Why did York’s Baptist Alley Become Hope Avenue?
Sturdy old houses on Hope Ave. near Oak Lane.
The very detailed Atlas of the City of York by Frederick Roe (1903), as illustrated below, shows Baptist Alley stretching west, between Princess Street and College Avenue, from South Queen Street to the Codorus Creek. It picks up again just east of Penn Street and ends at Belvidere.
Look at a map today, and Hope Avenue follows much the same course, except for a break where William Penn Senior High School takes up the whole block between Beaver Street and Pershing Avenue.
1903 Roe Atlas Showing the Houses Pictured Above on Baptist Alley.
1903 Roe Atlas Showing Site of First Baptist Church.
Baptist Alley was obviously named that because the original site of First Baptist Church was the southwest corner of South George Street and that alley.
Why and when did the name get changed to Hope Avenue? Beats me.
I know alleys were changed to avenues in York sometime in the twentieth century–I guess an attempt to gentrify the city a bit. But Baptist to Hope? Political correctness? Secularization? Too old fashioned? Anybody have a clue?
Click below for more on York streets.
Where was York’s Wall Street?
Freystown, Plank Road, and more.
Bull Frog Alley
North, South, East, and West.
Building for fire truck built in Duke Street.
