Along the Waterfront.... Mill St.

[Ron J]

When your out and about in your own home towns, did you ever pay attention to the names of some of the streets?? Canal St., Ferry St., Mill St.....The street name is usually aptly named due to just what the name implies... there was a Mill or a Canal right there! There could be traces of the remains, or there may not be anything left.... Canals get filled in, Mills burn down, Ferry's are mostly extinct...I am speaking of the old type Ferry, that may have had a rope or cable to pull a barge across a river, with your Horse or cargo on it...not a motorized Ferry! In New England, there were Canals from Massachusetts, New York, Ct., New Jersey etc. Most went extinct, due to Railroads! Most are filled in, roads, or development took over...Mills were usually built on waterways, using the power of a river etc. The photo's here are showing the location of a Corn Mill, dating to the mid 1600's!
Mill St, evolved from a common path... Local residents would use it to visit the Mill, and get to the river.Most of the path disappeared in 1903, when the United Shoe Machine Company, built the largest concrete buildings in America . It still stands today, but is called the Cummings Center, a business park. The Tunnel or large pipe on the right, is where the Bass river, actually went up another mile or more, but would diverted, into a Pond, so the United Shoe Machine Corp, could use the water for power and their steam boilers.. the rest was piped under ground, and roads built over it. In the Forth photo, you see a wall, behind the traffic, there was a Dwelling located there, the granite stone for a front step, is still there in the tree line, along with an old foundation of a barn. I did detect in the wooded area, and found a couple of large cents, dating in the 1600's. In the Fifth photo, you are viewing just a tiny portion of the Cummings Center..
Here is the remains, pilings, and a Steel shaft, which may have been used for part of the Grist..A lone Swan, just happened to be there. The tide was coming in. The Corn Mill burnt down in the late 1890's.
Rj

Note: Sorry I may get long winded, But EVERY Photo tells a Story!

 

[Kelley (Texas)]

Many of the names of roads down here in San Antonio were named after local farms. For example Perrin-Bietel Road was a road that ended at the Perrin Farm on one end and the Bietel Farm on the other end. Walzem Road was the road that led to the Walzem Dairy Farm. Other similar roads like the Military Highway was a road leading from Ft. Sam Houston to the hill country of Texas. Like you said, road names often have some history associated with them. Ron, thanks for sharing with this Forum. Kelley (Texas)

 

[Roscue2]

Here in this area of Cali we have a lot of roads named after rivers, counties, national forests, cities. They reuse the names quite a bit for just about every possible geographic features.