On Mon, 9 Aug 2004, Tom Anderson wrote:

Stupid question here, but did New York's streets have proper names before
they had numbers?

Before 1898, New York was just Manhattan and The Bronx. Downtown Manhattan
streets have non-numeric names and are slightly more disorderly than those
midtown and uptown, which were parceled out by the Commisioners' Plan of
1811:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commiss...7_Plan_of_1811

Brooklyn still has non-numeric names.

Queens is a mess. It was a disorganized collection of cities, towns, and
villages before the formation of Greater New York, and a lot of these
places had streets with the same name. The Queens Topographical Bureau
replaced a lot of these with numbers (and renumbered houses as well) in
just about the most dysfunctional system I can imagine, where something
like 21st Street will be next to 21st Road, next to 21st Drive. Here's a
rhyme to help remember the system:

In Queens to find locations best --
Avenues, Roads and Drives run West;
But ways to North and South, 'tis plain
Are Street or Place or even lane;
While even numbers you will meet
Upon the West and South of Street.

Of course the rhyme is a lie and it doesn't always work that way.

Some photos of Subway stations that have old names:

http://www.forgotten-ny.com/SUBWAYS/.../remember.html

If so, why were numbers considered better? Did this happen to other US
cities, too?

Austin, Texas used to have its east-west streets named after trees and its
north-south streets named after rivers (and downtown the rivers are
actually in geographical order!). They later numbered the east-west
streets. It's much less romantic but much easier to find things. Later
they renamed two of the numbered streets after minority activists and seem
to be thinking about more. The state thought that was silly and refused to
change motorway signs without being paid, which the city refused to do, so
the street signs say "Cesar Chavez Blvd" but the motorway signs say "1st
St."
--
Michael Hoffman