Unusual Place Names

[Shawnee123]

Perhaps.

I can tell you that there is a huge difference between Houston, OH and Houston TX!

[glatt]

Very cool, wolf. I always wondered about King of Prussia. I assumed it was named to honor the King of Prussia in thanks for all the Prussian mercenaries who helped out in the Revolutionary War. Named after an inn, huh? I never would have guessed that.

[wolf]

Yes, I have a Bachelor of Arts in Geography and Planning. Only after you graduate do you learn that you have to be related to someone in politics to work in this field. I have never worked as a geographer or planner.

More about King of Prussia

Lesson Plans from the National Park Service that talk about the move

A lot of the weird town names in Pennsylvania result from being named after an inn ... the original name of the town of West Chester was Turk's Head. In Pennsylvania Dutch Country I have already mentioned Blue Ball and Bird-in-Hand. Near me, Blue Bell and Broad Axe are both inn names.

And then we have Bala Cynwyd. That's the fault of the Welsh. I love hearing people who aren't from here try to pronounce that one. And Bryn Mawr. And Bryn Athyn, and Gwynedd.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by wolf

More about King of Prussia

This bit was particularly interesting.

For more than a quarter century the inn was marooned on an artificial island, with cars and trucks roaring past it on all sides. It was sealed up for years, surrounded by a high fence.

That whole story reminds me of the lyrics to Telegraph Road, by Dire Straits.

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by wolf

...And then we have Bala Cynwyd. That's the fault of the Welsh. I love hearing people who aren't from here try to pronounce that one. And Bryn Mawr. And Bryn Athyn, and Gwynedd.

Is it true that the "man in charge" of building the main line railroad was Welsh, and named the stations, and the towns took the station names as the town names?

[Urbane Guerrilla]

It compounds the mischief that "wy" in Welsh is a dipthong not found in English -- wee approximates it, but it's more correctly like ooey or Pooh-y, and even then that's with an accent.

[xoxoxoBruce]

The previously mentioned village of Blue Ball, PA, was named for the Blue Ball Hotel which was rumored to be George Washington's first recruiting station for the Continental Army. Being in East Earl Township, Lancaster County, (rtes 322 & 23) it's hard to believe it was the first, but it was certainly one of them.

Friend of mine leased the hotel and operated it for about 10 years with a liquor license leased from another party.
When the owners of the hotel wanted to break the lease, they arranged for the liquor license to be yanked and forced the place to close.
A number of groups were trying to save the place as a historic building (already in the National register) so the owners, fearing they would be tied up, tore it down over a holiday weekend....4th of July, if I remember right.

I got there the second day and the porches, doors and windows were gone and the bar and kitchen gutted. The third day it was gone, except for the rubble to be pushed into the Cellar when they'd finished removing the beams and metal hardware for butchering cattle, sheep, hogs and Buffalo.

The Buffalo were in recent years as there are a number of farms near by that raise them. They also held a competition for who could bring is the biggest Snapping Turtle. The shell was displayed in the bar, for a year, with the winners name on it. This contest supplied the turtle soup pot for the next year also.

This all happened, hmm....I guess 8 or 10 years ago, and it's still a vacant lot...bastards.

[wolf]

Originally Posted by Spexxvet

Is it true that the "man in charge" of building the main line railroad was Welsh, and named the stations, and the towns took the station names as the town names?

I don't think the train went through in 1862.

The names predate the train stations.

Except for Ambler, which was named after Mary Ambler's brave and selfless work in helping the victims of the train crash in that town. Ambler was originally called "Wissahickon," the name which is used for the high school, school district, and local library branches. (I think the Ambler Library became the Wissahickon Valley Public Library some time in the late 1960s, as I remember taking older books out that had the original Ambler Public Library stamps on them).

[xoxoxoBruce]

The original "Main Line of Public Works" project became the "Main Line" of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad in 1834. It went through Bala, Cynwyd and Ardmore.
The West Philadelphia Railroad opened it's tracks through Overbrook, Merion, Narberth and Wynnewood to Ardmore in 1840.
The state aquired the West Philly RR in 1850 and gave it, along with the Philly & Columbia RR, to the Pensylvania Railroad in 1857.

The Welsh names come from the Welsh settlers.

The Welsh Tract, also called the Welsh Barony, was a portion of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania settled largely by Welsh-speaking Quakers. It covers 40,000 acres (160 km²) to the north-west of Philadelphia. The original settlers, led by John Roberts, negotiated with William Penn in 1684 to constitute the Tract as a separate county whose local government would use the Welsh language, since many of the settlers spoke no English. Notwithstanding this agreement, by the 1690s the land had already been partitioned into different counties, despite appeals from the Welsh settlers, and the Tract never gained self-government.

The Roberts and other Welsh families became influential in the area, through the building of mills and the eventual introduction of the railroad. It is the railroad that gives the best-known part of the area its current name - the Main Line, referring to the main track of the now-defunct Pennsylvania Railroad.

The area is now part of Montgomery, Chester, and Delaware counties. Many towns in the area still bear Welsh names. Some, such as Bala Cynwyd, are named after places in Wales. Others, such as Tredyffrin or Uwchlan, have independent Welsh names. The former town of Merion Square was renamed Gladwyne in 1891 in order to imitate the stylish Welsh names of adjoining towns, although the name is meaningless in Welsh.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

The former town of Merion Square was renamed Gladwyne in 1891 in order to imitate the stylish Welsh names of adjoining towns, although the name is meaningless in Welsh.

The Anglophone ear would have difficulty distinguishing "glad" from "gwlad," I suppose, though gwlad's A is broad rather than short, and the W's "oo" sound in Welsh is unstressed in this word, so the word tends to sound like "g'lahd." It means nation or country.

[Bullitt]

Well I don't know if this counts for an unusual place name.. but back when I lived in TN, not too far from my house was the intersection of Old Hickory Road.. and Old Hickory Road.

I miss the south

[John Adams]

Maybe not unusual but I grew up in Hicksville, NY and now I live in the south.

It's funny when people ask me where I am from down here and I say Hicksville. They usually say "me too".

[wolf]

Originally Posted by Bullitt

Well I don't know if this counts for an unusual place name.. but back when I lived in TN, not too far from my house was the intersection of Old Hickory Road.. and Old Hickory Road.

I miss the south

Down near Oxford, Penna. (which nearly qualifies as the south) they have the intersection of Route One and Route 1. Both run North to South.

[limey]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

... gutted. The third day it was gone, except for the rubble to be pushed into the Cellar when they'd finished removing ...

Ah HAH, so that's why it's a bit dusty in here ...

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by wolf

I don't think the train went through in 1862.

The names predate the train stations.

...

It was the railroad company that used the old Welsh names, Bala and Cynwyd for their stations and so really named our community by bringing into daily use the names of the ancestral towns of the pioneers.

This confuses me. The names predate the station, but the railroad company named the community? Uhhhh - what?