What Google maps won’t tell you about Valley streets

Clay is taking the day off. Here’s a column first published Jan. 10, 2007:

Today’s question:

I have a question about Bethany Home Road. Was there ever a Bethany Home?

A classic newcomer’s question. Yes, indeed, there was a Bethany Home. It was a tuberculosis sanitarium operated by a religious institution in the early 1900s. Like most of the tuberculosis sanitariums that flourished around here back then, it was out on the edge of town, near what is now 15th Avenue and Bethany Home Road.

As long as we’re on the subject, we shall discuss a few other Valley street names. I bet some of you already know all this stuff, but there are always newcomers who can use the education.

Shea Boulevard and Bell Road are for James Shea and Harvey Bell, a pair of farmers who in 1916 put together the Paradise Verde Irrigation District to bring water to the Paradise Valley.

They had to compete for water with the Salt River Water Users Association and ultimately lost the fight when the feds ruled in favor of the association.

Lots of streets are named for people who owned property along the route.

Broadway Road took its name from Noah Broadway, who owned a lot of land in south Phoenix. Osborn Road ran along the southern side of a farm homesteaded by John P. Osborn in the 1870s and was named for him after his death in the early 1900s. One of his descendants, Sidney P. Osborn, was governor of Arizona from 1941 through 1948.

McDowell Road ran out to Fort McDowell, which was named for Gen. Irwin McDowell. McDowell was named commander of the Army’s Department of the Pacific after he botched the Battle of Bull Run early in the Civil War.

Gen. John C. Greenway (Greenway Road) was a Rough Rider, brigadier general during World War I and a prominent mining engineer in Bisbee and Ajo.

Have a question for Clay? Reach him at 602-444-8612 or clay.thompson@arizonarepublic.com