Dec

14

Tuesday, December 14, 2021 – Just because you see a name on a street sign, there is a back story

By admin

TUESDAY,  DECEMBER  14, 2021


The   545th  Edition

THE STREET

WITH THE TEXAS NAME

THERE IS A STORY BEHIND THE  NAME

Why “Houston Street” is pronounced that way

March 22, 2021

You can always spot a New York newbie by their pronunciation of wide, bustling Houston Street—as if they were in Texas rather than Manhattan

But the way New Yorkers pronounce the name of this highway-like
crosstown road that serves as a dividing line for many downtown neighborhoods begs the question: Why do we say “house-ton,” and what’s the backstory of this unusual street name, anyway?

It all started in 1788 with Nicholas Bayard III, owner of a 100-acre farm located roughly in today’s SoHo (one boundary of which is today’s Bayard Street).

Bayard was having financial difficulties, so he sold off parcels of his farm and turned them into real estate in the growing young metropolis, according to a 2017 New York Times piece. “The property was converted into 35 whole or partial blocks within seven east-west and eight north-south streets, on a grid pattern,” explained the Times.

Bayard decided to name one of those east-west streets after the new husband of his daughter Mary, William Houstoun (above)—a three-time delegate to the Continental Congress from Georgia. Houstoun’s unusual last name comes from his ancient Scottish lineage, states Encyclopedia of Street Names and Their Origins by Henry Moscow.

The street name, Houstoun, is spelled correctly in the city’s Common Council minutes from 1808, wrote Moscow, as well as on an official map from 1811, the year the grid system was invented. (It’s also spelled right on the 1822 map above).

In the 19th century, the city developed past this former northern boundary street. East Houston Street subsumed now-defunct North Street on the East Side and extended through the West Side (above photo at Varick Street in 1890). At some point, the spelling was corrupted into “Houston.”

The Times proposes a possible reason why the “u” was cut: Gerard Koeppel, author of City on a Grid: How New York Became New York, thought it could have to do with Sam Houston emerging in the public consciousness in the 1840s and 1850s as senator and governor of Texas.

Whatever the reason, the new spelling stuck—with the original late 18th century pronunciation.

RIHS/NYPL ZOOM PROGRAM ON DECEMBER 21, 2021
AT 6:30 P.M.
WITH
MELINDA HUNT, FOUNDER OF THE HART ISLAND PROJECT

UPDATE ON HART ISLAND
HART ISLAND, THE HOME OF THE NYC MUNICIPAL CEMETERY HAS HAD MANY CHANGES IN THE LAST FEW YEARS. THE ISLAND IS NOW ADMINISTERED BY THE NYC PARKS DEPARTMENT.
REGISTER ON THIS LINK:

https://www.nypl.org/events/programs/2021/12/21/rihs-lecture-hart-island

TUESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY

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rooseveltislandhistory@gmail.com.

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MONDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY

STRECKER LABORATORY AFTER IT WAS ABANDONED IN THE 1960’S

SOURCES

EPHEMERAL NEW YORK

[Top Image: Danny Lyon/US National Archives and Records Administration via Wikipedia; Second image: Wikipedia; third image: Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps Inc.; fifth image: New-York Historical Society; sixth image: MCNY 1971 by George Roos x2010.11.763]

Tags:Houston Street 1970sHouston Street Name NYCHouston Street Old PhotosHouston Street Origin NYCHouston Street Pronunciation
Posted in East VillageLower East SideLower ManhattanMapsRandom signageSoHoTransitWest Village

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