Detroit street names

[eastland]

I'm sure this has been covered before but I had two questions on Detroit street names.
1) Why does Whittier turn into Houston-Whittier? I think I recall an apartment building called Houston over there.
2) Coolidge begins in River Rouge, turns into Schaefer in Detroit and then back to Coolidge when you get to 8 Mile.

Any answers are greatly appreciated.

[Pontiac6000]

2. Originally named Coolidge Hwy. until 1931, Schaefer was named after John Schaefer, a Dearborn real estate developer. Detroit had recently annexed Greenfield Township with borders I think of Joy, Wyoming, 6 Mile and Greenfield. Probably the farmers and settlers were used to Coolidge Hwy kept the names in those non Detroit areas.

1. Just a guess, but probably originally Houston from Gratiot to Kelly, and Whittier east of that. Again, the street name was probably a guidepost to get from one known section to another, and tradition led it to stay that way.

Funny thing is, even with our bunch of freeways, it maps out Greenfield Twp west of the Lodge, the French system south of I-94, and Hamtramck Twp east of I-75.

[EastsideAl]

Pontiac6000 is correct that Houston-Whittier was originally just plain Houston. The family of an uncle-by-marriage of mine owned a music store on Houston, which was a busy business street. He told me that in the early '50s when the city was tweaking streets on the east side to make traffic flow more smoothly, as part of a traffic 'rationalization' plan around the opening of the new Ford Freeway, Whittier was shifted a bit so it joined directly with Houston at Kelly Rd and Hayes. The city wanted to change the name of Houston to Whittier all the way to Gratiot, so it would be apparent that you could drive straight from there to the Ford Fwy, Harper, Outer Dr., and Grosse Pointe.

But the business owners along Houston objected to the name change, and so as a compromise the city agreed to temporarily rename Houston as Houston-Whittier. Over the years the temporary name change seems to have become permanent

[eastland]

Pontiac6000 is correct that Houston-Whittier was originally just plain Houston. The family of an uncle-by-marriage of mine owned a music store on Houston, which was a busy business street. He told me that in the early '50s when the city was tweaking streets on the east side to make traffic flow more smoothly, as part of a traffic 'rationalization' plan around the opening of the new Ford Freeway, Whittier was shifted a bit so it joined directly with Houston at Kelly Rd and Hayes. The city wanted to change the name of Houston to Whittier all the way to Gratiot, so it would be apparent that you could drive straight from there to the Ford Fwy, Harper, Outer Dr., and Grosse Pointe.

But the business owners along Houston objected to the name change, and so as a compromise the city agreed to temporarily rename Houston as Houston-Whittier. Over the years the temporary name change seems to have become permanent

Thanks both of you for the great information!