Homan / Kimball name change


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Homan / Kimball name change
Posted by: daveg ()
Date: August 12, 2013 05:57PM

At North Ave there is a street name change. To the south it's Homan, to the north Kimball. Why?

I know there are other street name changes but let's start with this one, just for grins. Please no others.

TIA

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Re: Homan / Kimball name change
Posted by: b.a.hoarder ()
Date: August 12, 2013 07:03PM

Strictly a shot in the dark Dave, but here goes. In the 1800's the northern city limit of Chicago was North Ave. Homan Ave. was named for a builder sometime after 1873 and Kimball was named for an early banker, who was a charter officer of what was Chicago's first bank in 1835. Did both have enough clout that the names were kept as originally given? Homan runs from 11600 S to 1600 N, and Kimball from 1600 N to 6220 N, could it be that Homan was a builder/developer in areas south of North Ave? Mr. Kimball was a land owner who had a large tract to the north of the city limit, thus when his land was annexed into the city his namesake street might possibly have remained as such.

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Re: Homan / Kimball name change
Posted by: daveg ()
Date: August 12, 2013 08:06PM

b.a.hoarder Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Strictly a shot in the dark Dave, but here goes.
> In the 1800's the northern city limit of Chicago
> was North Ave. Homan Ave. was named for a builder
> sometime after 1873 and Kimball was named for an
> early banker, who was a charter officer of what
> was Chicago's first bank in 1835. Did both have
> enough clout that the names were kept as
> originally given? Homan runs from 11600 S to 1600
> N, and Kimball from 1600 N to 6220 N, could it be
> that Homan was a builder/developer in areas south
> of North Ave? Mr. Kimball was a land owner who had
> a large tract to the north of the city limit, thus
> when his land was annexed into the city his
> namesake street might possibly have remained as
> such.


Sure sounds good.

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Re: Homan / Kimball name change
Posted by: PKDickman ()
Date: August 12, 2013 08:22PM

b.a.hoarder Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Strictly a shot in the dark Dave, but here goes.
> In the 1800's the northern city limit of Chicago
> was North Ave. Homan Ave. was named for a builder
> sometime after 1873 and Kimball was named for an
> early banker, who was a charter officer of what
> was Chicago's first bank in 1835. Did both have
> enough clout that the names were kept as
> originally given? Homan runs from 11600 S to 1600
> N, and Kimball from 1600 N to 6220 N, could it be
> that Homan was a builder/developer in areas south
> of North Ave? Mr. Kimball was a land owner who had
> a large tract to the north of the city limit, thus
> when his land was annexed into the city his
> namesake street might possibly have remained as
> such.


Actually it was Walter Kimbell but the city spelled it wrong.

Kimball Ave., 3400W 1600 to 6300N. Named after Walter Kimbell subdivider who donated ground for street. City council named street with change of spelling


Homan Ave., 3400W 1 to 200N 1 to 11700S. Named by Homan Land Assn. which laid out the subdivision in the district. Joseph Homan was the contractor for Homan and Brown & Co.

[url=http://www.chsmedia.org/househistory/nameChanges/start.pdf]CHM Martin & McNalis Street names[/url]

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Re: Homan / Kimball name change
Posted by: Mr Downtown ()
Date: August 13, 2013 02:27AM

Chicago streets were built with patchwork of names, many of them duplicative. In the early 20th century, there was a movement to give those on "the same line" the same name. It wasn't totally successful, and some streets (1400W, for example) have as many as seven names.

Name changes were resisted on arterial streets where businesses would have to change their addresses. In the case of Homan, a name change was probably made more difficult because the section between Lake and Madison was owned by the Park District.

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Re: Homan / Kimball name change
Posted by: daveg ()
Date: August 13, 2013 07:14PM

Thanks to all. And thanks for the Street Name link PKDickman. Bookmarked.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/16/2013 05:58PM by daveg.

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Re: Homan / Kimball name change
Posted by: tomcat630 ()
Date: August 25, 2013 06:59PM

At 1000 w, Sheffield and Morgan are split between north and south sides.

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