Betty Reid

The Republic | azcentral.com

Phoenix has about 736 miles of major streets, most of them laid out on a grid.

Many of the streets are familiar to anyone who has taken U.S. history: Washington,Jefferson,Van Buren,Adams, Roosevelt.

And many of them are obvious if you have a sense of direction: Northern, Southern, Central.

But many of the city's streets carry more unique monikers. Planners named them after fallen heroes, local politicians and geographical landmarks.

Some city streets have names that harken back to the 1800s.

MORE: How East Valley streets were named | Scottsdale | West Valley

But today, the city's street-naming process is done through the Planning and Development Department. And the Phoenix City Council must approve all street names.

The city requires names that are short, easy to spell, easy to pronounce, don't mean anything bad in another language and aren't used anywhere else in the metropolitan area, said Sina Matthes, a planning and development spokeswoman.

"The biggest challenge is not choosing anything that has already been used in another jurisdiction in the metro area," Matthes said. "The reason for this policy is to reduce confusion with the increasing cross response by first responders."

The pace of new Phoenix streets depends on new development. Today, the department shuttles through new names for about five streets per year, down from 20 streets per year in 2006, Matthes said.

Developers must come up with names for unnamed streets and submit them to the city.

Some of the most common naming conventions include:

Names of fallen soldiers, first responders or people who have contributed to the community in a positive way.

Names that follow a theme in a particular area. For example, one area in south Phoenix has a Greek mythology theme. In an area south of Ahwatukee, there are streets named after types of wood.

As a default, desert, western or Spanish names usually work well, officials said. Examples include Sagebrush, Wagon Wheel and Sierra Springs drives.

By the numbers

There are about 736 miles of major streets in Phoenix. They carry an average of 15,000 to 60,000 daily trips.

There are about 612 miles of collector streets, which move traffic to major streets. They carry an average of 1,000 to 30,000 daily trips.

There are about 3,508 miles of residential streets that carry fewer than 1,000 daily trips for single-family areas to 2,000 for apartment areas.

Source: Monica Hernandez, Phoenix street transportation department spokeswoman.

How Phoenix streets got their names

• McDowell Road: This road led, in a roundabout way, to Fort McDowell, a cavalry outpost near the confluence of the Verde and Salt rivers. The fort, the road, the McDowell Mountains and the development of McDowell Mountain Ranch all get their name from a man who never set foot in Arizona: Civil War Gen. Irvin McDowell (1818-85), a graduate of West Point, commanded Union troops when they were routed at the Battle of Bull Run. His career survived, and he was twice appointed to command of the Army Department of the Pacific. The fort was open from 1865 to about 1895; the name now is used for the Yavapai Indian Community that resides there.

• Thomas Road: Named after William E. Thomas, who was the Arizona territorial deputy county recorder at the turn of the century. Thomas owned a ranch 1½ miles north of the city limits, then called Van Buren.

• Indian School Road: Named for the Phoenix Indian School, which opened in 1891. The school's first permanent structure, the girls building, was built in 1892. The school closed in 1990. It was bought by commercial real-estate group Collier Company of Florida, and a portion became a Phoenix park.

• Camelback Road: Gets its name from Camelback Mountain, named so because it looks like a camel lying down.

• Bethany Home Road: This road led to the Bethany Home, which was a tuberculosis sanitarium operated by a church in the early 1900s.

• Glendale Avenue: The city of Glendale started as a colony in the 1800s. No one really knows why the city was named Glendale. The road becomes Lincoln Drive at 22nd Street.

• Dunlap Avenue: Named after John T. Dunlap, who served as Phoenix mayor from 1904-05. He owned land east of Seventh Street and south of Alice Avenue, which was later subdivided. Dunlap becomes Olive Avenue at 43rd Avenue.

• Bell Road: Named after Harvey Bell, a farmer who helped organize the Paradise Verde Irrigation District in 1916. The district was responsible for the Horseshoe Reservoir on the Verde River.

• Central Avenue: The street was called Centre, then Center and finally Central. When Phoenix changed the original north-south tribal names to a numbering system, Central turned into a dividing line: Numbered streets begin east of Central, and numbered avenues begin west of Central.

• Baseline Road: Not that long ago, Baseline Road was known as the road of Japanese flower gardens, with colorful flower farms stretching from 32nd to 48th streets. However, the story of Baseline Road begins before the gardens. Baseline Road is, in fact, the baseline of the Gila and Salt River Meridian Survey, which began in 1867 with a crew under William H. Pierce, and was completed by Wilfred and George Ingalls in July 1868. The survey connected the territory of Arizona to the national grid system and enabled early settlers to establish land claims under the Homestead Act, essentially resulting in the first population boom in Arizona after the Civil War.

• Broadway Road: Named for Noah M. Broadway, Maricopa County sheriff 1885-86.

• Grand Avenue: Named by Fresno, Calif., developers who were inspired to create a quick, easy route cutting diagonally from downtown to west Phoenix to attract settlers to the west side in 1887.

• Cactus Road: Named after the little town of Cactus, which was just northeast of Sunnyslope.

• Thunderbird Road: Named after a U.S. Army Corps training field during World War II.

• Greenway Road: Named after John Greenway, an Arizona pioneer.

• Pinnacle Peak Road: Named after Pinnacle Peak, a granite summit, which is east of Pima Road in Scottsdale.

• Washington Street: Named after the first U.S. president, George Washington.

• Jefferson Street: Named after the third U.S. president, Thomas Jefferson.

• Van Buren Street: Named after the eighth U.S. president, Martin Van Buren.

Sources:Brad Hall, Phoenix graphic designer,Tempe History Museum, "Phoenix 1870-1970" and city of Phoenix.