Names On Apartments/Homes

[torvald]

thank you dbt56, i guess i should have been more specific about what sort of names -- like loueva, alexia, etc -- usually women's names in the brickwork or plaster above the door. thanks again.

[Subdude]

I don't believe it's regional. You can see the same thing in older parts of a lot of cities. Apartments are still named today. I guess names are just easier to remember.

[Casual Observer]

In Vietnam, each neighborhood alley has a name, in a big blue sign over the alleyway entrance.

[dbigtex56]

This seemed to be a popular practice from the 'teens through the 1930's.

In Rochester there was an apartment building from the 20's called (no kidding) Thelma Louise.

Unfortunately it was torn down before the movie came out.

A 50's apartment complex on Garrott used to be called the Pam-Roy, but the sign was removed when it was rennovated.

[ricco67]

Been meaning to ask this for awhile, but just now remembered.

Along many parts of the Montrose I noticed quite a few homes have names built into the homes overhead.

In a couple of homes, it happens to be the name of the street, but in the majority i'm assuming it's the Surrname of the original residence.

A good example is a home on the corner of West Grey @ Montrose, there are two homes in the immediate area that have names on them in prominent lettering that is obviously as old as the home itself.

Any clue about this?

[torvald]

i wondered this too: here

but when asking i wanted to know WHY. who got to originally

pick the names? is there a directory somewhere? i thought

about making a old apartment/building name directory for

houston at the time i asked but... no one seemed as interested

in it as me.

looks like the original query is missing though...

looks like i typed over it as a reply somehow.

i was new to HAIF then!

[Overseas]

Hope this works being my first post...

Naming of homes probably derived from Britain, where it is quite common. You have the large estates, which are known solely by a name (Blenheim Palace, Knole, etc). And in many rural areas, a smaller home's name was its address (rather than 15 Oak St, Stanton, Oxfordshire, it would be Oak Cottage, Stanton, Oxfordshire). This is still the case today, but to a lesser extent.

I think the tradition was brought over - look at all the large plantations in the South with names, and estates up north.

And in both the UK and in the US, the middle class used to name their homes to emmulate their "betters" and to seem more upper class, perhaps.

In the UK now, though, naming your house is usually seen as bit naff.

[sevfiv]

the worden house on west gray was the worden apartments in the fifties, and more than likely the name of the original tenants of the home.

as far as places like tara, i don't think the more well-known folks had to etch their name over the front door

[dbigtex56]

Combined similar topics

[Vertigo58]

Hope this works being my first post...

Naming of homes probably derived from Britain, where it is quite common. You have the large estates, which are known solely by a name (Blenheim Palace, Knole, etc). And in many rural areas, a smaller home's name was its address (rather than 15 Oak St, Stanton, Oxfordshire, it would be Oak Cottage, Stanton, Oxfordshire). This is still the case today, but to a lesser extent.

I think the tradition was brought over - look at all the large plantations in the South with names, and estates up north.

And in both the UK and in the US, the middle class used to name their homes to emmulate their "betters" and to seem more upper class, perhaps.

In the UK now, though, naming your house is usually seen as bit naff.

I hope someone knows the answer to my question. While living in LA I had friends that lived in some of the older high rise apartment buildings near downtown. Several of these were built in the 1920's as you entered you would always see names like "Barrington Arms" or "Sausalito Arms". Does the ARMS mean like fortress? or what? that seems a bit extreme but I am certain that in their heyday they were hotels so the "arms" were there while they were hotels. I recall in old movies like Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche Dubois references a hotel in which she proclaims...I once stayed in a place called Tarantula Arms!

[FilioScotia]

It's a practice that goes back to medieval times and the days of heraldry.

It was a common practice for titled nobility to put their family names on their homes and estates. The word "arms" refers to the family's official symbol, the "coat of arms", the family crest or seal.

From Dictionary dot Com: Arms: Heraldry. the escutcheon, with its divisions, charges, and tinctures, and the other components forming an achievement that symbolizes and is reserved for a person, family, or corporate body; armorial bearings; coat of arms.

Edited February 2, 2007 by FilioScotia

[NenaE]

I see these bldgs with names all the time, in older neighborhoods. There are some in the East End...I've found them on the 4-plexes and/ or small older apartment homes. It's a nice helpful hint for history detectives.

[kylejack]

Worden has just been torn down.

[houblu]

Worden has just been torn down.

drive by there every day, what a waste (

[rsb320]

My first apartment was in a 4-plex named "Elberta". She still stands on Garrott, between Colquitt and W. Main.

[marmer]

While the heraldic and family name information is certainly accurate, my sense is that the Houston apartments were just named by their original developers, probably after family members.