3 Syllable Street Name Exception?!?

Submitted by BiscuitMeniscus27 t3_10pehv5 in washingtondc

If all of the streets in DC between Allison and Whittier are supposed to have 3 syllables, does that mean that the correct pronunciation for Ingraham St. is “Ing-ra-ham”?

Since the naming convention for streets goes: Letter, 2-Syllable, 3-Syllable, Flowers/Trees, it seems to me that Ingraham is either the exception to the rule, or I’ve been pronouncing it wrong forever.

Is this a thing? Am I a crazy person? I googled it, but can’t find anything.

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NomDePlume007 t1_j6jxqhw wrote

Ingraham has 3 syllables. Ing-ra-ham.

Or at least that's how I've always pronounced it.

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XxBigCxX t1_j6jxzv5 wrote

3 syllable streets are uptown NW DC

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leagle89 t1_j6jy223 wrote

I think it can be pronounced "In-gram" normally, but you're right that in this context the right pronunciation would be "In-gra-ham." Sort of like you would normally pronounce Houston "Hyu-ston", but when talking about the street in NYC you'd pronounce it "How-ston."

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OverallSafety791 t1_j6jy6hy wrote

I've always pronounced it with 3 syllables, but didn't know about the naming convention.

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digitall565 t1_j6k9cga wrote

It might be three syllables here as people are saying on this thread but you're not crazy for thinking it's two. There are Ingrahams where I'm from and I've always known it as ingrum.

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giscard78 t1_j6kg3xo wrote

I wondered something similar about Montague then realized it must be Mon-ta-goo instead of Mon-taug.

There’s also out of order names, university names, and random one or two syllable out of place names.

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__mud__ t1_j6kladq wrote

Whittier can also be two syllables, now that you mention it

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swapdip t1_j6m58g7 wrote

Say it any way you want rules are arbitrary language is made up time is irrelevant we are all just star stuff

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Few_Society5388 t1_j6m8y1l wrote

Ride the 70 bus enough times and you’ll never pronounce it “ingrahm” again.

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diaymujer t1_j6nfih8 wrote

Replying to hemlockone (#1,636,501)

Thanks for sharing the article. I’ve known the general rule for a long time, but the article cleared up something that had always seemed to contradict the rule:

Only “streets” are subject to the convention. Avenues, roads, drives, and other minor streets do not conform to the alphabetical progression. “Places,” on the other hand, usually appear one block north of the correspondingly lettered street and often share the same first letter.

So now I understand why Quincy Place and Todd Place are in eckington, which is covered by the first alphabet.

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SchrodingersCatfight t1_j6o54ag wrote

Replying to hemlockone (#1,636,501)

I believe the tree streets were something started in Takoma Park, which was a planned Victorian bedroom community established in 1883.

>In this connection one should also note that the early street names chosen by Gilbert were those of local trees: Tulip, Cedar, Maple, Dogwood. etc.

It was an extension of the "Sylvan Suburb" ideal he wanted to create. Looks like DC took those botanical names and ran with them when the city was extended, at least according to this 1907 map. If I'm reading it right, Aspen St. used to be "Wabash."

The streets are mostly trees but not all (dahlia, fern, and geranium, for example).

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SchrodingersCatfight t1_j6o9drg wrote

A fun snippet from Ghosts of DC where a resident of Columbia Heights is complaining about street name changes when the city absorbed what had been a "suburb" prior to that time:

>Judge McCalmont led the opposition to the resolution. “This thing of having mathematical accuracy to everything I do not believe in,” he said, with considerable emphasis. “The scheme of naming these streets Yale, Harvard, and Princeton was a good one. They are significant of nice schools, names of colleges held in affection, and why should they not remain? I believe that the people should have something to say in the naming of their streets. Our people know enough to find the way home.” He held up for ridicule the A B C system and the lack of sentimentality which the names would possess.

From a letter to the Washington Post in 1904.

Harvard St. is still there, but the rest of the names were changed. I always wondered about Kenyon Street and Dartmouth Street. Because they were tucked in with a lot of other college names, they might have been legitimately named for those two schools as well. Columbian College (which was moved and became GW) used to be there and was the namesake of the area.

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