Back When Column
If you know some local history, it’s not hard to be a roads scholar in Orange. The prominent men running local government entities liked naming streets and roads after themselves and their friends. I am looking for help on some of the names, though the people who would have named them are long gone.
Green Avenue comes from the original name of the Anglo settlement here. It was first called Green’s Bluff, because the land along the curve of the Sabine River is the first high spot north from the mouth of the river. Traditionally credit is given to a ship captain, Reason (or Resin) Green.
Going north, we have Elm, Pine, Cypress, Orange and Cherry avenues. Those areas were once were in the country and by the 1890s became new housing developments. Tree names are appropriate for Orange.
Then, on northward we have Park Avenue (yes, there was once a large park). Then comes John Avenue. Now I’m stumped. I looked for an historical man with the last name John and have not found one. On northward, is Curtis Avenue. George W. Curtis was one of the founders in 1901 of the Orange Rice Mill. Burton Avenue comes next. The John Burton family came from England and became one of the first settlers. Owen Burton (an ancestor of the retired Precinct 3 county commissioner) owned a store for many years on Ninth Street and what became Burton Avenue.
Next northward is Link Avenue. That one is easy. John W. Link was one of the wealthy lumber mill owners. He built a mansion on Green Avenue and became mayor. As mayor, he oversaw the paving of the first streets in Orange.
Of course there are a few exceptions for local names. For instance in the really, old part of Orange, Jackson and Polk streets were once prominent. I am assuming, and I do know what that means about me, but U.S. President James K. Polk led the annexation of Texas so it became part of the United States. So my assumption is that Polk Street was named after him, and likely Jackson was named after U.S. President Andrew Jackson. The nearby Henderson Street stumps me. I know there was once a Henderson School back in the late 1800s. I checked in the history books by Dr. Howard Williams and did not find a mention of a prominent Henderson.
World War II led to a population boom in Orange, especially with the U.S. Navy overseeing shipbuilding. The streets in Navy Park, housing built for the officers, were named after naval heroes. Knox Avenue was named for William Franklin Knox, secretary of the Navy from 1940 through 1944. Dewey, Decatur, Moreell, Farragut and Schley were all admirals at sometime in naval history.
Across the bayou in West Orange, the streets are named after heroes from Texas history like Austin, Houston, Bonham, Travis, Smith and Milam.
I always say Pinehurst is “for the birds.” (I sent apologies to Pete and T.W.) The streets there include Mockingbird, Wren, Sparrow, Martin, Lark and Starling.
After World War II, real estate developers designed subdivisions. The Zeto-Lakin company, along with the company owned by Tony and Ray Dal Sasso, built many of the new houses. The late V.J. Zeto named the cul-de-sacs in Charlemont (he did several “monts”) after the first young men from Orange to be killed in World War II. They are Tilley, Manley, Godwin, John Baker and Maxwell.
The Dal Sassos often had themes for their subdivisions. Roselawn has streets with names of flowers like Bluebonnet, Lilac, Camellia, and Gardenia. Camelot subdivision in Pinehurst has names like Lancelot. The International subdivision in Little Cypress has Zurich, Amsterdam and Paris.
A street that once confused me was Jack’s Island Road. That’s what everyone in the first part of my life called the road that ran north off Cordrey Avenue. After going off to college, starting a career and getting married, I moved back to find it was named Bob Hall Road. The late Roy Wingate explained records show county commissioners once named the road after Bob Hall, but it became known by the other name. In the 1970s, Bob Hall’s children came to town for a reunion and proved the road should have his name on it.
I can’t go through all the streets and roads in the county named after people. However, I’d like to point out that Allie Payne Road was named after a county commissioner. Abe’s Road was named for the Orange businessman Abe Sokolski, who served as mayor during World War II. Wealthy citizens in Orange often owned rural farms. Sokolski had a farm off Abe’s Road.
Many of the rural roads, like Teal Road, ended up named for families that lived on them for decades.
As you notice, I didn’t name one street, avenue or road named after a woman, at least through the middle 20th Century. Zeto named Childers Drive after the family of Nelda Childers Stark. Some people might use Elvira Road, off North Highway 87, as an example. They would be wrong. Today, the road signs and maps say “Elvira.” Actually the name is El NIRA. When I moved back here 35 years ago, the county signs did say “El Nira.”
Roy Wingate told me the county judge in the early 1930s named it after the NIRA, the National Industrial Recovery Act, which was passed in 1933. The act included federal money for public works projects during the Great Depression. Apparently, the NIRA money helped go toward roads. So Elvira should really be El NIRA.
Last week I talked about school pranks. Someone who did not leave a name said Bridge City High School did have a Volkswagen on top of the school. The prank was done by the boys from the Class of 1982 on their first day of senior year. “Only Cardinals can fly and get things on a roof,” he wrote. He didn’t explain how it got down.
Randy let me know that the Orangefield High prank of putting the principal’s chair on top of the homecoming bonfire led to the end of bonfires. After that year, the school started burning the letters “OHS,” formed from hay bales that were wrapped in paper.
Wood Bishop, Stark High Class of 1973, said his class put a garbage can on top of the flag pole.
If you have any questions or stories about local history and lore, let me know at backwhen1600@gmail.com.
-Margaret Toal, KOGT-
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