What’s in a Name?

One of the obscure things that can be learned from the Census data has to do with road names.  According to the Washington Post the most popular road name in the U.S. is Park.  The second most popular name is Second.  Oddly enough there are more Second Streets than First Streets, but it’s believed this is because many towns name their first street Main instead of First.  The data shows much can be surmised about an area from the street names.  Sometimes names are derived from important persons living in the town, other times streets are named for geological features, like our many Ridges.  Here in North Ridgeville there are 481 street names.  There are quite a few streets named for people, (both given name and surname) and many named for natural resources such as tree names.  There are multiple versions of roads here with names that include the words Meadow or Wood.  It seems North Ridgeville people appreciate nature at its finest!

Our President, Jeff Sigsworth, made a list of historical names of North Ridgeville roads that you might enjoy reading.  These have been compiled through research, word of mouth and the memories of long-time residents such as Frances Smith.   If you are a genealogist, these might help in your research.  Others of us might just enjoy imaging how they were named and why they were changed to names we now use.

Center Ridge     The Buffalo Trail (Buffalo to Detroit),  The Buffalo Stage Road (from Buffalo to Cleveland in the early years),  State  Route #20 or   Route#20/#113

Butternut Ridge     Lorain Rd.,    State Route #10 or Old Route #10

Jaycox Rd.      Snow Road

South Lear Nagle    Stetson Road

Stoney Ridge Road     The Powers Road,      Ridgeville-Lorain Rd.

Avon Belden Rd.     Center Road,   Station Road,   Avon-Belden- Wooster Rd.,   State Route #76 /  State Route #83 (changed in 1972)

Otten Road     Bread Alley

Case Road   Case Boulevard

Bainbridge Road   Lounsborough Road

Bagley Road   The Dutch Road,    The German Road

Breck Court    Pig-Tail Alley

Root Road    The Old Indian Trail

In addition to these there are a few partial roads or abandoned roads such as these:

Bagley Road extension to Columbia Twp.  (now abandoned)  The Old Mud Road

Mills Road  parts were called Townline Road

extinct road that used to run east off Stoney Ridge (north of Barres)  Doughnut Alley