Street Names

Have you ever seen a street sign and wondered how they chose the name for that road?

When I was a child we lived on the corner of Laydon and Brennan Streets. My father had built 2 houses and 2 garages on Laydon. We lived in the one on the corner and my parents rented out the other one, which was right next door. My father's large shop/barn was on Brennan St., which was just a right of way through some brush when my parents first acquired the property for $1 from someone who owed my father money. As the story goes, in order to get a permit from the city to build his shop on that right of way, my father had to show there was actually a road there. So he drove his truck up and down it until it roughly resembled a road. The city said he could choose the street name. He could have named it after himself, but my father, not one to bestow accolades on himself, named it after an old man, Mr. Brennan, who lived a bit further down on Laydon St., and had been a resident in that area for a very long time.

In Seneca, SC, other than the usual street names you might find anywhere, they seem to have adopted that same idea of naming streets after someone or something that's on them... sort of. One road is named Strawberry Farm Road because there's a strawberry farm on it, another is Cross Creek Drive - yes, it crosses a creek. Another is Sam Brown Road. I don't know for sure, but I think it's safe to say that Sam Brown once lived on that road, or maybe still does.

Most everyone who knows me knows that I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Well, if you didn't know that already, you do now. Some people refer to the church by the nickname Mormon. So imagine our delight when we saw a street sign that said "Mormon Church Rd.", and off that road is a small side street named "Mormon St." We took a drive down the road and now you can imagine our surprise to find there's no church of any kind on that road. Nor does there appear to be any building that used to be a church. And the side street is a dead end with only 1 house on it. Makes me wonder the history of the road names. 

And before you ask, no, I didn't stop to ask at the one house at the end of the dead end if they were, indeed, members!