Historically Speaking: What’s in a Name? Changing street names in Exeter

Exeter’s streets weren’t laid out in any organized fashion. Like most New England towns, they were a combination of existing Native trails and newly created pathways from one home to another. They didn’t have any formal names and were mostly descriptive names – Court Street was where the courthouse was located, and Prison Street was where the prison stood.

According to Exeter historian Charles Bell, the streets didn’t have official names until fairly late. “In 1799,” he wrote, “the streets of the town for the first time received authoritative names, recommended by a committee of citizens, and adopted by the town.” These “authoritative names” appear on the first accurate map of Exeter drawn in 1802 by Phineas Merrill. Looking at this map today is a confusing mishmash of names that are not used today.

Water Street, which today stretches from Great Bridge to the end of Swasey Parkway, had four different parts: Mill Street, Water Street, Fish Street, and River Street. Main Street had two parts: Main and Middle Street. Front Street was Court Street, Tan Lane was Academy Street, Green Street was Carpenters Lane, Park Street was both Lane’s End and Back Street, Cass Street was Cross Street – and this is just the center of town. However, just getting standardized names on the map was creating order out of chaos.

In 1840, the selectmen tidied up the names a bit. Water Street unified all its parts into one long street. The courthouse had been moved, so Court Street became Front Street, and a new Court Street was laid out. Interestingly, the courthouse only stood on Court Street for under a decade – the building burned, and the new courthouse was built on the former Court Street, now renamed Front Street. Residents of the second Court Street refused to allow it to be renamed, so it continues to be a Court Street without a courthouse.

The 1845 map shows a more recognizable downtown. After that, the street names stayed pretty much the same. New streets were commonly called “New Road” or “New Street” until a suitable name was found (and hats off to all the towns that still have a New Road on the maps). Names were used to give directions to travelers. Thus, roads often had names describing where they led – Hampton Road (in Exeter) leads to Hampton, just as Newmarket Road (in Exeter) leads to Newmarket. This might be a New England quirk because it baffles visitors today.

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The new road laid out to the B&M railroad depot in 1860 became “Lincoln Street” after President Lincoln’s assassination. This led to numerous naming’s of dead presidents – McKinley Street, Garfield Street and tiny Garfield Court. Hobart Street was named at the turn of the century for the recently deceased vice-president, Garret Hobart, whose death in November of 1899 opened the way for Theodore Roosevelt to receive his position and become president upon the assassination of McKinley.

Streets named for trees have been popular in most places, Exeter was no exception. Moulton Street became Maple Street – a cross street to Elm Street. Developers chose the names for their streets, often naming them for themselves. Gill Street and Elliott Street are two such places. Some names were used but never appeared on maps. Older deeds in town refer to the Neck and Neck Road when laying out land on Linden Street. When the road crossing Ass Brook was laid out early in the 20th century, it was upgraded to Ash Brook for delicacy’s sake. Locals insisted on calling it Ass Brook Road, much to the chagrin of the Reverend C.V. Tenney, who purchased a house there in 1926.

In 1888, as the town was celebrating its 250th anniversary, there was again a movement to rename the streets. A committee was created, led by Charles Bell. It was his opinion that the streets should be named for the town fathers – the wealthy white men who “gave a small village a national fame.” The suggestion was to change the major downtown roads to commemorate John Wheelwright, John Phillips, Nicholas Gilman, Thomas Wilson, Enoch Poor, and the Folsom, Odlin, Leavitt, Dudley, Hilton and Thing families. Townspeople had no objections to most of the names, but they didn’t want the chaos that would occur if existing streets had their names changed.

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This complaint came before one had to worry about the EMS 9-1-1 dispatching system, home mail delivery, GPS tracking, Amazon packages, or DoorDash. The lively meeting brought out so many people it had to move from the selectmen’s office to the town hall. There, the committee was met with angry citizens brandishing petitions. No one on Center Street wanted to live on “Poor Street” no matter how much they respected Enoch Poor. The Court Street crowd was there objecting to becoming “Gilman Street.” Gilman Marston spoke in opposition stating that “names endeared by association should not be changed,” and warned that, “trouble would result in tracing and proving titles to land.”

Only two of the changes were approved. Cross Street was renamed Cass Street, in honor of Lewis Cass, and Katy’s Lane, which was named for Catherine Merrill – a long-deceased Black woman who’d lived there and left a bequest to the town, became “Lane’s End.” Today, it’s part of Park Street.

As the town grows, new streets are laid out – but now there are rules regarding naming. Most of the regulations try to avoid confusion with existing names. Recently, the names were tidied up again to avoid confusion. People on Pine Road had to decide on a new name to avoid confusion with Pine Street. Of course, now that the street is named Jubal Martin Road, it’s quite a burden on the residents to notify every one of the new addresses. Gilman Marston was right about that. Still, if one needs the fire department to arrive at the right place, it will be nice to have them rushing to the right part of town.

Barbara Rimkunas is the curator of the Exeter Historical Society. Support the Exeter Historical Society by becoming a member. Join online at www.exeterhistory.org.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Historically Speaking: What’s in a Name? Changing street names in Exeter