Are Naperville street names a roll call for politicians?

Were the four Naperville mayoral candidates, Steve Chirico, Jim Haselhorst, Doug Krause and Marty Walker looking for some immortality instead of just the top spot in town?

Possibly. Chirico was the top vote-getter and will take over for Naperville’s long-term mayor, A. George Pradel, who along with many other honors is the namesake of Pradel Drive and adjacent Pradel Park located in Clow Creek subdivision.

With few other perks, a street named after a future mayor could be one of them. After all, the mayor’s annual salary stands at $30,000 which is well below the Naperville household average of $100,000 for 54.6 percent of Naperville households, based on the survey conducted by NerdWallet, a personal consumer website.

The likelihood of anybody getting a new street named after them may be a tad unlikely since 96 percent of Naperville is almost built out, according to Linda L. LaCloche with the City of Naperville. This is great news for all those residents who wanted to be the last person to move to Naperville. You made it, almost.

Naperville does have a strong early history of honoring its elected officials both local and national with some signage. As Naperville grew, developers such as Harold Moser began plotting subdivisions and often chose the nonpartisan route of naming streets after flowers, trees, native grasses, author’s names, golf courses, universities, etc.

But way back in 1887, Joseph Naper, the city’s founder and first village president, surveyed and mapped the village of Naperville into 19 blocks containing 205 lots, according to records from Naper Settlement.

In doing so Naper paid homage to the Jacksonian Democrats by naming streets after U.S. Presidents Martin Van Buren and Andrew Jackson himself.

Naper also likely named Ewing Street after William Lee Davidson Ewing, an Illinois State Militia Brigadier-General. During the Blackhawk War, Naper and other locals served under his command. Naper also chose to name Benton Avenue after Thomas Hart Benton a Missouri senator. Both Ewing and Benton were Jackson supporters.

Ben Franklin and U.S. Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson also were honored by named streets after them.

“It wasn’t unusual for people who plat towns to name the streets that they create,” Naper Settlements’ Brian Ogg, curator of research said.

However, it doesn’t mean it always stayed that way. Naper’s original name of Front Street was later renamed Ellsworth Street after Lewis Ellsworth, a land developer and nursery owner who also served as village president in 1876.

On the south end of Naperville, three government entities, Bolingbrook, Will County and the City of Naperville, each have jurisdiction over a portion of Hassert Boulevard or 111th Street.

Back in 2003, Bolingbrook and Will County chose to spice up 111th Street by changing its name to Hassert Boulevard, honoring the Hassert family who have had a role in local government since the mid-1860s.

Instead, Naperville City Council members opted to commemorate, but not rename their portion of 111th Street. However, today the commemorative signs have been removed.

For the last 4 percent of streets to be named, developers receive an extensive list of 2,000 names to avoid. The list includes street names that already exist in Naperville or the surrounding communities and street names that are similar to existing streets. This is done in part to avoid confusion for emergency vehicles.

So, who or what will receive the recognition of getting their name on one of last few new Naperville streets? Even with many names exhausted, there are still lots of options.

Developers even can still squeeze in a political reference or two. When Kinloch subdivision was built beginning in the mid-2000s, developer Oliver-Hoffmann gave tribute to then retired U.S. Rep. Harris Fawell who served the 13th District of Illinois from 1985 to 1999 by naming one of the subdivision’s streets tucked at the end of Timber Creek Lane after Eagle Brook Lane and Forest Creek Lane–Fawell Court.

My personal picks–official state symbols such as White-tailed Deer Lane, or Grand Teton Road, after National Parks not found in Illinois, or even Siesta Street, after great beaches also not found in Illinois.

Or one of these–Chirico Blvd, Haselhorst Lane, Krause Road, or Walker Street. Maybe.

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Cathy Janek is a freelance reporter.