If you ever stopped to think about it – and chances are if you’ve ever been southbound on Stemmons Freeway at 5: 30 you’ve at least stopped – you probably assumed that Stemmons was named for John Stemmons, one of our more illustrious city fathers. Well, you were wrong. It was named after John’s illustrious father, whose name happened to be Leslie.
While stuck behind 40 other cars waiting to make a left turn at the corner of Greenville Avenue and Park Lane, you may have theorized that perhaps Greenville was once upon a time the highway between Dallas and Greenville, Texas. Well, you were right.
But, for 50 points and a free Mercedes, can you identify Mr. Harry Hines?
St. Paul was named by Barnett Gibbs, Lieutenant Governor from 1884-1886. A staunch anti-Prohibition- ist, Gibbs built the street in front of his house, naming it in honor of the author of these lines from 1 Timothy 5: 23: “Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake…. “
Stemmons Freeway is named for Leslie Stemmons, as is Leslie Street in the Industrial District. Stemmons studied law in Chicago, becoming infatuated with Winnetka, a fashionable suburb on Lake Michigan. When Stemmons developed Winnetka Heights in Oak Cliff in 1908, he named the streets for their counterparts up North: Edge Field, Windomere, Rosemont, Montclair, and Willomet.
After the great flood of ’08, Stemmons set about taming the Trinity River and eventually created the Industrial District from the river bottoms north of downtown. Leslie’s son, John, named most of the Industrial District’s streets in the Thirties. He wanted to use tree names, but ran into too many conflicts with existing streets, so he settled for names that weren’t already taken. He had to reach pretty far for some, like Dragon. Hi Line is named for a nearby power line, Glass for Pittsburgh Plate Glass, Harvester for International Harvester, and Continental for Continental Trailways. Stemmons wanted to name Slocum for Joe Slocum of Slocum Electric, but a city staffer reminded him of the unwritten rule against naming streets for living persons. As a dodge, Stemmons sent his staff to the library to search for a bogus namesake, and they found one: General Henry Warner Slocum, a Yankee.
After the War Between the States, Barnes Bridge Road led to the toll bridge across the East Fork of the Trinity operated by Sterling R. Barnes. Dowdy Ferry was operated by Alansan Dowdy near Hutchins for the benefit of those wishing to cross the river to Haught’s Store. Record Crossing was a ford on the Trinity near George W. Record’s gristmill used by residents of the Sowers Community (now Irving) on their way to Dallas. California Crossing was the ford on the Elm Fork of the Trinity used by Southern fortune hunters during the 1849 Gold Rush.
Military Parkway was the road to the Peacock Military Academy. Reverend R. C. Buckner was the founder of Buckner Children’s Home. Richard Bruton was a Pleasant Grove pioneer who settled 320 acres in the 1840’s where Buckner and Bruton intersect. Bruton lamented his lack of aggressiveness with one Elizabeth Cox, who traveled to Texas in the same caravan as Bruton. Had he married Elizabeth before settling here rather than after, he would have been enti-tled to homestead 640 acres rather than 320.
Young Street was named for Reverend William C. Young, a Confederate missionary chaplain who became a Dallas preacher and politician after the war. Manila is named for Young’s wife. Canton bears the name of Young’s birthplace in Trigg County, Kentucky; Cadiz is the Trigg county seat. Thinking that Cadiz Street had been named for a city in Spain, local citizens were in a furor during the Spanish-American War to have it changed.
During World War I, Germania was changed to Liberty Street. Just before World War II, Lindbergh was changed to Skillman, in honor of W. F. Skillman, a Dallas banker. In 1966, Charles Lindbergh was forgiven and a street in East Dallas named in his honor.
Greenville Avenue was once the highway to Greenville, Texas, and McKinney the highway to the town named for Collin McKinney, one of the founding fathers of the Republic of Texas. Centerville was the road to the Centerville community, between Rowlett and Reinhardt. Scyene Road led to the town of Scyene, named for the ancient Egyptian city. And Cedar Springs Road led to the town of Cedar Springs, four miles north of Dallas. This hamlet died shortly after a losing battle with Dallas in 1850 over the right to serve as the county seat.
Edwin J. Kiest, publisher of the Times Herald for 45 years until his death in 1941, donated 247 acres to the city for Kiest Park. In 1939, Dr. W. W. Samuell gave the city more than $1 million in property and cash for parks.
Royal Lane was named for Royal A. Ferris Jr., co-owner of Browning-Ferris Machinery Company. Ferris had a “country place” on the lane. Josey Lane was named for Clint Josey, a Carrollton oil man. John Taylor Coit trained Confederate recruits at Trinity Mills, near Carrollton.
Audelia is a misspelling of Ardelia, the daughter of pioneer farmer James Everets Jackson. Forest Avenue was intended to honor Confederate General Nathan B. Forrest. Akard is spelled correctly, but William Christopher Columbus Akard pronounced the first “a” as in “acorn. ” Akard was a merchant who moved here to escape the ravaged state of North Carolina after the Civil War. Akard Street originally ran only southward from Commerce; the street to the north was Sycamore, thus the jog at that location.
The town of Oak Cliff named most of its early streets for U. S presidents. When Oak Cliff merged with Dallas in 1903, Washington Street was changed to Zangs Boulevard in honor of John F. Zangs, a turn-of-the-century Oak Cliff developer. Oak Cliff streets still bearing names of presidents are Polk, Tyler, Adams, Pierce, Madison, Van Buren, and Jefferson.
William H. Lemmon was an ex-Confederate Captain and a land developer and broker. Lomo Alto was Colonel Henry Exall’s thoroughbred horse farm.
In the 1840’s, Preston Road led to William G. Preston’s camp on the Red River. Northwest Highway was the highway to Wichita Falls, northwest of here. Hillcrest was named for a knoll the road topped near S. M. U. Lovers Lane was a quiet dirt road before 1900, ideal for buggy parking. Beverly Drive was named for Beverly Hills, California – Wilbur David Cook did the landscape design for Beverly Hills and Highland Park in the early 1900’s.
Gus Thomasson was district director of the Works Progress Administration during the Thirties, and in that capacity saw that Dallas got more than its fair share of federal projects. Harry Hines was chairman of the State Highway Commission; the Daughters of the Texas Republic screamed foul when a street that had been named for Texas hero Nat Turney was renamed in Hines’ honor. Marvin D. Love was branch manager for Dallas Power and Light in Oak Cliff. Woodall Rodgers was mayor of Dallas for five terms during the Forties. General Walton Walker’s troops were known as the Ghost Corps for their swift and sudden knockout operations against the Germans during World War II.
Marsh Lane was named for Thomas C. Marsh, who killed the last buffalo east of the Trinity. Webbs Chapel Road led to the church founded by Isaac and Mary Webb in Farmers Branch. Isaac Webb rode hereon a horse in 1842 from Green County,Missouri, and was so impressed with theland that he rode all the way back toMissouri to show the neighbors a sampleof the soil.
John M. Howell, a horticulturist and developer who settled here in 1870, named a street for his father-in-law, the Reverend Jacob Routh, and another for Fairmount Park, site of the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Howell developed the area to appeal to those wishing to flee the population explosion in the own of Dallas. Ahab Bowen moved here from Missouri in 1865 and settled on a farm which stretched from Routh to Bowen on McKinney Avenue. John H. Cole became Dallas’ first physician and pharmacist in 1843, and also operated a huge vineyard and peach orchard.
Captain Jefferson Peak, who operated a steamboat between Cincinnati and New Orleans, moved to Dallas in 1854 and settled on a remote tract at what is now the corner of Worth and Peak. To entice potential neighbors, Peak offered the surrounding land at 5C￠ an acre. He named a street in the area for each of his five sons: Carroll, Junius, Worth, Victor, and Wallace. (Wallace has since been changed to honor Captain W. H. Gaston, a pioneer banker and East Dallas developer. ) Young Junius Peak was a local hero who enlisted in the Confederate Army at the age of 15. He later served Dallas as chief of police, deputy sheriff, and deputy marshal, but his finest moment came when he was selected by the governor in 1878 to head a band of Texas Rangers in pursuit of the notorious Sam Bass, who had committed a rash of train robberies in the Dallas area. Bass escaped.
A traveling salesman who lived on Humpty Dumpty in North Dallas was mortified at the wisecracks he had to bear every time he registered at a hotel, and finally complained to the City Council. The name of the street was changed to Sleepy Lane, in honor of the dwarf.
After the Civil War, William and Andrew Ross, ex-wine merchants, owned the land on both sides of Ross Avenue. A residence on Ross was synonymous with a solid social rating. Pacific became the roadbed for the Texas and Pacific Railroad in 1873. Alexander Harwood was a local politician and County Clerk who walked here from Shreveport in the 1840’s. Tom Field built Dallas’ first opera house. Mayor Henry S. Ervay actually became a local hero by going to jail rather than carrying out the orders of the reconstruc-tionists in the early I870’s. And by riding a mule and refusing to wear socks, Governor George T. Wood captured the heart of the common man in the late 1840’s.
Horatio Haskell was an alderman of the town of East Dallas in the 1880’s, and before that an adventurer. Haskell fought with Zachary Taylor in the Mexican War, and was on a 10-man expedition on the Platte River where six in the party froze to death. Swiss was named for the Swiss colonists who settled the area in 1870. August Belmont, a New York financier, developed the remote Belmont Addition just before the economic crash of 1893.
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