What's in a name: Medford streets - KOBI-TV NBC5 / KOTI-TV NBC2

MEDFORD, ORE. — What’s in a name It is part of aweek long series, looking at how local places got their names and the people behind them.

First up, Medford streets.

According to historian George Kramer, the streets of Medford, like many towns in the early 1900’s, were simply labeled as numbers and letters.That was until around 1907.

“As the orchard industry became a big deal, and they renamed the streets. ‘A’ became apple. ‘B’ became Bartlett,” said Kramer.

There were a few exceptions. Central and Front Streets were already named.

But not all the street names actually represented what orchardist’s grew in the valley.

“They tried to have fruit and vegetables, growing things, as a way to talking about that the valley is this beautiful and bountiful place that you could make a living,” Kramer said.

Chef Cody Diehl ofFired Up Food Truck, said “I grew up here but I would have never assumed it was named after something related so close to the valley.”

The City of Medford Planning Department says streets named today are usually up to the developer of new subdivisions, but they have to follow some guidelines.

Below is a list of those guidelines:

The approving authority shall not approve any street name unless it finds that the proposedname is consistent with the following criteria:

(1 ) Proposed names shall not be the same or similar to any other street name in JacksonCounty;

(2) The proposed street name must not sound the same, although spelled differently (ahomonym), as any other street name in Jackson County;

(3) The proposed street name must be simple to pronounce;

(4) The proposed street name shall not contain Cardinal directions (north, south, east, west)

(5) The proposed street name shall not contain offensive or derogatory terms;

(6) The proposed street name shall not contain punctuation or special characters;

(7) When a street makes a directional change of approximately 90 degrees or more, the streetname shall change;

(8) Street names shall continue across intersections and roundabouts;

(9) A street may not loop around in such a way that it creates two intersections with one otherstreet, unless the street name at one intersection is different; and,

(10) The proposed street name must have a suffix from Table 10.458-(1), Permitted MedfordStreet Suffixes below.