TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Navigating Tucson traffic can be a headache, but at least the city is laid out in a grid. Streets run east and west, and avenues run north and south.
But what about 'stravenues'?
We take an Absolutely Arizona trip down memory lane to find out about these diagonal streets unique to Tucson.
"You kind of look at Cherrybell Stravenue right there, and it still just looks a little off," said award-winning Tucson historian David Leighton. "It's just not something you see very often."
David Leighton is referencing the word 'stravenue'. It is thought to be a Tucson original.
"It's kind of diagonal," explained Leighton. "It's kind of a street and kind of an avenue at the same time."
You will find more than 30 stravenues in the city of Tucson.
Like the words 'brunch' and 'motel', 'stravenue' is a portmanteau. It combines the words "street" and "avenue."
"It's stravenue," said former KGUN 9 traffic reporter Allen "Big Al" Kath. "It's a blended name probably because of the Del Webb Company."
Kath points to a housing boom in 1948 on the south side of Tucson.
In February of 1948, a map of the Country Club Park neighborhood wedged into the area just north of Aviation Parkway lists six stravenues.
Three months later, a map of Del Webb's Pueblo Gardens neighborhood shows many more stravenues—all running on the diagonal.
The man now credited with creating the name stravenue in Tucson is Tony A. Blanton. He is the land surveyor who produced the maps of both Country Club Park and Del Webb's Pueblo Gardens.
"I think it's based on the land geometry that they did it that way." Kath explained. "They maximized the land based on the angle of the railroad tracks and the yard to conform with what they had available to build on."
In December of 1948, Blanton's architecture firm submitted a map for the North Campbell Estates neighborhood with two more stravnues.
The U.S. Post Office came up with an abbreviation for stravenue: STRA, although most street signs use STRAV.
There is even a post office located on South Cherrybell Stravenue.
But are stravenues really unique to just Tucson? Not exactly.
"I know there's one in Marana called Cerius Stravnue, which is just east of I-10," said Kath. "That's out of the city limits of Tucson. That's the only other one that I've known, other than the ones here in Tucson."
A postal service spokesman in Washington D.C. told Leighton that there are no other stravenues in the country besides those found in Tucson.
But Leighton says, not so fast.
"That led me to actually finding a stravenue near Bisbee called Lead Stravenue," Leighton said. "So, there's at least one other stravenue in Arizona."
A trip 10 minutes south of Bisbee takes you to North Lead Stravenue. It is a very short dirt road just west of Arizona Highway 80.
Big Al Kath: "I'll bet it runs on a diagonal."
Pat Parris: "It does run on a diagonal."
So stravenues are unique to Southern Arizona. Or are they? Leighton found a possible contender in the northeast.
"A very old street, probably about the 1850s in Baltimore, Maryland, called the Charles Street Avenue," said Leighton.
Charles Street Avenue does run on a diagonal and Leighton's research shows it's named for Charles Calvert, the 3rd Baron of Baltimore.
"The idea of a street-avenue, which was condensed into stravenue, may have actually dated back to the 1850s in Baltimore," Leighton said.
"The one in Baltimore does not qualify," said Kath. "Street Avenue is not a stravenue."
By Kath's logic, that makes stravenues unique to the Tucson area, and Absolutely Arizona.
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Pat Parris is an anchor and reporter for KGUN 9. He is a graduate of Sabino High School where he was the 1982 high school state track champion in the 800 meters. While in high school and college, he worked part-time in the KGUN 9 newsroom. Share your story ideas and important issues with Pat by emailing pat.parris@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.