The streets are not as everyone believes.
As you may have noticed many of the street names in Lawrence, KS are named after states. Why is this What happened?
On January 27th 1855 the Herald of Freedom (newspaper of the time) told of the names of 32 street names. Dr. Thomas Webb (Secretary of the New England Emigrant Aid) stated “the streets, thirty-two in number running north and south are named after the several states of the Union. Thirteen of the streets in the eastern part of the city are named after the thirteen original States. The balance of the streets west are named after the remaining nineteen States, in order in which they were admitted into the Union.”
It is widely believed that the states run north-south in the order that the states became a state of the United States of America. This was the original intention but because of a combination of politics, space and timing some states were left out or misplaced.
Massachusetts Street (Mass Street known better to locals) was designated as the main street because Lawrence’s founders were originally from Massachusetts. East of Mass Street they set up the remainder for the 13 colonies/states.
Even in East Lawrence there are inconsistencies. If you go from Delaware, the first state to enter the union the order should go Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia but there is no Georgia. At this time they did not want to name streets after southern states. They did not want to do this as states were divided between north and south on slavery issues.
14 states are still missing from the street names. These states are Alaska, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, North Carolina, South Carolina, North Dakota, South Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming.
At this time it is unknown if the 14 missing states will ever get their time to shine.
Streets that most people from Lawrence that would consider familiar were not always the same. Streets were named after important public figures. In the early 1900s these streets were changed to numbers. For example 6th Street was once Pinckney Street. These numbered streets run East-West in order.
Then you get into more confusion. Some of the main artery streets are named in honor of people. Locations like Bob Billings Parkway and George Williams way were both named in the 21st century. Bob Billings Parkway is a part of 15th Street west of Iowa Street. The Lawrence City Commission Approved the renaming in 2004, only a few months after Billing’s Death.
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