Why are so many streets in Myers Park named after Ivy League Schools?

[voyager12]

Was it an attempt to make the neighborhood seem more exclusive? It seems rather silly to me.

[atlrvr]

Less silly than Hilldale Way or Valley Ridge Rd. or any of the absolutely ridiculous oxymoronic road names that exist in the city.

Myers Park should be as lucky to have Morningwood Dr., which is located in Stallings, NC.

[voyager12]

I do like Ideal Way though. There was a recent contest for the craziest street names in the country. Pyscho Path won

[graydog]

Was it an attempt to make the neighborhood seem more exclusive? It seems rather silly to me.

I was intriqued by your question and did a little digging.

I found a neat site published by the Myers Park Homeowners Association.

http://www.mpha.com/index.htm

You might guess the names are Ivy League because the landscape architect, John Nolen, went to Harvard. However, Dartmouth St. was found on a map written by John Myers in the 1890s, years before Nolen entered Harvard or knew of Charlotte.

Because of these early maps, and because John Myers wanted to build a first class neighborhood, I think the Ivy League names were chosen to help create the first class perception.

[voyager12]

Thanks for the info graydog!

[Charlotte_native]

In addition to John Noland, from Harvard, designing much of the layout and streets in Myers Park, there were other reasons that might have led him to these street names as well. They built Myers Park as a suburb "outside" the city and wanted to lure the city elite. In those days there were not colleges all over the place, there were relatively few colleges, so the Ivy League schools would likely have been where many of Charlotte's upper crust would have gone or would have had family that went there.

[revitalize]

I'm proud that my alma mater was given a street name there, "Bucknell Drive," considering we're not Ivy Leauge!

[voyager12]

I stand corrected