What is the origin of the name Army Street?

-- Charles Grant (clgrant@ix.netcom.com), February 13, 2004

Answers

Army Street was named before the Civil War. The origin of the name was simply that the land developer decided to name the street after a division of our military.

Some time within the last 5 to 10 years I think there was some kind of proposal to have the Army Street name changed but maybe I'm confusing it with another major street. If the name change proposal wasn't for Army street then it was for another major street in that area of town and I remember that I was not happy with the name they chose to change it to but maybe they weren't able change it afterall. Good thing too because among other things it would surely just confuse everyone as to what street they were on. And that would all be for the sake of someone's vanity who wanted a person to be named after a street.

-- Harry Murphy (harrymurphy*@bigmailbox.net), February 15, 2004.

Army Street terminated at the Army Pier in the Bay. Hence its name. 26th Street was called Navy Sreet because it terminated at the Navy Pier.

Good luck in your research.

-- Kurt Iversen (iversenk@aol.com), February 16, 2004.

Army Street was renamed Cesar Chavez Street several years ago. It runs through what was originally a predominantly Latino area (the Mission District around Mission Dolores)and is once again, predominantly Latino.

-- Carl Gray (striaragorn@aol.com), February 19, 2004.

They originally wanted to rename 24th Street in honor of Cesar Chavez, if I remember correctly. The merchants got up in arms about it, because of costs related to changing stationery, etc. I was upset about renaming Army St. because I grew up on the block between Church and Dolores. It was put on the ballot in 1994 or 1995 and won easily.

-- Judy Hitzeman (jmhitzeman@aol.com), March 10, 2004.

Actually, the name change TO Cesar Chavez St. was not put on the ballot. It was decided by the Board of Supervisors, in spite of the fact that over twice as many people who didn't want the change showed up for the supervisor meeting over those who did. The name change was a big political football, and the board members were currying favor with the Hispanic community by promoting the name change. When it came time for the pro-Army Street attendees to speak, they were told time was up, and were not allowed to be heard. I know this happened, as I was at that meeting. Later, one of the pro-Army Street supporters got over 18,000 signatures to put the change on the ballot, aimed at reversing it and making it Army Street again. It was defeated, and remains Cesar Chavez St., although most long-time residents still refer to it as Army Street. The worst part about all of this is that the pro-Cesar Chavez St. supporters made the fight out to be rascist, when it was nothing of the kind. People simply didn't want the inconvenience of having their street name changed. Many of us put forward other ideas to honor Cesar Chavez, definitely a modern-day hero, but the pro-Cesar Chavez St. supporters refused to listen to any compromise.

-- Lindsay Casablanca (lindsaycasablanca@sbcglobal.net), March 30, 2004.