ELi5 – How are street adresses determined / how do they get numbered?
In: 59
There’s like three systems that I’m aware of. The first is where there is no universal datum. They basically just make the first house on the left side of the street “1” and the first on the right side “2” and repeat that pattern for the whole street. This is common in places without a grid system where there aren’t a lot of lengthy continuous streets.
The second system uses a north/south and east/west datum. The addresses start at 1 and just go up sequentially as they get further from the datum. So 45 West Park Ave would be the 45th house west of the datum on Park Ave. Though, again, they normally alternate by side of the street so 45 would really be the 23rd house west of the datum on the left side of the street.
The third system is what was once known as the Philadelphia system. There the final two digits are your house number but everything before that is the block number. These also correlate with street numbers (eg. 1st Street, 2nd Avenue, etc.). So 201 W Park Avenue would mean heading west on Park Ave you’d be the first house on the left after passing 2nd Street. This system allows for up to 100 houses on a block but it’s normally far less than that. So the house on the opposite side of 2nd Street might be 113 Park Ave.
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