An essential reference tool for genealogy and local history is a list of road and city name changes. You'll often find the list above the county or city atlases and on the walls of historical societies. There's also a book of post offices that includes a list of all decommissioned or merged post offices in the US. These lists help patrons locate streets that aren't there any more or were renamed as the city grew. These are often accompanied by lists of urban house numbering changes, particularly important when looking for houses and properties in the oldest parts of a town.
The names for these street and road are often easy to explain. The city founders numbered the streets: first, second, third; or named them: main, high, broad. There are streets named for presidents and states, trees, and flowers. Sub-development streets are often named for geographical features, or variations on the name of the housing development.
But what about the roads you pass that have city names like the one in northeastern Ohio called "Cleveland-Massilon"? That's easy, it runs between Cleveland and the town of Massilon. Others are named for the farmers who owned the land along the road.
Of course, there's the National Road, with its many names, the Lincoln Highway, and the subject of the article below, The Dixie Highway. Why are they named this way? What's the history behind the nomenclature.
