Name changes begin for Carmel streets

By FRED SWIFT

The City of Carmel is in the process of renaming streets in the Old Town section of the city. Letters have gone out to the first 171 residents living on east-west streets advising the names of their streets will be changed effective Feb. 1, 2022, according to Joshua Kirsh of the city engineering office.

He said the changes are being made to attempt to avoid confusion sometimes experienced by the current system of numbered streets and avenues. In the older section of the city, streets run east and west. Avenues run north and south. The configuration is a grid system with its center at Main Street and Range Line Road.

Under this system, an address of 500 Third Ave., N.E. is found five blocks north of Main and three blocks east of Range Line. This grid system was adopted about 80 years ago to replace named streets such as Walnut, Maple, Elm, etc.

Kirsh said eventually all numbered streets and avenues will be replaced by either original names from the early days of the community or names of local historic significance.

For example, 5th Street N.E. and N.W. will be named Small Street in honor of L.J. Small, longtime operator of an early mercantile store, and 4th Avenue north and south will be named Richland Street to honor the first Carmel school established in 1833.

In addition to the 171 residents already advised of the changes, another 403 residents will be advised of changes to the names of their streets in coming months. No changes will be made to the names of Main Street or Range Line Road.