A Street by Any Other Name

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Back in 1959, before Corpus Christi annexed Flour Bluff, its residents petitioned for a change of names of several streets on the Encinal Peninsula.  According to the Caller-Times article from June 23, 1959, petition signers cited getting house-to-house mail delivery in Flour Bluff to replace their rural mail status.  “They allege, apparently correctly, that 25 street names in the Flour Bluff area are identical with 25 in the city of Corpus Christi,” the article states.

Corpus Christi postmaster, Arneta McGloin, told the Caller-Times that Post Office Department policy prohibited house-to-house delivery to streets with identical names in the same town.  Even though Flour Bluff was not part of the city at that time, it did not have its own post office and was considered a part of Corpus Christi.  County Commissioner Bob Barnes for Precinct 4, whose area of representation included Flour Bluff, said there would be a “quasi-public hearing” on the matter at the July 14, 1959, regular meeting of the County Commissioners Court since this kind of action could ruffle the feathers of those not in favor of the name changes.

Such was the case with the name change of Rabbit Run Road to Greenwood Drive.  This name change was faced with a great deal of opposition.  Some of the old folks said they might get lost if the name was changed.  The reasons given for the name change were perhaps not as logical as the reasons for the Flour Bluff names changes.  According to the same Caller-Times article,The reasons given for changing that name was that there were no longer any rabbits willing to get shot on the road, and besides it was a bad street running knee-deep in mud.  It was not explained how changing a street name would result in dry weather.”

So, which streets in Flour Bluff went by another name?  Only 20 (listed below) of the 25 name-change requests appeared in the article.  Can anyone guess what these streets are named today?  The answers can be found below the map.

  1. Bayview
  2. Tyler
  3. Duncan
  4. Rose
  5. Live Oak
  6. Laurel
  7. Elm
  8. Agarito
  9. Oleander
  10. Mistletoe
  11. Ann
  12. Eunice
  13. Hackberry
  14. Carol
  15. Santa Barbara
  16. Ebony
  17. Palm
  18. Sharon
  19. Buena Vista
  20. Johnson Drive

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ANSWERS:

  1. Riverdale Drive
  2. Wyndale Drive
  3. Purdue Street
  4. Roseanne Street
  5. Woodcrest Drive
  6. Sentinel Drive
  7. Sunglo Drive
  8. Orange Drive
  9. Ridgewood Drive
  10. Lynhurst Drive
  11. Pearson Drive
  12. Crestline Street
  13. Stardust Lane
  14. Tulane Street
  15. Clearview Drive
  16. Dove Lane
  17. Amber Drive
  18. Annette Drive
  19. Oakdale Street
  20. Glenoak Drive

Of course, many are aware that Davis Drive morphed into what is now South Padre Island Drive, as did a stretch of Lexington Boulevard. The piece of Lexington Boulevard that ran to NAS CC became NAS Drive.  The piece of Purdue Street that ran from Waldron to Laguna Shores was re-named Hustlin’ Hornet Drive.  With all the talk about streets these days, it’s sometimes just more fun to take a trip down Memory Lane and forget about its condition.