Every week I look forward to cycling adventures with my friend, Dave, not least because he’s a better navigator than me. He also knows his presidents, which is helpful when we explore Northeast Minneapolis.
Minneapolis streets are in alphabetical or numerical order, except when they’re not. Notably, Northeast Minneapolis streets are in presidential chronological order. This means, when we cycle across Polk Street, Dave knows we’re two blocks from bicycle-friendly Filmore.
This week, armed with a presidential crib sheet, I stopped at every presidential street, starting at Washington, Adams, Jefferson, … .
George Washington, 1789-1797
...Van Buren, Central, Tyler. According to my crib sheet, Central Avenue should’ve been named after President Harrison (March 4, 1841-April 4, 1841). Eventually I found a two-block Harrison Street, which seemed sufficient considering he died of natural causes 31 days into his term. You can see how Harrison (RISON…) is a continuation of Central in this fragment of an 1892 map:
…Buchanan, Lincoln, Johnson. In the 1892 map, the presidential streets stopped at Johnson (1865-1869). Subsequent streets were simply named A, B, C… ,
Later, streets A through H were renamed after presidents Grant (1869-1877) through McKinley (1897-1901). The naming scheme ends at McKinley: the Minneapolis boundary runs along the next street.