NAMES UNDER YOUR NOSE.

NAMES UNDER YOUR NOSE.

Hi pals! Have you been racking your brains for entertaining little conversational nuggets to dazzle your compatriots at backyard barbecues this summer? Rack no further! There is surely no better way to delight a crowd than by explaining the rich history of their own backyard geography. We’re calling this series “Names Under Your Nose” and every month or so we’ll present another installment (it seemed a snappier title than “the History of Why Local Places Are Called What They’re Called.”) Preamble over, let’s dig in!

UNION SQUARE

Let’s start off with a naming headfake… You probably assumed, as we did, that the free-speech-loving, drum-circle-having, Farmers Market mecca otherwise known as Union Square took its name directly from the Civil War. Not so! In actuality, the name was granted many years prior to those fated shots being fired on Fort Sumter. Originally called Union Place, this New York City hub marked the intersection, or “union,” of two major city thoroughfares—what are now 4th Avenue and Broadway at 14th Street. 

THE FRUIT STREETS

Cranberry, Orange and Pineapple Streets run parallel to each other in Brooklyn Heights like some kind of delightful real estate Edible Arrangement. According to NYC Parks, the streets received their names in the nineteenth century from local resident Lady Middagh, a serious original aristocrat in the truest Gilded Age sense. At the time, the streets were named after blue-blooded families that lived on them. Lady Middagh, bless her populist heart, found this self-aggrandizement “pretentious,” and her solution was to remove the original street signs and put up her own which bore the names of fruit. The city eventually relented to Lady Middagh’s persistence in this matter. How very droll that she didn’t choose to rename “Middagh Street,” wouldn’t you say? Tsk, tsk... Other aristocratic streets that survived Lady Middagh’s crusade against vulgarity include Hicks, Pierrepont and Remsen. 

THE BOWERY

Bowery is the Anglicisation of bouwerij, a Dutch word for "farm." And farmland is what it once was! It connected to what was then the outskirts of the City to the Wall Street area. It was known as Bowery Lane until the early 1800’s, but today we know it as Bowery or the Bowery. No additional last name required. Just like Beyoncé.

HOUSTON STREET

If you’re visiting Manhattan, don’t be a herb and pronounce this street like that town in Texas. A dead giveaway, and we’ll subsequently try to steal your wallet. The name is pronounced "HOW-ston" and is named for William Houstoun, a delegate from Georgia (pronounced “JAW-juh”) to the Continental Congress from 1784 through 1786. Patrician landowner Nicholas Bayard III was responsible for naming the street, as it ran through property he owned at the time. You see, William Houstoun was Bayard's son-in-law. Would your in-laws name a street after you? Might be time to up your game, then.

ESSEX STREET, NORFOLK STREET & SUFFOLK STREET

Down in the Lower East Side, there are three north-south streets with decidedly posh sounding monikers that together sound like a white-shoe law firm: Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk. It turns out these particular streets share their names with counties across the pond in England. If you aren’t totally sure how this came to be, your 4th grade elementary school teacher’s day drinking problem was worse than your mom feared.

BROADWAY

As one of the main north-south thoroughfares in Manhattan (and its oldest), you might think the incredibly famous name “Broadway” is self-evident. But once again, we have our resourceful and ever-attractive Dutch ancestors to thank for it! The name is a translation from the Dutch phrase brede weg, or "broad road." And a shout out to our Westchester homies: Broadway not only runs the length of Manhattan, but continues up through the Bronx and 18 miles past the City limits, ending just past Sleepy Hollow.

MY FRIENDS! Do you enjoy reading about the fascinating intersection between history and real estate as much as we enjoy writing about it? Then be sure to follow us at @itstheshafergroup on Instagram for more fun and frippery!