Re: Ballou Street Renamed?
Date: September 25, 2012 02:25PM
daveg Wrote:
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> Curious/interesting.... wonder *why* the name
> change? Family lived on St. Louis (south side)
> back in the 50s. First I've heard of the street
> name Ballou.
daveg,
The name change may have been because:
"Fewer streets names result if only one name is used when two or more streets run, un-connected, on the same alignment."
See Gerrit E. Van Wissink's Street Name Changes, in Streetwise Chicago by Don Hayner and Tom McNamee (pubished 1988)
There are more reasons, but this may apply.
In "Mitchell's real estate map of Chicago and suburbs"
Chicago, 1900-1914 | Region, 1903, sheet 3
http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/su/maps/chi1900/
St. Louis (3500W) is shown ending at North Avenue, and bisecting Ballou (3500W) and Hancock St. (changed to Drake Ave.,also in 1936, at 3510W). It seems then, that Ballou was very closely aligned with St. Louis.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/25/2012 09:36PM by nordsider.