Our OKI Wanna Know feature is a chance for you to ask the tough questions that can't easily be answered with a web search. This week, we return to the names of local roads.
It's one of the most common questions we get: How did such-and-such street get named? In fact, this first question has been asked by several people: How did Cincinnati's street numbering system get so confusing?
For instance, Cincinnati right now has streets numbered Second through Fifteenth running east and west, from Downtown through Over-the-Rhine. Then the numbering stops, until you get to Elmwood Place and Carthage, where the numbers pick up again at 64th, and continue to 77th.
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The manager of reference and research at the Cincinnati History Library and Archives says that's an easy one. Jill Beitz says Carthage once had streets numbered 2nd through 7th, because it was an independent community.
"But then when they were annexed by the city in 1911, they had to change their names."
Beitz say in 1912, City Council voted to change street names to prevent duplication. So, why aren't there other streets in between, in the 20s, 30s, and so on?
"I think they were hedging their bets and just kind of making sure in case the city expanded out they weren't going to bump into a duplicate again," Beitz says. "That's just my guess because the numbers seem to come from nowhere."
Beitz says Oakley has a similar but slightly different story. That's where there's a north-south 28th Street, followed by 31st through 34th avenues. Oakley, too, was an independent village. A group of investors bought land there to build a subdivision. Beitz says the early Hamilton County maps came with a grid, and all the squares were numbered.
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"Most of Oakley was in square 28, so they started the streets at 28 and just kind of went that way," Beitz says. "But for that answer, I have to give credit to Jay Gilbert because he wrote about it in Cincinnati Magazine. So he actually solved the mystery."
Beitz says she has no idea why they started with a street, and then went to avenues.
And let's not forget there's a 1st Avenue in Price Hill. It's in what used to be the — you guessed it — independent community of Warsaw, where there were First through Fifth avenues.
"Now it's East Price Hill. It's also part of Cincinnati, so that's why I don't understand why First Street is still there," she says. "Except there's not a First Street in the city, so..."
Beitz says it's possible, since there never was a First Street, Warsaw's First Avenue didn't need to change names when it was annexed.
What about all those 'Miles'?
At least three people have asked about the naming of several roads in eastern Hamilton County and western Clermont County. Where did 4 Mile, 5 Mile, 8, 9 and 10 Mile roads get their names?
Hamilton County Engineer Eric Beck says the roads are named for nearby creeks, that also have the same names.
"And those are all named as the distance along the Ohio River from the mouth of the Little Miami River," he says. "So it's basically the distance of the outfall of those creeks from the Little Miami and the roads were built parallel to those creeks and they adopted those names for the roads."
Beck says the naming appears to have started after the Revolutionary War, when the land was part of the Virginia Military District. The creeks are still there today.
What victory happened on Victory Parkway?
Another street name that's come up as a question is connected to a nearby creek.
Nick Newman wants to know which victory Victory Parkway is named for.
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Ann Senefeld is a local researcher who focuses on historical construction. She points out, it wasn't originally called Victory Parkway. It was named after the Bloody Run Creek. Senefeld says there are two stories about that name.
"Back when the area was just being settled in the 1790s there was a brutal Indian attack that happened kind of at the starting point of Bloody Run Creek," she says. "There were also slaughterhouses along the route, and they were known to drain the blood from the animals they were slaughtering into the creek, because that was the easy dumping ground."
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Senefeld says eventually Bloody Run Creek was paved over and the parkway built.
"There was some pushback from different businesses in the area, and they suggested Victory Parkway, since this was just right after World War I, and they decided that would sound a whole lot better for businesses than 'Bloody Run.' "
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