the story behind St. Paul street, and it's ironic that First Baptist Church will be locating their expansion around this street...


No one could claim that the Apostle Paul is a forgotten figure. But I love the forgotten story of how downtown Dallas came to have St. Paul Street.

Prominent local resident Barnett Gibbs got the privilege of naming the new street when he built a fine home there in the 1870s.

Dallas was full of teetotalers and prohibitionists at the time. Gibbs was a man who saw nothing wrong with an occasional taste of strong drink.

So he named the street St. Paul just to call attention to Paul's advice in 1 Timothy: "Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake."

Some other good ones here:
http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/64561142.html


My little newsroom cubicle looks out over Young Street. It's named for the Rev. William C. Young, pastor of the First United Methodist Church and a city alderman in the late 1800s.

As an alderman, Young was also a prolific street namer. Dallas City Hall is on Marilla Street, named for the good reverend's wife. Nearby is Canton Street, named for Young's Kentucky birthplace.


One local namesake was a real surprise. Scyene Road runs in eastern Dallas. I knew it was named for the Scyene community that once existed there.

But I was amazed to learn that the rowdy frontier town (home to lady outlaw Belle Starr) was named for the famous river in France, the Seine. It's just that locals quickly began to mispronounce it and then misspell it.

So Paris has the Seine, and Dallas - sigh - has Scyene Road.

[dfwcre8tive]

There is interesting street name history starting at page 292:

http://books.google.com/books?id=VTQSV10RBbsC&pg=PA295&lpg=PA295&dq=Barnett+Gibbs+st.+paul+dallas&source=bl&ots=-ngxVjO0oV&sig=1lN6YddZjJvOwIWrRIBKkhNUyFU&hl=en&ei=RA7HTOSYEs2nnAfxw9SeAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

[dfwcre8tive]

The Dallas Historical Society has a card catalog (non-digital) record of all the street names in Dallas. It's interesting to look through if you ever do research at their facility.

[tamtagon]

The Dallas Historical Society has a card catalog (non-digital) record of all the street names in Dallas.

That is so great!

[lakewoodhobo]

Meant to post this before, but a good read about Lindbergh/Skillman:
http://lakewood.advocatemag.com/2011/12/how-lindbergh-drive-became-skillman-street/



How Lindbergh Drive became Skillman Street

Today is the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941. In light of that, I wanted to share this story about our neighborhood.

In 1927, the nation was enamored of Charles Augustus Lindbergh, who in May of that year flew nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean. The flight made Lindbergh an international celebrity. New York City threw him a ticker-tape parade. The U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp bearing the image of his plane, The Spirit of St. Louis. As a result, airmail and aviation generally got a boost.

The same year as Lindbergh’s flight to Paris, Dallas City Council voted to rename a stretch of Skillman Street to Lindbergh Drive. Back then, Lindbergh Drive was an unpaved road from Swiss Avenue to Mockingbird Lane.

Lindbergh visited Germany and toured the Luftwaffe during the ’30s, and he passed along what he learned to the U.S. government before World War II began.

But in 1940, he became the spokesman for the America First Committee, an antiwar group. He argued that the United States should not be involved in the war with Germany. Lindbergh was suspected of being a Nazi sympathizer because of his racist views and his visits to Germany....

[eastdallasson]

learned one the other day-

the continental avenue bridge was created as the lamar-mckinney viaduct in the early 30's (along with corinth, commerce, and cadiz) because it began where lamar and mckinney converged. In 1947 as the Trinity Industrial District (the land reclaimed from the floodplain with the construction of the levees) began to fill up, the city renamed the bridge and road Continental Avenue after Continental Trailways, a bus company, built a substantial facility at the foot of the bridge approach. Continental trailways was later renamed as different bus companies merged and is now part of greyhound. indeed, the site of the continental facility is now a greyhound maintenance facility.