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WHAT'S IN A STREET NAME?
By CHARLES H. MIEGEL
Only in a town where the German
influence has been present over many
years, as in the case of Baltimore,
might one expect to find a Hassel-
berger or a Hammerbacker Court, a
Bauernschmidt Road, a Von der
Horst Lane, a Bloede Avenue, and
streets with names like Schuch,
Schroeder, Mueller, Luerssen or
Waesche.
Any study of street names must
necessarily be in the nature of a "not
too serious history," to borrow the
charming title of Letitia Stockett's
delightful volume on Baltimore. One
finds little or no documentary evi-
dence for the reason behind the nam-
ing of a street; there is no recitation
of such reason in ordinance, plat, or
deed. One must rely on his knowl-
edge of etymology and orthography
as applied to family names in order
to submit that nearly one hundred
thoroughfare designations in Balti-
more are of German origin. Some-
ties the memory of an old-timer
among the denizens of a particular
neighborhood aids in establishing the
fact that such and such a street was
named for the donor of the road-bed,
or for his wife, his mistress, his favor-
ite author, composer, or character in
fiction; or that a certain lane was
named for an old brewery which used
to flourish there in happier days; or
that this or that road was given the
name of a family which once owned
much land thereabout.
English names naturally predomi-
nate in American towns, especially in
the East, both in patronymics, and in
historical and place names. The Ger-
man influence is, however, frequently
second, notably in cities like Philadel-
phia and Baltimore, with French,
Italian, Polish, and Indian trailing
rar behind. This it not surprising for
Baltimore, inasmuch as the German
element appeared here even before
1750; the thrifty "Dutchmen," as
they were erroneously called, were
soon quite successful in business and
industry.
Breweries in Baltimore, as in many
other towns, were for decades con-
ducted by Germans and their de-
scendants. Accordingly, we have such
street names, derived from the brewer
families, as Bauernschmidt Road, al-
ready referred to, with an amusing
variant in Bauernwood Avenue. An-
other is Brehm's Lane from the
Brehm family of brewers, and Gun-
ther Avenue from the Gunther family
of beer makers. Beck's Lane is de-
rived from a brewer who flourished in
West Baltimore years ago.
Businesses and industries, other
than breweries, conducted by persons
with Germanic names gave us such
street names as Benkert Avenue (the
Benkerts conducted a tavern and a
picnic grove) and Bunnecke Street
(the Bunneckes were building con-
tractors) and Bloede Avenue, men-
tioned above (the Bloedes were
manufacturing chemists specializing
in dyes) and Graue Road (Graue was
a financier) and Hafer Street, named
for a popular coal dealer and business
man. Among the many smaller alleys
and courts we find names like Hax
Alley, after a family in the furniture
business; Hempel Court and Hempel
Alley, after a brush maker by that
name; Lipps Lane, named for a manu-
facturer of soaps and then of candy;
Landwehr Lane, for a dealer in hay,
grain, and feed.
Most celebrated of all is Wilkens
Avenue in southwest Baltimore, which
runs from Gilmor Street out to Roll-
ing Road. We shall refer to this thor-
oughfare later, both because of the
interesting personality whose name it
bears and because of the fact that re-
[27]
cently the name was the subject of
spirited newspaper, political, and pub-
lic discussion when an ill-advised at-
tempt was made to change it.
Second to English place names are
the German place names which would
hardly have been chosen had not a
German element been flourishing here.
Examples are Bremen Street, Berlin
Avenue, Hamburg Street, Frankford
Avenue, Brunswick Street, German
Hilt Road, Germania Avenue, Wester-
wald Avenue, and Hanover Street.
Stricker Street was named for an
interesting historical figure, John
Stricker, of German descent, saw ser-
vice with Washington's troops in the
Revolution; and in the War of 1812
he commanded the Baltimore troops
who routed the British at the battle
of North Point. And Armistead
Lane, near Fort McHenry, is named
for that historic fort's commandant,
whose name, according to both Faust
and Schuricht, is an anglicization of
the original German "Armstaedt."
One is surprised to see that only an
insignificant little road in the suburbs
is dedicated to the General DeKalb
who figures so prominently in Mary-
land history.
The street names of Waesche, War-
ner, Schroeder, Uhler, and Hoffman
are said to derive from German-
Americans prominent in the city's
financial and political life in the 1812
period. Another street named after
one of this group of influential Ger-
mans was Raborg Street. This street,
now changed to Fairmount Avenue
extended, ran westward from Greene
Street, parallel with and half a block
north of Baltimore Street. In its later
years it fell upon evil ways, becoming
the only full fledged red-light street,
for part of its way, in West Balti-
more. We school boys regarded Ra-
borg Street as taboo; once two hardy
spirits and the writer walked through
the worst part of it on a dare, to the
fascinated horror of some pig-tailed
school girls who promptly reported
the incident to our parents.
Broening Highway is probably the
latest thoroughfare to be given a Ger-
man sounding name; it was named in
honor of William F. Broening, twice
mayor of Baltimore, himself a citizen
of German ancestry.
In mentioning street designations
which glorify the sweeter sex—like
Henrietta, Doris, Edna Streets—we
regret that we possess no record of the
possible romantic backgrounds for
such designations. Occasionally,
however, by the chance encounter of
an old native we learn why, for ex-
ample, a Catherine Street was so
named. Again William Wilkens en-
ters the picture; he named Catherine
Street for one of his three wives, a
graceful gesture, indeed. He likewise
glorified the name of another of his
wives in the street name of Mary
Ann. Alas, Mary Ann, unlike her
more fortunate contemporary Sarah
Ann, has been doomed to oblivion
save in the memory of those oldsters
who now give their address as Ashton
Street but remember when their resi-
dence was still on Mary Ann. Of
course, there is nothing exclusively
German about Catherine Street's
name, and Mary Ann is quite Eng-
lish in sound, but they were the happy
inspiration of a German immigrant
who made a cool million in West
Baltimore.
Wilkens named two other streets
after sons of his. Wilhelm is the name
of one, and its German spelling is ob-
vious. The other is Christian Street;
curiously, almost none but Jews lived
here for ever so long. Besides Wil-
kens Avenue there was a Wilkens
Street, now changed to Willard Street
to avoid confusion with the avenue of
the same name.
The following is a partial list, be-
sides those already mentioned, of
street and road names unmistakably
German in spelling and sound. Most
of these are for families who were
prominent in the locality of the va-
rious streets: Benninghaus, Benziger,
Berg, Berger, Breitwert, Classen,
Decker, Dietz, Diller, Doering,
Dreher, Eierman, Eislen, Everhart,
[28]
Foerster, Frankfurst,¹ Gephart, Gehb,
Gutman, Hartz, Heckel, Hellwig, Hen-
neman, Herkimer, Hertlein, Holtz-
man, Hubner, Joh, Johannsen, Kahler,
Kaufman, Keller, Kirsch, Kleins,
Knecht, Konig, Koontz, Kuhlman,
Kuper, Lehman, Lehnert, Lohrs,
Maempel, Manns, Muth, Nuth, Pentz,
Pfister, Radecke, Reinhart, Rehbaum,
Ritter, Rueckert, Schaver, Schenley,
Schley, Seidel, Seifert, Siegwart, Sny-
der, Staab, Stengel, Ulrich, Vogt,
Vonieff, Waldman, Waldorf, Walpert,
Walrad, Waltemeyer, Walther, Wag-
ner, Weber, Wehr, Weidner, Weitzel,
Wildberger, Zeppelin.
The above list plus the other names
mentioned elsewhere in this paper
would thus indicate that there are
nearly one hundred street names in
Baltimore, the spelling of which is
proof of the German influence which
has been present in the town for
nearly 200 years.
Before World War I there existed
the name of German Street in the
heart of the financial district. Due to
war feeling there was strong popular
clamor to change this name. Numer-
ous banking, brokerage, business and
industrial houses added their voices,
arguing that this name on their letter
heads might injure their business.
Although the then mayor, the late
James H. Preston, and others pointed
out that the street had not been
named for or by the Germans who
had immigrated here, but that it had
been so named in honor of an old and
respected English colonial family who
had donated the land to the city
many years before, the City Council
and the mayor found that it was in-
evitably necessary to agree to the
change. The street was named Red-
wood in honor of the first Baltimorean
to fall in the war.
Some thoughts about William Wil-
kens and the avenue which bears his
name: Wilkens, a most colorful per-
sonality, an odd admixture of the
saintly and the Satanic, came to Bal-
timore from a spot near Hamburg,
over a century ago. Like John Jacob
Astor, who had landed in Baltimore
from Waldorf, Germany, in the period
just following the Revolution, Wil-
kens was a poor young man. The hair
factory which he established in West
Baltimore grew rapidly. At the per-
iod of its greatest prosperity it gave
employment to over 800 people, a
considerable number of employees in
the last century for a single plant.
The land area of the Wilkens factory
which lay between Frederick and
Wilkens Avenue with Bentalou Street
on the east and Millington Lane on
the west, covered territory equal to
at least ten square city blocks. Of the
more than 20 building units at the
Wilkens plant, the huge warehouse
was over a block and a half in length,
and the main building of the plant
was equally as immense. The large
land area was used for the drying and
curing of horse, hog, and cattle hair
by sunlight and aeration. Henry
Mencken in his book "Happy Days"
characteristically limits his remarks
about the famous Wilkens factory
merely to the smells along Hollins
Street when the wind blew from the
west.
Wilkens amassed a considerable for-
tune, being accounted a millionaire
shortly after the Crimean and Civil
wars; one of his best strokes being the
purchase for a very low price of the
tails and manes of horses killed in
these conflicts. His was an indefati-
gable mind and spirit; and it is a great
pity that no biographical sketch of
the man exists. In connection with
Wilkens Avenue and Wilhelm, Wil-
kens, Catherine, Christian, and Mary
Ann Streets, it should be said that
Wilkens not only deeded the road-
beds to the city, as was customary,
but he also made extensive improve-
ments such as grading, paving, and
the building of bridges over runs and
creeks. He built many houses on
these and other streets for his em-
ployees favoring them with especially
low rents.
1
An odd contraction of the name Frank Furst, a beloved citizen of German descent, prominent in
politics, and a financier.
[29]
Wilkens Avenue was a grand ex-
periment with him. This Svengali-
like man with a huge black beard,
piercing eyes, an Abraham Lincoln
kind of stove-pipe hat which he wore
daily and on all occasions (and even
in bed) if one were to believe the vast
legends of the neighborhood children
who partly loved and partly feared
him, wanted the satisfaction of having
an important avenue named after him
while he was still on this earth. He
spent a great deal of money on his
avenue: he built the heavy stone
bridges over the two creeks which the
avenue crossed, and he laid out a fine
mall in the centre of the wide boule-
vard. Here he caused lawns, trees,
and flower beds to be planted; he also
had set up a number of fountains and
statuettes. Finally he built a row of
three storied homes in which some of
his office employees resided.
The pretentiousness of the avenue
attended upon its early days did not
continue. The Wilkens row is the
only one of three storied houses, save
for a small group here and there; the
mall in the center has disappeared in
the interest of four lanes of traffic.
But the name remains, thanks to the
determined stand of Wilkens Avenue
residents and many other Balti-
moreans against a recent attempt to
change it.
The story is worth repeating: last
year a proposal was made to change
the name of Wilkens Avenue to Cro-
zier Boulevard, in order to honor a
city employee by that name, who had
been a very fine engineer. The mayor
of Baltimore, unaware of the senti-
ment of the denizens not only of
Wilkens Avenue itself, but of south-
west Baltimore in general, innocently
signed the ordinance passed by the
City Council, most of whose members
had never heard of the name of Wil-
liam Wilkens. Then the storm broke.
Practically one hundred percent
of the residents of the avenue ex-
pressed passionate opposition to the
attempted change. Many people
placed signs in their windows to the
effect that come Hell or high water,
their address would remain Wilkens
Avenue as long as they drew breath
on this planet. The newspapers, sens-
ing a good fight, took up the cry,
rushing to the support of the Wilkens
Avenue "Minute-men" and women.
People who had in their childhood or
youthful days lived on the old avenue
or in West Baltimore, but who had
long since removed, joined the pro-
testants, wrote letters to the news-
papers, and signed petitions.
Mayor Howard W. Jackson, who
had signed the ordinance as a matter
of routine, and the city councilmen
who had just as innocently voted for
the change, let it be known that in
view of the opposition they were will-
ing to reconsider their action. This
was promptly done, and the name of
Wilkens Avenue remains. The spon-
sors of the ordinance certainly had
not realized how much loyalty a
neighborhood may have for a name
that had become a tradition.
Just how loyal to a name residents
would have to be to fight for a Joh,
Waesche, Pfister, or Kirsch street, or
for one of the "sch" group like
Schuch, Schwartz, or Schaver Street
is not certain. An attempt to tamper
with Brehm's Lane would probably
bring a protest from those who recall
the fine brew produced by the brew-
ery of that name; and the residents of
Beethoven's single block might possi-
bly insist on continuing to honor the
great composer for what he gave the
world, by sticking to the name of their
street.
At all events, before one advocates
changing the name of our Bauern-
schmidt, Hammerbacker, and Hassel-
berger streets, he had better reflect
what happened when an attempt was
made to change into "Crozier" the
tradition-laden name of "Wilkens."
The history preserved in fortuitous
fashion on our street signs is evidently
at times engraved in granite and at
others merely writ in water, but at
all events it offers us pleasant specu-
lations for an idle hour.
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