Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to be dead to be honored by having a street named after you in Jersey City. Take basketball legend Bob Hurley Sr., whose name now graces the section of Eighth Street between Marin Boulevard and Manila Avenue. As Jersey City clerk Robert Byrne said, “They honored Coach Hurley while he could still smell the roses.”
The block became Bob Hurley Sr. Way after Hurley was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame last summer and before his St. Anthony Friars won their 1,000th game early this month. The street runs in front of the school.
“They should be naming streets after true legends” – John Gomez
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According to Byrne, the streets are not “renamed.” Rather they are “also known as.” This is to avoid the paperwork, red tape, and expense of folks who live on that street having to change their drivers’ licenses and mailing addresses.
“The ordinance allows the placement of signage beneath the actual street name,” he said. “The council does it to honor those who had an effect on the neighborhood who are fortunate enough to be getting recognized on earth and sometimes posthumously.”
So what exactly do you have to do to get a street named after you?
Local luminaries
Late last month, the Jersey City Council unanimously adopted an ordinance naming the intersection of Monmouth and Fifth Streets Louis Calamito Way. “Calamito lived in Jersey City and was known as the ‘Mayor of Monmouth Street,’ ” Byrne said. A lifelong resident of this close-knit neighborhood, Calamito, who died in 2005 at age 82, was honored with a Bronze Star in World War II.
The members of the Village Neighborhood Association had requested the ordinance.
Byrne said, “There have been many streets named for people throughout the years, and in the old days the city renamed the streets instead of designating them ‘also known as.’ ” Marin Boulevard was Henderson Street, according to Byrne, until they renamed it for the governor of Puerto Rico, Luis Muñoz Marin, in the early 1980s. “It was a movement by the Hispanic population of Jersey City at the time,” Byrne said.
Local historian John Gomez, M.S. Historic Preservation, Columbia University, said that Peter Henderson, for whom the street was originally named, was a world famous Jersey City botanist.
At the very end of Jersey Avenue at the intersection of Grand Street is Douglas and Arthur Skinner Memorial Drive. The Skinner brothers, according to Byrne, were both killed in World War II.
A street sign across from City Hall on Montgomery and Grove honors the late Mayor Glenn Cunningham. And Jersey City Planning Board Director Bob Cotter has an “a.k.a.” street named for him, rumored to be near the Zeppelin Hall beer garden.
Change for the sake of change
Gomez said longtime Jersey City residents are very protective of their street names. Pavonia Avenue was changed to Town Square in the Newport area, to the annoyance of some, according to Gomez. “All of downtown was known as Pavonia in the 17th Century,” he pointed out. And just recently the Pavonia/Newport PATH stop was changed to just Newport.
Washington Boulevard was once Washington Street. “It was a subtle change,” Gomez said, “but it annoyed people. What was the point of that?”
Communipaw Avenue, the oldest road in all of New Jersey, used to be called Communipaw Lane, according to Gomez.
When it comes to street names in new developments like Society Hill, developers and the city Planning Board weigh in.
“The city can and does have something to say about street names,” Byrne said. “Every street in Society Hill is named after a tree — buttonwood, cottonwood, all sorts of trees.”
He noted, “It can’t be an offensive name, like Manson Way.”
Deserving designees
Byrne said that the names are subject to a public vote. “The City Council can authorize an ordinance, or neighborhood groups can ask a council member to do it,” Byrne said.
Some urged caution.
“They should be naming streets after true legends,” Gomez said. He suggests former mayors Thomas F.X. Smith and Dr. Paul Jordan would make great streets. The latter was instrumental in establishing our historic districts and commissions.
Gomez approves of new housing in the Lafayette section near Bramhall Avenue because it’s named after Dr. George E. Cannon, a famous African-American leader and businessman. “He was a legend in Jersey City,” Gomez said.
“Streets should not be named for people whose fathers are politically connected,” Gomez said. “They should be named for heroes of some kind, someone who has given back to or changed the city.”
Kate Rounds can be reached at krounds@hudsonreporter.com..