Eau Claire Street NamesGeography 367- Summer 2010

Brent Kann

I examined the street names of Eau Claire to see if communities with common street names indicated the relative era in which the houses were built.

I also examined the prevalence of streets named after trees, as well as streets named after local historical figures.

Birdseye View of the Third Ward. Microsoft Bing Maps 2010. < http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?q=Eau+Claire&mkt=en-US&FORM=BYFD >

I examined 4 specific areas of Eau Claire.

1. West Side

2. Third Ward

3. Putnam Heights

4. North Side1

2

3

4

Areas Examined

West Side-1st Avenue through 10th Avenue running north and south. Based on a grid system but curved due to the Chippewa River.

-The area dates to the Late 19th century.

-Acts as a residential area, with Water street serving as a commercial district.

-This area contains 25 historic landmarks

Eau Claire Landmarks: Designated Historic Properties in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. 1986. 6,18-19. Print.

Map from Google MapsCorners of Third and Broadway

Third WardStreets named after Presidents : Roosevelt, McKinley, Garfield, Lincoln, Wilson, Coolidge, Jefferson, Washington, Harding and Hoover.

-Houses in this neighborhood date to the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

-20 historic houses in this area, representing a variety of architectural revival styles.

-The third ward was home to Eau Claire’s most prominent business and professional citizens.

Eau Claire Landmarks: Designated Historic Properties in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. 1986. 34-35. Print.

Map from Google Maps

Corner of Garfield and Roosevelt

Putnam HeightsStreets in this neighborhood named after: PresidentsHamilton, Polk, Truman, Grant, Tyler, Filmore, Taft, Nixon, Eisenhower.

GeneralsMacArthur, Patton, Bradley, (Eisenhower), Clark, Walker

Admirals Mitscher, Nimitz, Sherman.

-The houses in this neighborhood date to the 1950s and 1960s. The reason for these street names may have been that the residents were veterans of World War II and sought to instill a sense of patriotism by naming streets after important U.S. leaders. -The California Ranch and Minimal Traditional Styles are most prevalent in this neighborhood, which were both common for post World War II suburbs.

Corners of Patton and MacArthur Vogeler, Ingolf. Settlement Geography of Eau Claire: Architectural Styles. Eau Claire: 1989.

North Side “Solar System” Neighborhood Streets in this neighborhood named:Star, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Comet.

Houses in this neighborhood date to the late 1960s to 1970s.

This may be explained by increased interest in space exploration during the space race, including the United States moon landing in 1969.

Most Common Street Names• Top 20 U.S. Street Names• Second (10,866) • Third (10,131) • First (9,898) • Fourth (9,190) • Park (8,926) • Fifth (8,186) • Main (7,644) • Sixth (7,283) • Oak (6,946) • Seventh (6,377) • Pine (6,170) • Maple (6,103) • Cedar (5,644) • Eighth (5,524) • Elm (5,233) • View (5,202) • Washington (4,974) • Ninth (4,908) • Lake (4,901) • Hill (4,877)

• Eau Claire has all of the top 20 street names in the city.

• "Most Common Street Names". National League of Cities. 6/10/2010 <http://www.nlc.org/about_cities/cities_101/184.aspx>. Census and You. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Geography Division. February 1993.

Street Names and TreesI examined a complete street name

list for the city of Eau Claire which contained approximately 1,000 street names and found some interesting facts:

• 8.6% of Eau Claire Streets are named after trees.• 12.4% make reference to trees, forests, woods,

orchards, ect.

This may be due to the fact that Eau Claire was a logging city.

This could also be due to the fact that a quarter of the top 20 most common street names in the United states are named after trees.

Truax Blvd – Peter Truax

Dells Court – Dells Paper and Pulp Co.

Eddy Street – Big Eddy Saw Mill

Randall Street – Adin Randall

Carson Park Drive – William Carson

Ingram Drive – O.H. Ingram

Our story, 1776-1976 : the Chippewa Valley and beyond.. Eau Claire, WI: Eau Claire Leader -Telegram, 1976.

Other Notable Streets

Google Maps

Eau Claire County 1910http://www.historicmapworks.com/Map/US/476126/Eau+Claire+City+++Left/Eau+Claire+County+1910/Wisconsin/

Google Maps 2010

I examined a historic map of Eau Claire dated 1910 and then compared it to a modern map found on Google .

The 1910 map gave the land owner’s name. I found 3 examples that coincided with current street names.

Moholt Drive -named after Anna Mohult

Wilson Drive – named after Wilson Land Co.

Gilbert Street – named after H. T. Gilbert.

Streets Named after Land Owners