The city of Dallas has over 9,600 unique street names, most of which were given names by real estate and subdivision developers.
Road construction is booming in the D-FW region, and naming the city’s roads has become a challenging task: new road names must avoid duplication or similarity with existing roads in each city.
At the end of the day, safety is key: fire engines and ambulances need to be able to get to your home smoothly.
Larry Delzell, senior vice president of land acquisition for Dallas homebuilder Perry Homes, said he has submitted more than 100 street names to the city of Plano and has had four approved.
“If there’s an emergency and someone is trying to tell you where they are, you don’t want them to get confused with Willow Bend, Willow Way or Willow___. You don’t want an address that’s full of Willow___,” he said.
Delzell began naming roads 52 years ago, starting in the Bent Tree Country Club area of Dallas after graduating from Southern Methodist University.
“We quickly learned it wasn’t as easy as it looked,” Delzell said.
He now keeps a list of hundreds of potential street names on his desk next to his work computer, drawing inspiration from his travels and his grandchildren’s names.
Delzell recycled some of his favorite words, like “Winding Hollow,” which he thought had a nice ring to it, and incorporated into the communities of Frisco and Arlington.
Sticking to the theme is key for Blue Star Land, the Frisco development company owned by the family of Dallas Cowboys’ Gene and Jerry Jones.
Beyond tying street names to football teams or family names, Blue Star tries to find local connections to the community’s history, famous waterways and other notable features.
“After you do four or five of these big developments, you run out of names,” says Joe Hickman, the company’s general manager. “You tend to go to places like California and New York, where you have Fifth Avenue, Sixth Avenue and Seventh Avenue, and that’s boring, right?”
As a result, some developers are incorporating pop culture and other creative themes into road names — as housing continues to grow rapidly in North Texas, forcing some older communities to get more creative — and others are simply starting out with quirky names.
Here are some of North Texas’ most distinctive locations.
Dallas’ first street name
The first 18 roads laid in the city were named by Dallas founder John Neely Bryan: Pacific, Elm, Main, Commerce, Houston and Columbia.
The closer a street is to downtown Dallas, the more likely it is named for a politician, businessman or civic leader.
Touch the interactive image below to discover the stories behind some of Dallas’ most famous streets.
Primetime soap opera “Dallas”
Dallas, One of the most popular TV shows of all time, it aired on CBS from 1978 to 1991. North Texas has two neighborhoods named after characters from the show, from JR Avenue to Sue Ellen Avenue. One is a well-kept trailer park in Wylie. Denton neighborhoods also have streets named after characters from the series. Take a drive down Cliff Barnes Lane or Miss Ellie Circle.
Go to Garland and have a great time
Several streets in Garland’s Summerfield Addition neighborhood are named after characters from the show. South ParkWhile Cartman Road isn’t a surprise, Garrison Way might be our favorite. Many of the homes were built between 2001 and 2003, shortly after the show began and was at the peak of its popularity (the show began in 1997 and was made into a movie in 1999).
Take me to your (Mansfield) door
the beatles Though they officially broke up in 1974, Beatlemania lives on, especially in Mansfield’s Strawberry Fields neighborhood. Located off State Route 360, it’s one of the most upscale areas in town, with streets named after Fab Four song titles. Residents can walk down Long and Winding Road or Abbey Road and hear one of the most popular bands of all time. Pay tribute to Sgt. Pepper Court.
Up, up, and off we go!
Attention, Superman: North Texas has not one, not two, but a whopping SEVEN roads named Lois Lane. Roads named after the Man of Steel’s love interest can be found in Richardson, Rowlett, Cedar Hill, Dallas, Plano, Euless and Kaufman.
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah
of “Disney Street” Nickname for several streets in the Northern Park neighborhood of Dallas, including names such as Pinocchio Drive and Cinderella Lane.
news In 2009, the street faced backlash for calling it “Disney Row,” with some residents saying the name was actually just a reference to the fairy tale. Sleepy Lane, named after one of the seven dwarfs, was once called Humpty Dumpty Drive, which may have given credence to a naming plan unrelated to Disney. However, the wife of the late developer Robert Gump said the Disney connection was a deliberate choice, as the area was built in the 1950s.
Gump’s wife news“He wrote to Walt Disney and asked for permission to name a street after a Disney cartoon, and Disney wrote back with permission.”
Smoking break
In the Alameda Heights neighborhood of Dallas, south of Leadbetter Drive and east of Lancaster Road, streets are named after cigarette brands. Drive down Cool Avenue, Lucky Street, and Pall Mall Avenue and you’ll see Cigarette Hill It was developed during the post-World War II housing boom, when smoking was not considered a bad thing.
Fatima cigarettes were discontinued in the 1980s. Although Gooch’s is different from other cigarette brands, its name has ties to the tobacco industry. Virginia Governor Sir William Gooch authored the Tobacco Inspection Act of 1730 while he was Lieutenant Governor. This act had a major impact on the tobacco industry by allowing poor quality cigarettes to be destroyed.
Fort Worth’s historic Rosedale Park neighborhood Bong Drive. Many of the houses on the street were built after World War II.
Denison also has a Bon Street, neither of which has the number 420.
Kings and Queens
Rowlett has a little road called Elvis Presley Lane, and Louisville’s upscale Castle Hills neighborhood has a street named after Queen Elizabeth I.
The aforementioned Castle Hills master-planned community in Louisville has dozens of streets named after King Arthur and his characters, including Sir Lancelot Boulevard and Merlin Drive.
According to the Castle Hills website, the land was purchased by the Bright family in 1952, and the Arthurian legend in the street’s name is a tribute to H.R. “Bam” Bright, who was the owner of the Dallas Cowboys from 1984 to 1989 and was an avid fan of the fantastical tale. Our own dream would be to own a mansion on Excalibur Boulevard.
American Team
Valley Ranch, the neighborhood in Irving that once housed the Dallas Cowboys’ offices and practice facilities, still has streets named after the Cowboys, including Staubach Drive, Dorsett Drive and Landry Court.
There is also St. Landry Drive in northeast Dallas. In 1981 news He named the street the fourth worst street name in the city, saying, “Everybody knows the Dallas Cowboys have been blessed by somebody higher up, but this is going too far.”
Still, officials named a section of Interstate 30 between Interstate 35E and Interstate 35W after the late Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry.
The Rangers and Mavericks also have players on their roster, and Nowitzki Way is on the south side of the American Airlines Center in Dallas. The Nolan Ryan Expressway leads to Rangers Stadium in Arlington. Nothing has been announced yet about a possible Mike Modano Street.
Bossy Boots Drive
Bossy Boots Drive, one of Allen’s main roads, is located west of U.S. Highway 75. The road is named for Janice Brittingham, the late wife of Robert M. Brittingham, who acquired the land that now makes up Allen’s Twin Creeks neighborhood.
Boldly go where no one has gone before
Star Trek Lane is part of Garland’s Arapahoe East neighborhood, which was developed in the late 60’s and early 70’s. Many of the homes on Star Trek Lane were built in 1978, the year before the first homes were built on the street. Star Trek The film was released in 1981. news Star Trek Lane was named the second worst street name in Dallas, to the dismay of local Trekkies, and many other nearby streets pay homage to the name. Star Trek series.
Cedar Hill has more than a dozen streets named after planets, neighborhoods that evoke an interstellar atmosphere, and even some named after constellations.
Savings
Squeeze Penny Lane Squeezypenny, McKinney, is likely named after a 19th century community south of Melissa. It’s unclear exactly why the town was named Squeezypenny in 1855. One historical record says that the mill owners were very stingy with money; to cross the bridge, “you had to squeeze out every last penny.”
Amos and Andy
In the Gilbert Emory neighborhood of Dallas, Amos and Andy A radio show that began in the late 1920s, followed by a television series in the early 1950s. The characters on the radio were created and played by white men who used their skin color as a joke. Shortly after the television series aired, the NAACP began protesting the show, criticizing its negative stereotypes of African Americans.
CBS canceled the show in 1953, but the show continued to air until the mid-1960s. news We interviewed a resident who has lived on Amos Street since 1952. The street name in West Dallas remains the same.
87 years ago
of Presidential Palace The Duncanville subdivision has streets named after 10 former leaders of the free world, including Truman Court, Madison Court and South Lincoln Drive.
Robin of Loxley
story Robin Hood The adventure story has remained enduringly popular over the years, and its symbols were a popular theme for area developers in the 1940s and 1950s as well; the Sherwood Forest neighborhood of Irving still features names from the story, such as Nottingham Drive and King Richard Street. news The area is often credited to Earl McGraw, who served as an officer and vice president of the Irving Home Builders Association in the 1950s and 1960s.
Mesquite’s Sherwood Forest neighborhood is also home to Robin Hood Boulevard, lined with 1940s homes.
Hard to chew
There are few houses Chicken Gristle Road It’s in rural Granbury. But like a lot of rural Texas, it’s bound to change. This road is on a peninsula between the Brazos River and Lake Granbury. I never knew why this road was named Chicken Gristle.
Boardwalk Advancement Token
By the time Arlington’s Park Place North neighborhood was developed in the mid-1980s, people were enjoying playing board games. Exclusive For 50 years, the Boardwalk has been around. Driving through the neighborhood in a 1930s roadster, you’re unlikely to see a man in a top hat walking a Scottish terrier. But you can still walk by on Marvin Garden Street and St. James Place. Note: There are no “exits” on the Boardwalk.
Reindeer Game
In 1969, Reindeer Road was a new street in Lancaster, and by 1989, developers had established the Reindeer Run Estates. They may have had a “heartfelt” love for Christmas, as they came up with the “idea” of naming the streets Dancer Lane, Dasher Road and Prancer Street after Santa’s three reindeer.
Reindeer Manor Haunted House, located near Reindeer Road and Houston School Road, has been scaring children and adults alike during the Halloween season for years, without any connection to Christmas.
Dallas Morning News staff researchers Spencer Bevis and Jennifer Brancato contributed to this report.
