El Paso street names help us recall history and heroes. In May of 1995 the El Paso Times neighborhood reporters set out to explain how streets get their names and the stories behind those names.

Memorial avenues and memory lanes

March 30, El Paso Times

Developers and land owners are usually the ones to submit street names for consideration to the city planning department, but private citizens can also offer their ideas.

As a gift to his 85-year-old mother, real estate agent Alber Messer of Sandy Messer and Associates asked for a street to be named after his deceased father Albert C. Messer.

“It’s pretty easy if you know a developer or know who to ask,” Messer said. “… My dad was instrumental in bring high school wrestling to El Paso and he was inducted into the athletic hall of fame. It should be someone who did something for the community, and he certainly did that.”

Messer said the street will probably be near Franklin High School and should be developed within the next six months.

Familiar downtown streets known by their ultimate destination

Santa Fe Street leads to Santa Fe, N.M., San Antonio Street to the Alamo City, and so on.

“That makes a lot of sense,” sad East El Pasoan David Chester. “It definitely makes more sense than the name of my street, Cheryl Ladd. Why anyone would name a street after one of Charlie’s Angels is beyond me.”

Chester resides in an area developers named after famous entertainers like Glen Campbell, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra.”

In the early days, streets were given more practical names which now serve as a record of El Paso’s history and culture.

Jim DeGroat doesn’t ring any bells

West Side resident Michelle Montoya doesn’t know who Jim DeGroat was.

All she knows is that when she addresses letters, she writes that name on the envelope.

“Jim DeGroat, Jim DeGroat,” she said to herself. “That name doesn’t ring any bells for me. For one thing, the other streets in the area are all Mexican phrases like Brisa del Sol and Loma De Cristo.”

Jim DeGroat was an all-conference tackle for Texas Western College in 1949, played as a lineman for El Paso High School and was the president of Carter Petroleum.

DeGroat died of a heart attack in 1983 at the age of 55.

Some West Side streets, however, are named after people who are more well known.

Doniphan Drive was named for Col. Alexander Doniphan, who headed a force of Missouri volunteers to El Paso.

Lindbergh in the Upper Valley was named after Charles Lindbergh who made the first non-stop solo trip from New York to Paris May 20-21, 1927.

After his return, he visited El Paso and gave a speech at El Paso High School and soon after, a street was named after him.

City Council was responsible for street names

From time to time, past City Councils were responsible for naming new streets for the emerging town. Once development began to the east and northeast this became a more difficult task.

In 1957, City Council appointed a controversial committee to review all city street names. Its main purpose was to clear away duplications. The committee, headed by historian Cleophas Calleros, recommended changes to more than 300 streets.

Council members chose to name streets after prominent local people like John L. Dyer, who was a lawyer from 1899 until 1924. He had much influence over the development of the Northeast.

When Texas Western college became the University of Texas at El Paso, the street leading into the school was changed from College Avenue to University Avenue.

In 1972 the city saw a population boom and many developers began coming up with names.

Sampling of some of the people honored with street names

Here is a sampling of some of the people honored in our street names:

W.H. Burges was a lawyer and city attorney in 1898 and was prominent in pushing for reform of gambling and prostitution.

Simeon Hart was a New Yorker who arrived in El Paso in 1847. He built a mill near old Fort Bliss.

Ynocente Ochoa was an early wagon train operator, a resident of Juárez and a prominent promoter of both sides of the river.

Zach White arrived in the area in 1881, had several businesses and dealt in real estate. He organized the Gas Co. with W.J. Fewel in 1884 and donated the land for the El Paso Country Club. A street and an elementary school on the West Side are named for White.

A 6-mile-long road in far Northeast is named Stan Roberts Sr., after the deceased father of Northeast Cit Rep. Stan Roberts.

Cotton named by and for Frank B. Cotton, Boston banker who bought the property from Joseph Magoffin and started the Cotton Addition.

Fred Wilson was a County Engineer. He built the road named for him. Also built the county road to the border with New Mexico, known as Newman Road.

Joyce Circle is named for Kenyon Joyce, former commander of Ft. Bliss

Mesa was originally named Utah. South Utah became notorious for its dives and bordellos, so, in 1897 the citizens of North Utah got the name changed to Mesa. South Utah, below Texas Street, was later changed to Broadway, then to Mesa.

Threadgill is named for W.W. Threadgill a rancher who owned 160 acres in Northeast El Paso near the old tin mines which the Army bought from him in 1941.

Nations named after J.H. Nations who arrived in El Paso circa 1885. He was from a pioneer family in Gonzales, Texas where he was born. He owned several ranches, including a large part of Northeast El Paso. He opened J.H. Nations Packing Co. and Nations Meat Market.