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Don't say this newsletter doesn't get results, dear readers.
Remember that rogue "Main Street" sign I wrote about this summer, just outside Parker's boundaries, west of South Chambers Road?
- Well, Douglas County replaced it.
The intrigue: "Main Street" wasn't just wrong. It (possibly) bucked more than a century of history:
- Parker's Mainstreet is one word.
- DougCo's road naming rules reserve "street" for north-south roads. Mainstreet runs east-west.
Flashback: The county's traffic engineering and operations manager told me "East Main Street" was a goof-up.
- It's actually RidgeGate Parkway.
But a couple readers raised a bigger question: Why isn't Parker's Mainstreet called "Main Avenue" under those same rules?
- Stick with me.
Douglas County appears to use the Denver Regional Council of Governments' (DRCOG) north-south, east-west naming mandate created decades ago.
- But DRCOG only goes back to 1955.
- Parker's Mainstreet was named before then.
Yes, but: Might this be Denver's doing?
- Denver created road naming rules in the late 19th century to clean up a less-than-orderly system.
- Adams, Arapahoe and Jefferson counties soon followed.
- But what about Douglas County?
I asked you to stick with me, and here we are.
- Parker renamed its primary drag from Euclid Avenue to Mainstreet — possibly — around the 1920s.
- Did Parkerites really want "Main Street," but run afoul of east-west naming rules?
- And did they cleverly sidestep those rules by making "Mainstreet" one word?
Oh, and one more thing: Bad news for DougCo traffic engineers.
- There's another erroneous "Main Street" on RidgeGate.
