Tulsa Street Names

[Conan71]

Thought this might be a fun thought-provoking topic:

I was told a long time ago that the north/south named streets east of Main St. are named after cities east of Tulsa, those west of main street are named after cities west of Tulsa.

Just a few questions, though, in what states west of Tulsa are Xenophon and Elwood located and does anyone know why we named Harvard and Yale after eastern colleges (or is it for the universities and why didn't we recognize Princeton, Dartmouth, Brown, etc.?) and who or what is Lewis Ave. named after?

[MichaelBates]

quote:Originally posted by Conan71

Thought this might be a fun thought-provoking topic:

I was told a long time ago that the north/south named streets east of Main St. are named after cities east of Tulsa, those west of main street are named after cities west of Tulsa.

Just a few questions, though, in what states west of Tulsa are Xenophon and Elwood located and does anyone know why we named Harvard and Yale after eastern colleges (or is it for the universities and why didn't we recognize Princeton, Dartmouth, Brown, etc.?) and who or what is Lewis Ave. named after?

I came across the answer to your Lewis question a couple of weeks ago, from a 1957 obituary in the Tribune. It was named after S. R. "Buck" Lewis, an attorney, Democratic Party leader, and real estate developer. He developed the Cherokee Heights Addition, between Utica, Lewis, Archer, and the Frisco tracks.

[sgrizzle]

There is an elwood nebraska...

[inteller]

quote:Originally posted by sgrizzle

There is an elwood nebraska...

xenophon is named after Area 51.

[TheArtist]

I was told, ages ago, that the cities were divided by west of the Mississippi and east of the Mississipi.

[Wilbur]

A Harvard alumni group asked the city to name a street for their school, so the city did so and Harvard Avenue was born.  And of course, once that happened, the Yale alumni group requested the same thing, and Yale Avenue was born.

The streets that run east-west north of Admiral are named after Tulsa founders.  Most can be found in many of the Tulsa history books.

[RecycleMichael]

Gus Patton named the streets downtown. He was our first civil engineer. I don't think he is a relative, but I get conflicting family stories.

He walked a hundred paces from the railroad tracks and laid out first street. That is why the downtown streets are slanted to the tracks and not to north, south, east and west.

There is still one house on Patton street in west Tulsa, but the rest of the street was wiped out when they built the expressway to the Turner Turnpike.

[cannon_fodder]

The East and West thing is most evident downtown.

With Main street as the MISSISSIPPI cities to the west are western cities in alphabetical order (Boulder, Cheyenne, Denver...).  Same to the East with Eastern cities (Boston, Cincinnati, Detroit...).

[deinstein]

The west/east of the Mississippi is an urban myth. For example, St. Louis Ave. It's west of the Mississippi River, but east of Tulsa.

[NCTulsan]

quote:Originally posted by sgrizzle

There is an elwood nebraska...

There's also an Elwood, Utah.

If the street were east of Main, there would be more possible answers.

On a related note, I wrote the "Street Network" section for the "Tulsa" entry on Wikipedia.  I hope I got it right.

[Wilbur]

quote:Originally posted by recyclemichael

Gus Patton named the streets downtown. He was our first civil engineer. I don't think he is a relative, but I get conflicting family stories.

He walked a hundred paces from the railroad tracks and laid out first street. That is why the downtown streets are slanted to the tracks and not to north, south, east and west.

There is still one house on Patton street in west Tulsa, but the rest of the street was wiped out when they built the expressway to the Turner Turnpike.

Actually, it was Gus and Dan Patton, two brothers hired by the city to survey and plat the town.

Eventually, it was discovered the Frisco railroad tracks, used to lay out Tulsa's first streets, did not go true east-west, so as the town expanded, the streets were eventually made to go true north-south and east-west, which is why you see downtown streets go at an angle compared to the rest of the city.

The east-west streets north of Admiral used to be numbered, just as the streets south of Admiral.  Then the names were changed to honor pioneer settlers, such as Jeff ARCHER, the BRADY family, .......

And the Mississippi River used for street names is no myth.  The Patton brothers were also responsible for this (although, I agree St. Louis is west of the Mississippi.  Maybe they meant East St. Louis).

The city stopped naming north-south streets (avenues, actually) after cities once they hit Sheridan because of the difficulty finding cities that started with X and Z.

[Wilbur]

quote:Originally posted by NCTulsan

quote:Originally posted by sgrizzle

There is an elwood nebraska...

There's also an Elwood, Utah.

If the street were east of Main, there would be more possible answers.

On a related note, I wrote the "Street Network" section for the "Tulsa" entry on Wikipedia.  I hope I got it right.

Only one small correction to your post on Wikipedia.  Admiral Blvd is actually the dividing line between north and south streets.  Many people mistakenly believe it is Admiral Place because Admiral Place is the more developed street.

[RecycleMichael]

quote:Originally posted by Wilbur
[brActually, it was Gus and Dan Patton, two brothers hired by the city to survey and plat the town.

Dan Patton was also Mayor during the real boom of Tulsa in the late 1920s. He was elected Mayor in 1928 and during his administration the following buildings were completed...The NBT building (320 S. Boston) the Philtower, Boston Avenue Methodist Church, the Train Depot, the first airport, even the Phillips home which became Philbrook.  

We need a Mayor like that again.

[sauerkraut]

quote:Originally posted by sgrizzle

There is an elwood nebraska...

No- it's ELKWOOD Nebraska, (Not Elwood) and that town no longer will exist since big bad Omaha Annexed it into the city of Omaha. it caused many hard feelings amoung the towns residents. The little city was located NW of Omaha. I believe it was just last month that Omaha took over that town. New maps will no longer have it listed.

[MichaelC]

quote:Originally posted by Wilbur

The east-west streets north of Admiral used to be numbered, just as the streets south of Admiral.  Then the names were changed to honor pioneer settlers, such as Jeff ARCHER, the BRADY family, .......

Yeah sure.  Next you'll try to tell me that Virgin has nothing to do with the activity of cults.