East North Broadway
According to a 1999 Booster article by Anne Barry, in 1923, East North Broadway was the only paved street north of Fifth Avenue. It was paved with Hallwood Block, and the sidewalks were paved with brick as well. Old maps show a traffic circle at the intersection of East North Broadway and Beech Hill Avenue/Calumet Street, which appears to have been put there for aesthetic reasons. I believe half of this circle remained as late as 1985.
Tags: Evanston, N. Broadway
January 10th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
I have, at my home near North Broadway, a considerable number of old bricks. Most of them are stampled “Nelsonville Block” but several are stamped “Hallwood Block”. Could these be bricks that were salvaged when North Broadway was paved over?
January 17th, 2009 at 1:17 am
I live very close to the intersection of North Broadway and Calumet and an “old-timer” told me the traffic circle was once a turn-around for the trolley that came up from the railroad. Now it’s just a fun place for my boys to ride their bikes.
January 25th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
Hi,
Actually, the electric trolley never came up Broadway. That circle was purely decorative, and there was also a half circle at the end of Broadway
where it intersected the railroad. Check out, on my web site, the entry called “Baist’s Atlas” and zoom into the intersection of Broadway and Beech Hill (now called Calumet) to see the circle more clearly.
Trolley’s don’t actually have to “turn around.” Electric trolleys just go up and down the street; the driver changed the controls for the direction he needed to drive, and the passengers helped swivel the seats. No trolleys went up / down Broadway.
High Street does have two turn arounds–one at Blenheim and one (which
is actually a parking lot now) at Jeffrey Place. These turnarounds were for the buses that replaced the electric streetcars.
I moved here in 1985 and I believe the “circle” (really just traffic cutoffs for the corners) –or at least the southern half of it–was there at Calumet and North Broadway when I moved here. I seem to recall that they changed the roadways–gave the cutoffs to the corner lots–about 1989 or so. I keep intended to ask some of the neighbors on this corner, hoping they will remember.
As a side note, there used to be a left (southbound) turn allowed from westbound East North Broadway, at High Street. This turn lane seemed to work fine as it was, with the existing width of the road at that time. I do not know why the city chose to eliminate it but it was not because the East North Broadway neighbors asked that it be eliminated.
–Shirley Hyatt
September 7th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
In the Clinton League’s scrapbook(stored at the Ohio Historical Society), you will find two pictures of the Beech Hill (Calumet) and Broadway Traffic Circle. It was made of the same brick as Broadway (Hallwood block)and was installed when the road was originally built in 1892. It was a functioning traffic circle that was landscaped in the middle. A half circle was also built at Depot Park Street (the alley next to the tracks) and North Broadway to accomodate the turn around of carriages at the train depot. The Traffic circle was removed in 1952 when the county narrowed the right of way for North Broadway from the original 100′ to the 70′ it is today. I would love to see the traffic circle restored. It original installation pre-dates Columbus Circle located in New York City. That Circle is considered by many to be the first in the United States. For more history of North Broadway see http://nbsacolumbus.blogspot.com/