Why is there no apostrophe in St. Johns Place?

carnivore · May 2005

Anyone know?

isa · May 2005

Is there one in St Marks place?

carnivore · May 2005

I'm guessing no? I'm not sure.
If we don't find out soon, mr. smith may be organizing a boycot of our streets because of the improper punctuation! (see boycot soda bar thread)

emily · May 2005

I read somewhere (a long time ago) that some federal bureaucracy decided that place names couldn't have puncuation in them in order to make highway signage more legible at high speeds and because it was deemed inappropriate for names to indicate "ownership" of a place. Ungrammatical as it may be, that's probably why the street signs for St. Johns Place doesn't have an apostrophe, even though most of us would still write it that way. There are plenty of famous places that have lost apostrophes, like "Harpers Ferry."

anonymous · May 2005

EmilyM seems sorta right. I found an explination similar to that on the Dept. of Interior site but it refers to natural geography and maps.

http://interactive2.usgs.gov/faq/list_faq_by_category/get_answer.asp?id=788

Like a good bureaucracy they don't know why they do it. One reason they give is that an apostrophe on a map might be confused as a geographic marking. The other goes with EmilyM:
'U.S. Board on Geographic Names does not want to show possession for natural features because ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã…â€œownership of a feature is not in and of itself a reason to name a feature or change its name.ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã‚Â Since 1890, there have been only five decisions by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names allowing the genitive apostrophe for natural features:' Martha's Vienyard; Ike's Point, NJ; John E's Pond, RI; Carlos Elmer's Joshua View, AZ; and Clark's Mountain, OR.

anonymous · May 2005

Subject: Re: Why is there no apostrophe in St. Johns Place?

Carnivore wrote: Anyone know?

notice that there is no "." after "st" either!

daveb · June 2005

Um... because at least on my stretch of the block, it's the fricken ghetto?

pensodyssey · June 2005

Since 1890, there have been only five decisions by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names allowing the genitive apostrophe for natural features:' Martha's Vienyard; Ike's Point, NJ; John E's Pond, RI; Carlos Elmer's Joshua View, AZ; and Clark's Mountain, OR.

Not Pike's Peak? Or Freddy's Bar and Grille?

cowgirly · July 2005

Just moved to St. Johns Place a few months ago (smack dab in the hood) and frankly I'm glad there isn't an apostrophe...

While doing usps.com and mapquest.com searches for my address, I frequently get incorrect information or flat-out no information at all-- is it spelled:
St. Johns Place
Saint Johns Pl
Saint Johns Place
etc etc etc...

Toss an apostrophe in the mix and all hell would break loose.

Why is there no apostrophe in St. Johns Place?

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