The many great examples of strangely or strikingly named streets and subdivisions that you’ve sent in since I first wrote about the topic have given me enough material for additional installments of this occasional feature, which appeared in this newsletter and this one. To build on those:
Some streets and neighborhoods in Carefree, Ariz., take their cue from the city’s name in a manner that seems paradoxically labored. There’s Tranquil Trail. Easy Street, of course. Also, “Ho Hum Drive comes to a fork and becomes Ho Road and Hum Road,” Paul Payton of Chatham, N.J., wrote in an email. I thank him for flagging these strenuously becalmed appellations.
They speak to how emphatically a cluster of domiciles — or whoever developed them — can work a theme. The Gingerville Manor subdivision of Edgewater, Md., includes Cinnamon Lane, Tarragon Lane, Cardamon Drive, Fennel Road, Thyme Drive, Peppercorn Place, Coriander Place, Saffron Place and Oregano Drive.
For a similar commitment to a given conceit, check out the so-called “Disney Streets” neighborhood of Midway Hills in Dallas, where you’ll find Cinderella Lane, Pinocchio Drive, Peter Pan Drive, Snow White Drive, Dwarfs Circle, Elfland Circle, Fantasia Lane and Wonderland Trail. (Neva Flynn, Dallas, and Diane Barentine, Dallas, among others)
Street names can be bestowed in a less gauzy and romantic spirit, which was the apparent case with Maalox Court in Louisville, Ky. It’s within a few hundred feet of a road that alludes to a powerful anti-inflammatory: Indocin Court. Perhaps the developer had indigestion, coupled with gout. (Andrew Melnykovych, Louisville)
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