Place Names of Cayuga Heights
Photo by Patricia Longoria
“With its glorious vista of the lake and valley, Cayuga Heights is now one of the choice residential districts of Ithaca.” --Henry Edward Abt, Ithaca, R.W. Kellogg, Ithaca, NY, 1926, p. 133.
Built as a “a suburban country development . . . accessible to the University and town,” (Charles Blood letter to Carl Becker, March 12, 1917) the Village of Cayuga Heights got its start as a unique blend of university town and farm country. Its street names connect the neighborhood to its deep past: as territory that belonged to the Cayuga Nation of the Iroquois Confederation and then as farmland sold to developers Jared Treman Newman (1855-1937) and Charles Hazen Blood (1866-1938). Road and place names reflect its striking topography, as well as its proximity and connections to Cornell University.
Other street names are more typical of national suburban naming trends. Highgate Road and Devon Road, for example, are English place names, which generally have been used to confer a high-status identity on a suburb. Similarly, Randolph Road and other lanes in the Williamsburg Park section built in the 1960s are named for people and places from the colonial era.
Some street names have a history that may have been lost had not original owners shared their stories. Texas Lane, for example, got its name from a Cornell alumnus and transplanted Texan. ("Who is the 'Texan' who developed Texas Lane?" lays out the story.) Wild strawberries grew all over the property that became the house lots on Strawberry Lane, according to current residents.
From Farm to Suburb; A History of Place Names in Cayuga Heights, Ithaca, New York gives brief place name histories that will guide you through the development of the 21 miles of publicly owned and maintained roads and a few private lanes that cover the 1.82 square miles of the village.
Built as a “a suburban country development . . . accessible to the University and town,” (Charles Blood letter to Carl Becker, March 12, 1917) the Village of Cayuga Heights got its start as a unique blend of university town and farm country. Its street names connect the neighborhood to its deep past: as territory that belonged to the Cayuga Nation of the Iroquois Confederation and then as farmland sold to developers Jared Treman Newman (1855-1937) and Charles Hazen Blood (1866-1938). Road and place names reflect its striking topography, as well as its proximity and connections to Cornell University.
Other street names are more typical of national suburban naming trends. Highgate Road and Devon Road, for example, are English place names, which generally have been used to confer a high-status identity on a suburb. Similarly, Randolph Road and other lanes in the Williamsburg Park section built in the 1960s are named for people and places from the colonial era.
Some street names have a history that may have been lost had not original owners shared their stories. Texas Lane, for example, got its name from a Cornell alumnus and transplanted Texan. ("Who is the 'Texan' who developed Texas Lane?" lays out the story.) Wild strawberries grew all over the property that became the house lots on Strawberry Lane, according to current residents.
From Farm to Suburb; A History of Place Names in Cayuga Heights, Ithaca, New York gives brief place name histories that will guide you through the development of the 21 miles of publicly owned and maintained roads and a few private lanes that cover the 1.82 square miles of the village.
Patricia Longoria (2015)
Village of Cayuga Heights Deputy Historian
Village of Cayuga Heights Deputy Historian
