Pearl St.

From Brooklyn Centre Wiki

Current revision

Post-1906 name:

West 25th Street

Location:

Full length of the street extends from a few blocks north of Detroit Ave. to the Brooklyn-Brighton Bridge, however, the portion that was in Brooklyn Centre started at about Daisy Avenue.

Development:

Ebenezer Fish and Betts and Bibbins developed the section north of Denison Ave.

Moses Fish developed the section south of Denison Ave.

Named for:

The origin of the name "Pearl" is unknown. It was already called this by 1835 as attested to by its appearance on a map of that era. There were no property owners in the vicinity with the surname of Pearl for whom the street might have been named.

History

Hezekiah Eldredge opened "Pearl Street House" in 1836.

It can be naturally assumed that the street's name is feminine, but around this time there was a substance in use called pearl ash that may have been the source of the name.

Potassium carbonate was first identified in 1742 by Antonio Campanella and is the primary component of potash and the more refined pearlash or salts of tartar. Historically pearlash was created by baking potash in a kiln to remove impurities. The fine white powder remaining was the pearlash. Pearlash has been used for soap, glass, and china production."

Source: Wikipedia article

Pearl Street's northern end was in the vicinity of several streets named for trees such as Hickory, Hemlock, Willow, Mulberry, and Spruce.

Another possible reason for the name was the popularity of oysters along the east coast of America, though the family of oysters found there did not produce pearls of commercial value.

Wikipedia article on Oysters

AKA (Also Known As)

Pearl Street was also known by many different names. At various times it was called by names that indicated a final destination (ie. Columbus), then by the fact that it had become a toll road, and then by it's numerical name when all north/south streets were converted from names to numbers. Most recently, calling West 25th St. Pearl Road has again become fashionable.

Columbus Road

Plank Road

Wayne, Medina, and Cuyahoga Turnpike

This turnpike was incorporated February 2nd, 1824^[1]

Medina-Wooster Turnpike

Turnpike Road

Main Street

West 25th Street

Pearl Road

Historical Businesses

The following table attempts to show the businesses that existed along Pearl Street (now called West 25th Street) in various eras. The table has been divided into two sections; the first for establishments along the west side of the street and the second for the east side.

The data was derived from the Cleveland City Directory, Sanborn Insurance Maps, Reflections of Brooklyn Centre, personal memories, and various other sources.

NOTE: The following table is a work in progress

Where possible, if a lot had been alloted by a developer, the lot number will be listed using the following key:

AK = Adam Kroehle

BB = Betts and Bibbins

EF = Ebenezer Fish

FD = Fish & Davis

IF = Isaiah Fish heirs

KLJ = Kroehle, Luce, Jensen

JSF = John Stanton Fish

MF = Moses Fish original village lots

(This table looks much better in the Firefox v3.0.7 browser. It doesn't render well in Internet Explorer v6.)

West side of Pearl

East side of Pearl

REFERENCES

1. ↑ Cleveland Plain Dealer, March 9, 1846 issue, page 2, column 4