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Eau Claire Street Names: A Historical Analysis

Explore Eau Claire's street names for insights on housing era, tree references, and local historical figures. Discover architectural styles and patriotic streets in different neighborhoods. Compare common street name trends between Eau Claire and the U.S.

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Eau Claire Street Names: A Historical Analysis

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  1. Eau Claire Street NamesGeography 367- Summer 2010Brent 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 >

  2. Areas Examined I examined 4 specific areas of Eau Claire. West Side Third Ward Putnam Heights North Side 4 1 2 3

  3. 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 Maps Corners of Third and Broadway

  4. Third Ward • Streets 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. Corner of Garfield and Roosevelt Map from Google Maps

  5. Putnam Heights Streets in this neighborhood named after: Presidents Hamilton, Polk, Truman, Grant, Tyler, Filmore, Taft, Nixon, Eisenhower. Generals MacArthur, 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. Vogeler, Ingolf. Settlement Geography of Eau Claire: Architectural Styles. Eau Claire: 1989. Corners of Patton and MacArthur

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. Street Names and Trees I 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.

  9. Other Notable Streets 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 Google Maps Our story, 1776-1976 : the Chippewa Valley and beyond.. Eau Claire, WI: Eau Claire Leader -Telegram, 1976.

  10. Streets Named after Land Owners 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. Google Maps 2010

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