Weird Street Names

Weird Street Names

I mentioned several days ago that there were a couple of weird street names in the extreme southwest of Boise, off Eagle Road: Easyjet and Brandi's Jewels. A reader explains:

Easyjet and Brandi's Jewels are, or were, race horses from the Boise area. My folks raised quarterhorses and bred one of their horses to EasyJet. EasyJet's prime time would have been in the 70's or early 80's I think. My folks horse had a couple babies that did fairly well in the racing environment.

And that's about right. The subdivisions are 1980s, I would guess, by the appearance of the houses.

Many street names have obvious origins. There's a reason that most cities in America have a Main Street, or a Broadway, and the numbered and lettered streets are also obvious. (Boring, but simple to find your way around town.) But I would bet that not one Los Angeleno in a thousand has a clue why Rosecrans Boulevard is so named. It's for a Union Army general who was later a Congressman representing Los Angeles, and who bought up 16,000 acres of "worthless" land in the Los Angeles basin for $2.50 per acre. Many cities have a Euclid Street, instead of 13th, because of the same superstition that meant that many skyscrapers didn't have a 13th floor. (Euclid's Elements consisted of 13 books--hence the substitution for 13th Street.)