Street-name

For anyone who has ever wondered how it could ever have been named Fairy Chasm Road, or who Plankinton was, this is the book for you. Lots and lots of local history tidbits. And unlike some books of this type, it isn't afraid to say, "Gee, we just don't know why its named that. But here are a few theories." Definitely a must own for the Milwaukee history buff.

Reading this book is like watching a session of "Elmo's World". It is fun and simple and my daughter loves it. The page where she squeaks with delight is full of colored balloons and what better ways to teach color!

One of the reasons I like this book is that the author mentions me on his acknowledgments page; a generous trade off for some quick research on Mormon history. But the reason you may like to get a copy of the Streets of San Francisco is that it will enable you to look up the story behind many of our street sign names. This kind of information won't get you to your destination any quicker the first time, but it might the second time you come around, because establishing reference points is the best way to remember anything. This book is put together like a dictionary and provides about six sentences on each street. Nowadays few of us, especially tourists, really have a chance to read history books on the run, but you can get a basic idea of what San Francisco's past is all about by just quickly looking up the names you encounter. What you figure out will transfer over to other things very quickly. If I was going to try improve this book, I would do so by listing people who should have gotten a street named after them, people whose names adorn other places, such as Moscone Center being named for the assassinated mayor, or Hallidie Plaza being named for the developer of our world famous street car system. Yes, that would probably mean changing the title to the Streets and Public names of San Francisco, but that works for me. And perhaps fewer people would confuse the book's present title with the old Streets of San Francisco television show, as I have seen happen a few times. Another limitation is that this book does not have enough names, so the more serious historians among us simply use this in conjunction with other books on local historical sites; such as the unsurpassed and encyclopedic San Francisco Almanac by Gladys Hansen. Anyway, nearly every book store in San Francisco does sell the Streets of San Francisco, and some like to display its especially nice cover right next to the check-out counter.

If the book made no attempt to list street name changes, that would be one thing. But when it lists street name changes and leaves many out (I'll add the change of Jackson to Maryland to the example cited in an earlier review.), then it is worse than useless. It gives the false impression of being comprehensive, so that the absence of a name change from the list might be taken as evidence that there was no name change, when in fact the list is not at all comprehensive and omits many street name changes. I was very disappointed in this book.

Since the book is described as a history of Chicago street names, I expected the book to not only tell me how the present day streets received their name, but their previous name and when and why it was changed. Just one example, Burley Ave. was once known as Ontario, but the book doesn't give any mention to this fact.

This will be a fascinating book to anyone living in, or near Chicago, and who like me, is interested in the history that is all around us. There is so much of this history in the street names - people, places, stories, changing geography etc. I recommend this to any curious person.