[OT beyond any repair] House numbers

[Barry Caplan]

At 01:16 PM 3/1/2002 -0500, John Cowan wrote:
What about the "100 house numbers per block" convention?
>This does not hold in the older parts of older U.S. cities
>(New York does not obey it south of 8th St. or so),
>but is quite general in the U.S. as a whole.


It holds for the whole of Baltimore and extends on at least the major arteries into the suburbs. Some suburbs reset the count from their own city centers, and that may or may not include the main arteries. I am not aware of any exceptions at all in Baltimore city. Note that the main arteries are more or less in an spoke from the center of downtown. All blocks are numbered form the hub (baltimore (east/west) at charles (north/south). Thus all 2800 blocks are roughly equidistant form the center. It is less well known that even numbers are on the left as you head out of town in any direction and odd numbers on the right.

Anyone who wants to reach me by snail (extremely snail)
>mail, can do so at:
>
>        Cowan
>        12017-0042
>        U.S.A.

Doesn't every address that USPS delivers to have a unique 9 digit zip code, making house numbers a legacy? From the US, couldn't I get a letter to you just by putting 12017-0042 on the envelope?


Barry Caplan
Publisher, www.i18n.com