Hidden Names

Things I didn't know about before I moved to Columbia: the People Tree, communal mail boxes, Village Centers, quadroplexes.

Wait, that last one. Quadroplex. I still meet a lot of people who don't know what that means.

I live in a community of homes which are four homes stuck together. These groups, of four units each, are set into the landscape in a rather artistic way so that some folks get decent yard space, some an odd triangular bit, some just a flower bed out front. But there's plenty of shared green space which gives an overall feel of a suburban natural setting.

I used to find it rather odd. It's not how I grew up: old suburb, center-hall Colonial, front yard and back yard. Garage in the back. But at some point when the economy tanked and I realized that we were living in a home that we could afford to live in, I came to terms with my quirky little neighborhood with the stuck-together houses.

Back when I was learning to find my way around Columbia I employed printouts from Yahoo Maps/Directions. Yes, that was before GPS. And I discovered that I lived, not on the main road, as all the signs said, but rather on "Dayshape Drive." Oooh. I like that.

Wait, what?

When did my neighborhood stop using Dayshape Drive and switch over to the main road instead? And was there a point in the building of Columbia when it was decided that housing communities like mine, with shared parking lots out front, didn't warrant their own street names? Why? Were creative Columbia-esque street names in short supply?

Does your home have a hidden street name? Do you know the origin of the present way of doing things? I'm curious.