Streets named after people

[+lumbricus]

Morning,

 

what do you think about the following category idea?

 

Streets named after people

 

Requirements for posting a new Waymark in this category:

 

-The person the street is named after should have played a roll for the town/city.

(Often the people are not very important for the Big History, but important for the city or county.

So it's not so easy like it seems at first blush. Only collecting pictures of street signs isn't enough. You have to find out why the city named the street like they did.)

-Three pictures are needed. One should be the street sign and the two others should show the street. (Whats special for it, or some nice buildings,...)

-Coordinates should be taken at the street sign.

 

Examples:

 

1)In Prien,Bavaria,Germany we have the "Lujo-Brentano-Straße"

 

In the Waymark should be postet first the relationship to the town Prien, after that, some more informations about the person (a.e. wikipedia,...)

 

Geheimrat Prof. Dr. Lujo Brentano

 

1919 Brentano bought the "Merchant Villa" am Gries in Prien. Even though, the world-renowned economist were offered in several university cities beautiful villas as a gift, he chose the quiet country life. By Lujo von Brenatno and his voluminous correspondence with many scholars of the world Prien was very well known.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lujo_Brentano

 

Not accepted:

 

Martin-Luther-Street, Prien,

 

The street is only named after Martin-Luther because we have a protestant church here. Martin Luther has not been here nor has done something in our town.

 

In the German city "Eisleben" where Luther was born, the street would be accepted.

 

I hope me idea is clear, my first language is German, so please condone my misspellings,

 

All the best,

lumbricus

[+BruceS]

My main problem with this would be over prevalence. In many places in the US nearly every street if it is not numbered is named after someone. Many times the names are obvious for example presidents, early explorers, or other well known people.

 

The other issue is that streets often run for miles thus where would the waymark be and how many places could that street be waymarked.

[+haggaeus]

My main problem with this would be over prevalence. In many places in the US nearly every street if it is not numbered is named after someone. Many times the names are obvious for example presidents, early explorers, or other well known people.

 

That was my first thought but if the "The person the street is named after should have played a role for the town/city" rule would be strictly observed, it should eliminate the Lincoln etc. streets in every town. I like the proposal.

[+lumbricus]

"The person the street is named after should have played a role for the town/city"

 

That's the most important thing.

 

Only one waymark for the same street.

[+Max and 99]

You may need to fine-tune "role". We have a street named after a famous rock group that is from here. I don't know what role they played in our community except to be a popular group that we are proud of.

[+fi67]

The idea has some merits. This would be a possibility to spread valuable historic information about a lot of not too broadly known people.

 

But I still think prevalence is an issue. I checked some street lists around here and found a lot of people-named streets and places. About 80% were named after local persons. I guess I could find over 200 waymarks just here in the city and the closest suburbs. This is a bit too much in my opinion.

[+BruceS]

If the group keeps the "played a role for the town/city" as the focus this may be workable. I think it needs to be some direct role not some obtuse role for example, much of the US west of the Mississippi became part of the country as part of the Louisiana Purchase which was done during the Jefferson administration and many towns have a Jefferson Street. He did play a role for the town... it became part of the country as a result of his administration but I would not consider that a direct role.

 

I would not eliminate all presidential named street either, not far from where I live President Grant had farm and the road in front of it is named Grant Road and it would be an appropriate inclusion.

[+Mr. 0]

I assume this first example would be rejected, but it's something to think about. What about roads that are named for towns, where the town is named for a person? For example, Marion-Mt. Gilead Rd. where Marion, Ohio is named for Francis Marion. So the road, by proxy, is named for a person.

 

Also what about roads that changes name? It's common practice around here when a road runs over a county line, each county gives the road its own name. So on one end it might be Gooding Rd. and on the other end it's Curtis Rd. This is a real example in Marion and Delaware counties in Ohio. One road, named for two different people. Even then sometimes a road will change names at an intersection, or even a bend in the road. Claypool Rd. changes to Yake Rd. in Marion County, Ohio at an arbitrary bend. Again, one road, two people. So would this be 1 waymark for the entire road, or two..one at each end?

 

That aside, I wonder about it being overly prevalent. Many of the roads around here are named for someone. Usually it was a local war vetaran who lived on that road, or simply the first settler who built a homestead. Later the wagon trail became a path, which became a road, and was named for that settler that lived there. In the area of Marion County, Ohio bounded by OH-529, OH-746, OH-98 and Waldo-Ashley Rd., I quickly count 13 roads named for a person. These people did play a role in the county by being settlers here and starting homesteads where they raised families that lead to the founding of nearby towns, counties, and the state itself.

 

I think that strongly defining "played a role for the town/city/locale," like others mentioned, would help. Some subjectivity would come into play though, much like defining "famous" in the grave of a famous person category.

 

Also, where should the Waymark be placed? At one of the ends, or somewhere in the middle at an intersection where there are road signs?

Edited March 1, 2012 by Mr. 0

[+haggaeus]

I would say if the waymarker does the research on the person and puts together some non-trivial description about that first settler or 19th century teacher and culture activist, then the waymark would be well justified.

 

Yes some streets can be long and duplicates may not pop up during the review, that would be another challenge for the officers.

[+silverquill]

I think your idea is quite clearly expressed.

 

I think that defining who had a role in the local community or city is extremely difficult.

John Kennedy was from Massachusetts, and many towns have streets named for him. How local is local? Would we confine it to the town of Hyannis, or other places that he lived, or expand it to Boston where he had an office, or other places where he often visited?

 

How about a street in Port-au-Prince Haiti named for a president who lived there? Or, Martin Luther King, Jr. who maybe never even visited there, but who is a hero to the country for his indirect role? I'm never did find out how Harry Truman Blvd. got its name.

 

There may also be the opposite problem. If a person is known only locally, it may be difficult to get enough information. Small towns may, for instance, rename a street in honor of a local resident who was killed in a war.

 

I do like history categories, so this does have a certain appeal to it. Yet, I'm really reluctant to say we ought to waymark streets. They are, in general, pretty uninteresting in themselves. I also think that Waymarking something that may stretch for miles, instead of something that is at one location, is problematic. There would have to be some logical reason for selecting one precise geographical point. Waymarking random points on a street seems, well, random.

 

This is certainly worth further discussion, but I think the problems are probably too great. I would prefer other sites that are named for local people such as parks, bridges, buildings, etc. They are all more easily identified with one set of coordinates. Of course, we have categories that cover many of those.

 

Thanks for bringing this to the forum!!! I wish more people would do this!

[+bpratt]

This category does not seem so bad to me. I must be getting old because I am starting to like all kids of history

[+lumbricus]

I'm still thinking about it...

But under the week i have to work

[+Jake39]

My main problem with this would be over prevalence. In many places in the US nearly every street if it is not numbered is named after someone. Many times the names are obvious for example presidents, early explorers, or other well known people.

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The other issue is that streets often run for miles thus where would the waymark be and how many places could that street be waymarked.

As Bruce mentioned above "Prevalance" was the reason we didn't include them in our "People-Named Places"

- On the other hand if it only accepts "local" individuals the Category would work.

- Named streets would still have to meet the minimum distance requirements.

- Definately need to post some kind of description about the person and not just "He was the Mayor" or "Local Hero" etc... you get the point.