{"id":117025,"date":"2018-06-28T14:36:43","date_gmt":"2018-06-28T18:36:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=117025"},"modified":"2023-01-24T13:45:24","modified_gmt":"2023-01-24T18:45:24","slug":"whats-in-a-name-tree-streets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2018\/06\/28\/whats-in-a-name-tree-streets\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s in a Name: Tree Streets"},"content":{"rendered":"

The downtown Lewiston neighborhood where streets have names like Oak and Maple is dubbed \u201cthe tree streets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pin It on Penn<\/h5>\n

William Penn originated the street-naming practice in 1682 when he gave Philadelphia\u2019s north-south streets names like Locust, Spruce, and Vine. Other cities soon followed Penn\u2019s path.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Franklin Speaking<\/h5>\n

Lewiston\u2019s street naming occurred mostly in the mid-1800s.<\/p>\n

The Franklin Co., a holding company for the Lewiston mills that owned most of the downtown land, laid out the street plan. It\u2019s thought that one of Franklin\u2019s engineers, John Straw, gave tree names to the streets that run nearly east and west.<\/p>\n

The Bad Rap<\/h5>\n

The two U.S. Census tracts overlaying the tree streets are among the poorest in Maine. The neighborhood is also young, vibrant, and diverse. A third of its citizens are nonwhite, including many families who emigrated from Somalia and other African nations.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A historic school building at the corner of Walnut and Bates streets is now home to St. Mary\u2019s Nutrition Center. (Jay Burns\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n

In a state worried that its aging population thwarts economic development, the tree streets help make Lewiston younger (median age 39) than the rest of Maine (median age 43.5).<\/p>\n

Taking Back the Tree Streets<\/h5>\n

Located on the corner of Birch and Howe streets, the nonprofit Tree Street Youth serves the children of downtown families. The name is an act of co-optation, says its co-founder, Julia Sleeper \u201908, \u201ca big opportunity to take back \u2018tree street\u2019 from its stereotype\u201d \u2014 as a place to avoid \u2014 \u201cto meaning a place where the youth are going to college, being successful, and doing great things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Branching Out<\/h5>\n

Bangor, Maine, also has a self-described tree-street neighborhood, as do the California cities of Costa Mesa and Laguna Beach; plus Norwood, Mass.; Princeton, N.J.; Nashua, N.H.; Yonkers, N.Y.; Elko, Nev.; Johnson City, Tenn.; Provo, Utah; Waynesboro, Va.; Bunbury, Wash.; Bluefield, W.Va.; and Casper, Wyo.<\/p>\n

\n

This story includes information from Frontier to Industrial City: Lewiston Town Politics 1768\u20131863<\/em>, by Professor Emeritus of Political Science Douglas Hodgkin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The downtown Lewiston neighborhood where streets have names like Oak and Maple is dubbed \u201cthe tree streets.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":117043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[30,31,224],"tags":[10830,9930,11507],"class_list":["post-117025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-civic-engagement","category-lewiston-auburn","category-society-culture","tag-lewiston-auburn","tag-tree-street-youth-center","tag-whats-in-a-lewiston-name"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117025"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117076,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117025\/revisions\/117076"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}