ABC Street Names

• Audubon Street was likely named after John James Audubon (1785-1851), French-American ornithologist, naturalist, and artist.

• Beverly Street was formerly named Bacon Street and was likely named after Francis Bacon (1561-1626), English philosopher and statesman and a founder of the scientific method. By 1901 the street’s name had been changed to Beverly most likely for Robert Beverly Jr. and/or William Beverly, early 18 th century Virginia planters, lawmakers and historians best remembered for writing the 1705 History of the Present State of Virginia, the first history of Virginia and one of the first works of history written in the 13 original colonies.

• Calumet Street was not named for a person. The street’s name likely refers to the Calumet copper mines in Michigan, renowned for their productivity at the time the ABC streets were being named.

• Darwin Street was likely named after Charles Darwin (1809-1882), British biologist and geologist and father of evolutionary theory. He found critical inspiration for the theory of evolution in his South American research.

• Ericsson Street was likely named for John Ericsson, 19 th century Swedish-American engineer and inventor, best known for designing the U.S. Navy’s first ironclad warship, the USS Monitor.

• Faraday Street was likely named after Michael Faraday (1791-1867), British physicist best known for his work on electricity and magnetism. Faraday was an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

• Girard Street was most likely named for Charles Frederic Girard (1822-1895), Franco-American herpetologist and ichthyologist. (Three other French scientists of the 19 th century are also possible origins: engineer and mathematician Pierre-Simon Girard; engineer and inventor Philippe de Girard; and chemist Aime Girard.)

• Homer Street was likely named after Homer, credited as the composer of the Iliad and the Odyssey, the two oldest and most important works of Greek literature.

• Harvard Street was laid out in 1870 and named for a developer’s brother-in-law, and not for the well-known university in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

More Fun Facts

• George Eastman’s personal physician, Dr. Audley Durand Stewart, brought a young cheetah home to Rochester after a 1926 African safari. He introduced the cheetah in his ABC neighborhood and – according to some stories – walked the cheetah on a leash.

• Park Avenue near Vick Park A and B was, at one time, a racetrack.

• The location of the 490 overpass at the end of Harvard Street, at one time, was a train station for the Rochester Trolley system.