Lou’s View

By Lou Bernard

It’s one of the most basic things about any community—The street names. Look at any map, and there they are. To visit any building, you need to know what street it’s on. When a new street is established, one of the biggest things is to name it.

When Jeremiah Church founded Lock Haven in 1833, it wasn’t the big, sprawling area we know now. It was about a dozen square blocks between Jay Street and Hanna Street, roughly. And Jerry, who was the sole guy in charge of all this, was the one who decided those original names.

I’ve noticed that they fall into three categories.

First, you have the street names that every community has. The basic ones. Main Street, Water Street, etc. Later city planners jumped on this trend by naming streets and alleys after numbers, birds, or trees.

Second, there are streets named after important national people. Washington Street is named after George Washington, Jay Street is named after John Jay. I’d imagine a lot of communities have these, too.

The third category is the fascinating one. He named a lot of our streets and alleys after local people who were important in some way to the history of the community.

A lot of people think that Church Street is named because there was a church on it, but that’s wrong. Jerry Church lived there, and named the street after himself. The alleys on each side are named Willard’s Alley and Mary’s Alley, after his brother Willard and Willard’s wife, Mary. In one entry, Wikipedia lists “Saint Mary’s Alley,” which is the sort of badly-researched mistake Wikipedia has become known for. Mary Church was a nice person, but nobody ever nominated her for sainthood.

Henderson Street was named after the guy who owned all the property in the first place—Doctor John Henderson. A retired Revolutionary War surgeon from Huntingdon County, Henderson sold the property to Jerry Church originally.

Jordan’s Alley runs between Main and Water, all the way across town. This one is probably named after Judge Alexander Jordan of Williamsport, who was likely the anonymous donor who loaned Jerry Church the money to found Lock Haven in the first place.

Jefferies Alley should be more properly spelled “Jefferis.” It was named after James Jefferis, the man who bought the biggest, most expensive plot of land during the founding. Jefferis purchased a hundred and twenty acres for nine thousand dollars, apparently enough to rate his own alley name.

Also worth naming an alley was being the only single woman. Sarah’s Alley runs between Jay and Grove Streets, and it’s named after Sarah Spear, who was the whole dating pool in the 1830s. Everyone else was too old, too young, or too married, so Sarah was a young man’s only chance at a social life for a few years. I can see how this would have caught the attention of Jerry Church, a constant womanizer.

Grove Street was named after Peter Grove, who fought the Native American tribes in the area. He is also credited with having the mountain peak Peter’s Steps named after him, across the river, but this is wrong—Those are named after Peter McGinley, an early hunter who used that spot.

Plenty of our streets and alleys reflect our history. A friend of mine once told me that only pizza delivery guys, ambulance drivers, and me know the names of all these alleys. True enough—But I bet all those others can’t explain the story behind them.