I wish I'd remembered this during Dennis and Eric's talk the other week. Maybe I'll ask about it , even though that one's supposedly going to focus on Webster Street. But maybe one of you out there know.
Where's the 1000 block of Park Street?
Perhaps you've wondered about it yourself. It took me a few pass-bys before I noticed. I needed to get to the point where I knew the area enough to start paying attention to house numbers and what direction they went in (former cab driver, y'know…), and what "00" numbers represent which intersections and so on. And then I wasn't sure I was seeing it correctly. I had to go back a couple of times.
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The West side of Park jumps across Clinton from the 900's to 1101 (the house on the SW corner has a Clinton St. address), the East side of the street includes only 1000 and 1004 Park. (See the attached picture.)
What happened to the 1000 block? Did someone lose count? Or a bet? Drop a form? Was there a map error? Someone on the 1000 block sleep with the postmaster's girlfriend? Did the block get swallowed up by an earthquake and the addresses left unused as a memorial? Did some railroad or streetcar take it up somehow? (That one's actually plausible.)
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I've noticed also that the street numbers aren't consistent much past San Jose. On Walnut St., Willow St. and Chestnut St., for example, the 900 block starts at Clinton. I have to check High Street and Broadway.
Given where this is, I wonder if it's somehow related to the infill of the South Shore area, the lagoons and so on, that would have precipitated a numbering shift on certain streets only.
I admit to being fascinated by the trivia of local history, for example, who are the streets named after and — significantly — who chose the names? (I've always wanted to pick a street name.) Street numbering falls into this. For example, have you ever noticed that there are no Tilden Way addresses? No one's address is "X" Tilden Way. That's because when the streets and street numbers were determined, Tilden was still a right-of-way for the "Cohen Line," and that part of "Tilden" had no streetfronts, thus no addresses. Gotta find out when that was, and whether "Tilden" might have been Samuel Tilden, which would imply some sort of New York connection.
If anyone knows the story, please put a link in the comments or something.
