Central Philadelphia was laid out by Thomas Holme in 1683 according to this sketch and was the first city to use numbered streets systematically.
From Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com.
I’ve lived in, let me see, more than 10 places and early on came to appreciate the emotional and other baggage connected with street addresses and how interesting the origin of street names can be.
So Deirdre Mask’s volume The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power caught my eye. There are some little mistakes (such as calling the Massachusetts State House , in Boston, the “Senate House”) because book publishers in general have laid off too many copy editors. But Ms. Mask is very engaging and ingenious as she tours the world, exploring cities’ colorful and sometimes unsettling address histories, including how the Nazis’ eliminated street names with Jewish references. Tokyo’s address system is particularly bizarre.
Her last chapter is titled “Are Street Addresses Doomed’’.
A big takeaway of the book is how much government wants you to have a precise street address so, among other things, it can tax you, arrest you and draft you. Addresses weren’t created so you could find your way.
