The High Road and Mass. Ave.

[Laurence Horn]

On Jan 14, 2013, at 11:35 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

> At 1/13/2013 05:03 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>> For example, the main street in Cambridge MA is Mass(achusetts) Ave(nue).
>
> And in Menotomy (AKA Arlington) and Lexington too.
>
> In context, Larry was asserting that in the colonies the main street
> was not generally called "the High Street", or even "the high
> street", in contrast to England.

And also that "Main Street" in the U.S. is a name (with no essential descriptive content, as the philosophers say), while "the High Street" is (usually? always?) a description.  Thus Main St. in Cambridge (MA) is certainly not the High Street of Cambridge.

>  But at least for Massachusetts
> Avenue, it had a higher name even than "the High Street": it was
> called "the King's Highway"* -- until the Revolution.  In Boston,
> King St. and Queen St. lost their titles at about the same time.
>
> * Sometimes "the Great Road".

Or "the Great Highway", as the one that skirts the ocean in S.F.?

LH

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