I’ve found something og a mystery at the SW corner of Franklin and Oak Streets in Greenpoint… a chiseled sign showing Oak as Madison. As mentioned on a previous Greenpoint street nomenclature page, the neighborhood’s street naming system had been simplicity itself in the past: A through Q excepting the L street for Greenpoint Avenue and the P for Calyer. The alphabetical streeet names generally referred to riverine or industrial activity (Ash, Box etc.) in most of the streets, though a couple of proper names are used such as Kent, Milton and Noble.
This however tosses a monkey wrench into the mix; I cannot find any documentation or evidence that Oak was once called Madison. Perhaps the builder had been tipped that a nomenclature change was about to take place and Oak would become Madison.
If anyone reading has a clue about Madison, let me know!
Also: Heather has found an ancient Clinton Street sign at Franklin and Calyer Streets.
10/28/15
1 comment
How about some early confusion between Franklin “Avenue” and Franklin “Street”?This building is 63 Franklin “Street”, and where Franklin “Avenue” meets Madison Street, the Madison house numbers run in the 60’s.(The Franklin Avenue numbers are in the 400’s)