Page 11 - Wayne Dispatch Pages

How did our roads get their names?

The story of how our roads got York established a settlement at the
their names is a fascinating and lit- intersection named after his home-
tle-known history lesson. Michigan town, and eventually the road took
Avenue was originally called the on the name of the little hamlet. The
“Chicago Road” because it runs all “H” at the end was added sometime
the way to Chicago, and didn’t get the after the 1880s.
name Michigan Avenue until 1867. Wayne Road was also named
Glenwood was originally called after a defunct town at one point,
“Dewey Road” in honor of George Schwarzburg. In 1829 a north-south
Dewey, a naval admiral in the Span- the road that their homestead was road was created to connect Romu-
ish-American War. In fact many of on in Springwells (Dearborn). Going lus Township to the Ann Arbor Trail.
the roads in the neighborhood north west to east, Hannan Road was orig- This road was called the
of Glenwood are named for men or inally called the Nankin-Canton Schwarzburg Road, and where it
ships of civil war and Spanish Amer- Township Line Road. It was changed met Ann Arbor Trail a hamlet
ican War history, such as Columbia, to Hannan around 1900, supposedly founded by a man named John
Farragut, Schley and Manila. In named after Bert Hannan, an em- Schwarz grew up. In 1876, during
1929 Wayne changed the name to ployee of the DUR streetcar company. the national centennial, the name
Glenwood after the cemetery, which The James Hannan family lived on north of Michigan was changed to
had been on the road since 1872. the road as early as the 1870s Washington, and south of Michigan
Palmer Road is named for John though, and some Hannans still do to Monroe, named after the presi-
and Margaret Palmer who had a 40- today. dents. Sometime after about 1905
acre farm on the N.W. corner of Hix Road is named for brothers the name was changed to Wayne
Palmer and Wayne Road, they came Amos and Lorenzo Hix who owned Road as the city grew and became
to the area from New York in 1833. about 150 acres on the east side of prosperous. Venoy was named for
Cherry Hill Road is literally named the road in the 1860s. Newburgh James Venoy, who had a 70-acre Newburgh Road and Glenwood Road
after a hill which had cherry trees on Road is named for a now-defunct farm on the east side of the road at street sign.
it near Ridge Road in Canton. town at the intersection of Newburgh Michigan. Merriman Road is named at the NW corner at Michigan in
Ford Road is named for William and Ann Arbor Trail. In 1831 An- for the Charles and Paulina Merri- 1859. The Merriman farm is now
Ford, Henry Ford’s father, as it was thony Paddock from Newburg, New man family who owned a large farm Westlawn Cemetery.

The Wayne Dispatch · January 2023 · 11