Ok, we all know the mnemonic for remembering the downtown street names: “Jesus Christ Made Seattle Under Protest”.
What I’m looking for is another for the streets that cross Broadway on Capitol Hill:
Olive St, Howell, Denny, Olive Way/John, Thomas, Harrison, Republican, Mercer, Roy, (optional: Aloha, Prospect, Highland, Galer)
… and another one for the streets in Belltown:
Stewart, Virginia, Lenora, Blanchard, Bell, Battery, Wall, Vine, Cedar, Clay, Broad
Does anyone know any mnemonics for these? If not, feel free to make some up.
Bonus: here’s a tip for numbered streets like:
65th Ave NE
NE 65th Ave
The directional letter which is closest to the number tells you which direction it runs. So the first one has the N closest to 65th so it runs north-south. The second has the E closest to 65th so it runs east-west.
Note: cross-posted at LiveJournal Seattle
This is pretty simple. In Seattle, about 99% of the time “Streets” run east-west, and “Avenues” run north-south. Often (but far less predictably) windy or diagonal routes are “Road” or “Way.”
SeattleBrad, you should fix your example. “NE 65th Ave” does not exist in Seattle; it is NE 65th St.
Only here does Jesus think his room mate reeks – and pulls his groin
(or) and phones his grandma
(or) and pops his goiter
This is seriously one of my favorite games, so I’ll keep working at it.
Order Here: Dick’s juicy tasty hamburgers rumble my rectum (and placate hungry gurgles)
The city is roughly broken up into a big 3×3 tic-tac-toe board. Streets in the upper left corner get a “NW” prefix (avenues get a “NW” suffix). Streets in the lower middle box get “S” and so on. Streets in the central box don’t have any prefix or suffix.
The dividing lines for the tic-tac-toe board are…
top: ship canal – Denny – ship canal
bottom: Yesler way
left: Greenwood ave/Queen Anne ave
right: (approximately) I-5
Bonus facts
SW: West Seattle
SE: Mercer Island (or Bellevue)
Our hotties drive over John to hear real men rave about pretty horny girls.
Broadway:
Oliver hurled dirty OJ to hassle republicans meeting in restrooms and pretending to hate gays.
Belltown:
Stewart views Lenora, Blanche, and Belle as batty white vampires with cedar chip breasts.
The only ‘order game’ I play to remember Hill street names is that, from the south, Pike comes before Pine.
The rest I try to figure out by what businesses are at their intersection on Broadway (back when there were businesses on Broadway).
It’s a 3×4 grid, actually, Ross. 3 sections E-W by 4 N-S, with 2 sections missing (SE, and directly west of downtown). The 3rd dividing line is the ship canal.
Observe: Montlake (south of ship canal, north of Denny) uses the E direction on streets and avenues. The University District (north of the ship canal) uses NE.
Similarly with Magnolia (W) and Ballard (NW).
The fact you may not have noticed (and it took me years) is that there is a part of town (north of Denny, south of the ship canal, east of Queen Anne Ave and W of Eastlake) where Avenues have the ‘N’ designation, but streets have no directional designation. So, for example, the QFC near Seattle Center is at 5th Ave N and Mercer St (*not* N Mercer St.)
The Belltown mnemonic I learned starts at the north and misses the two shortest streets: “Cedar Vine climbs up the Wall”, “Battery, Bell, Blanchard” (the 3 B’s, in alphabetical order), and the similar-sounding “Lenora – Virginia”. Take that for what it’s worth.
The first time I came to Seattle, I was at E Pine St and Broadway and had no idea I had to walk NORTH to get to Broadway East! If I remember my history, this has something to do with a dispute between Mr. Denny and Mr. Yesler over the laying out the street pattern. Wonder why no one has fixed it?
And sorry but I find pure memorization easier than these nmenomics. They’re fun though!
Another bit of trivia — the “E” avenues north of Denny and east of I-5 used to be “N” back in the 1930s — an octagenarian neighbor of mine thinks it was switched in the 1950s. So, for example, 25th Avenue E used to be 25th Avenue N.
In King County addressing, anything east of 100th Ave is a NE/SE address — Mercer Island is the exception to the rule, though I couldn’t explain why that is. Yesler is the dividing line for the county between N and S addressing.
And thanks for clearing up the Avenue/Street directional thing. I was going to, but you beat me to it!
I remember that Pine is north of Pike because it’s the one with “n” in it (for north).
> The only ‘order game’ I play to remember Hill street names is that, from the south, Pike comes before Pine.
Love the new mnemonics!
Here’s a pretty interesting tidbit! Why Seattle streets are the way they are…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_layout_of_Seattle
This didn’t pass the censor at the belltowner blog. It appeared then it disappeared. Jeez, I guess you can’t say “Satan” in Belltown. I’m in Belltown. Satan, Satan, Satan.
Satan’s Vespa Loiters Behind Belltown Bars While Vehicles Circle Condo Blocks.
This doesn’t cover all the streets you mentioned, but I always think of the business card showing the name, party affiliation and law firm name. It would read:
John Thomas Harrison, Repubilcan
Mercer & Roy