Source:Paisley-not-popular
"Paisley avenue is not popular: Property holders will petition city councils to change its name: A Grand Army suggestion: Annual revision of the titles of thoroughfares: Officials have hard time naming new streets—'Zaza' accepted; 'Sapho' rejected—Spionkap [sic] selected." Pittsburg Post, Apr. 20, 1900, p. 8. Newspapers.com 86427378.
Paisley avenue's name is to be changed, if the property holders in that thoroughfare and adjacent streets can have their way. A petition is now being signed by them in which they ask councils to make the change. The petitioners said yesterday that they expect to present their request at the next meeting of the city legislature.
The petitioners, while they will not so state in their petition, believing it to be unnecessary, want the name changed because it is called after Samuel T. Paisley, ex-superintendent of the bureau of highways and sewers, whose payrolls are now under investigation. The thoroughfare, which is a new one, when completed, will really form a part of the Beechwood boulevard system, and will contain handsome residences.
Some of the petitioners think it would be well hereafter, in naming new streets, to follow the example of the G. A. R. in naming posts. When the Grand Army was first organized a great number of the heroes of the war were still living, and their names were given to posts. One or two of these men later proved to be better soldiers than citizens, and the posts got new names. Finally, the G. A. R. issued an order that posts should be named only after dead men, whose records were complete.
This is the season of the year when the list of streets is revised for the benefit of the city directory publisher. There is an epidemic of brain fag in the city clerk's office, for the force was engaged all day in making the changes, 74 in all, including the naming of new streets, vacation of avenues and portions of streets, and relocation and extension of thoroughfares. The chief trouble was in selecting new names. It looks easy, but it is not. In all about 35 names had to be chosen, mainly for proposed streets in the Twenty-second and Twenty-third wards.
War, fiction, opera and the drama were compelled to contribute. For instance, in the Twenty-third ward there is now a Pretoria and a Spionkop street. The latter is located on the crest of a hill, but is believed to be a more accessible and quieter neighborhood than was its namesake a few weeks ago. "Zaza" having succeeded in passing the dramatic censorship, now gives its title to an alley. "Sapho" was considered, but rejected as having been condemned by the city officials. The season of grand opera in Pittsburg is commemorated by "Nordica" street. "Lygia" street recalls "Quo Vadis," and "Mercia" street, "The Sign of The Cross."
About this time the searchers after names became almost frantic with exhaustion, and they began selecting them at random, after this style—Fedora, Choctaw, Elsie, Quartz, Oyer, Passaic, Lynn and Quebec. The city clerk's force will now spend the rest of the year in mental recuperation.
