Alameda Streets Used To Be Named After Birds and Fish

Alameda Recreation and Parks Department provides advice, coordination, and guidance on parks and recreational facilities in the city. One of the activities they conduct is called Alameda Walks where they invite Alameda residents to lace up their walking shoes, bring family, friends, and neighbors and join them on an hour-long walk on the 1^st and 2^nd Saturday mornings of each month, May through October. For those who are new to Alameda or have lived there for decades, this is a great way to begin a Saturday morning exploring neighborhoods and learning about the history of Alameda.

One of the fun facts from one of these walks is that at one time, around 1875, a section of Alameda had streets named after birds and fish. The bird-named streets ran north to south. The fish-named streets ran east to west.

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Not only did I not know this, I had not even heard of a few of these creatures.

THEME	IMAGE	Old Name	Current Name
FISH		Paru Street	Paru Street
		Perch Street	Hibbard Street
		Leviathan Street	Grand Avenue
		Dolphin Street (not a fish)	Minturn Street
		Pike Street	Union Street
		Trout Street	Schiller Street
		Salmon Street	Lafayette Street
		Minnow Street	Chestnut Avenue
		Bass Street	Willow Street
		Pampino Street	Walnut Street
		Mullet Street	Oak Street
BIRD		Condor Street	Clement Avenue
		Eagle Street	Eagle Avenue
		Falcon Street	Buena Vista Avenue
		Dove Street	Pacific Avenue
		Linnet Street	Lincoln Avenue
		Quail Street	Santa Clara Avenue

So what's up with the street versus avenue naming?

• A street is a small road made between two rows of houses. In other words, a street has houses on both sides. A street is a single road, with or without extension. A street is normally not characterized by the presence of heavy traffic. ^{[DifferenceBetween.com]}
• An avenue, more often than not, has buildings and offices, shops, banks, commercial establishments and the like. An avenue is generally a confluence of several roads. In North American, an avenue is a thoroughfare running at right angles to the streets in a city. There is normally a lot of traffic on an avenue. ^{[DifferenceBetween.com]}

Oh, how the times have changed.

Want more information like this? Our walking-tour guides were Dennis Evanosky and Eric Kos who have published a book:

More info on the book.

This was a fun way to spend an hour on Saturday morning and learn something in the process.